Asics & Foot Locker Name ‘Real Lives. Real Runners’ Contest Winner

Last night, Asics and Foot Locker crowned the winner of the “Real Lives. Real Runners” video contest, which launched in June. The brand and the retailer will debut a condensed version of the winning video during the 2015 TCS New York City Marathon on Sunday.

The winning spot, created by Evan Kelman, is titled “The Push.” The video tells the story of U.S. Army veteran Marco Reininger, a New York City resident, who runs daily to pay homage to his brothers in arms. The story of his daily run for his platoon is told throughout the video, which was named “The Push” by the platoon’s sergeant and took place on a six-mile track around the base. If someone fell behind during the run, the platoon would pick him or her up and continue to run together. The video displays Reininger’s motivation to push harder and always give more than is expected.

“The winner crowned last night had a very inspirational story,” said Dick Johnson, CEO and president of Foot Locker. “I’m an old running geek — more of a waddler these days — so it was a great night.”

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The campaign accepted submissions from June until Sept. 7. After the entries were trimmed to five finalists, Foot Locker posted the videos to its YouTube page for the public to view and vote on their favorite, from Oct. 1-15.

At an event MC’d by “NBA Countdown” host Sage Steele, a panel of three judges — ESPN sports-business reporter Darren Rovell, Asics elite runner Deena Kastor and New York Road Runners Chairman George Hirsch — selected the winner.

In addition to the video airing during the NYC Marathon, Kelman will receive a cash prize from MOFILM, as well as an all-expenses-paid trip to Las Vegas for the annual MOFILM Awards.