Opened in Milan, Corso Vittorio Emanuele II 24/28, the Flagship store of On and, for the occasion, our friend Ghemon tells us about his experience
We arrived and the store was already operational and full of people since the morning, with people trying on and buying shoes.
I thought it was an inauguration in the traditional sense, with the store empty, so slowly a few people would arrive.
Mainly because – being in Milan, on August 23, with many people still on vacation – I expected to meet only the usual faces, the usual friends I run with.
However, the minutes passed, people kept arriving and the On store was filling up more and more, further and further.
By the end there were probably more than a hundred people, which-for a sultry afternoon in late August-are numbers you just don’t expect.
The scenery was remarkable: everyone was slipping on their On shoes in a diverse sampling of ages, backgrounds, histories, and colorful jerseys (need we say that this is the finest representation of how democratic running is? I don’t think so).
https://www.instagram.com/p/C_DIvFhMoaL/ Music blaring, and we were off for a run!
First stop: the Duomo with the customary photo, but it wasn’t just us who took it.
On our way to Simplon, we passed among people and tourists – incredulous – were taking pictures of us.
Although I cannot vouch for either the relaxed faces or our perfect running posture on a Saharan day.
Having then made the classic loop around Simplon Park, we returned to Store On where we freshened up and had something to eat and drink.
Not the “usual” group of friends, then, but lots of people-even foreigners, who evidently knew about the store opening-in what was, in fact, a community run; even without being organized by a specific group of runners.
What struck me most, however, was the atmosphere: a hundred people who a few kilometers earlier were strangers had eventually become friends.
Further confirmation (and perhaps a bit superfluous, because we already know this) that running unites.
And now that it’s all over, I’m going to take my dog for a run too, and then I’m going to have a pasta, because tomorrow we’re running again.
The title of this post is a joke Ghemon made in a vowel he sent us.
He did not want to put it but we liked it so much that we take the blame for it
