When a business, church, or just a group in your community comes together for a cause awareness run, it can be a great time for everyone. It’s a reminder that as a group we hold the power to create change and reshape the world around us. Plus, it’s a fun, interactive event that’s family-friendly and healthy, so everyone wins.
One of the funniest parts of creating a large group run is designing the shirts. Once you get some wholesale t shirts, you can start looking for amazing past designs that have provided great branding and awareness of the cause that runners support. You can also take some of the more professional designs and use them as inspiration for your own 5K to keep everyone motivated.
Models inspired by shoes
The running shoe is a great starting point for your design. It’s a quick and recognizable image that will get your point across.
This t-shirt design, created for a 5K at Smith College, even makes laces part of the look. It all looks vintage, lightweight, and like something everyone will want to wear for a long time. The lemonade yellow and soda can green color combination is also excellent.
When a Belmont University student was diagnosed with colon cancer and needed help paying for her chemotherapy, students and faculty came together to raise awareness of the disease and raise funds. They too looked at the shoe for their design, using traction at the base to inspire their racing design. They made sure to keep the basic shape and general idea clear with their look, but also put in a lot of text and even a little bow loop to clarify the cause. A simple circle for the background completes the look.
Autism Speaks hosts an annual run that helps make autism more visible and encourages those ranked to get out and run, opting for a basic shoe pad on their 2016 race t-shirt. The buffering effect is nice because it has a factory finish but still looks homemade. Once again, the shape of the shoe allowed the designer to insert a lot of text without making it complicated or confusing. It was a great look for a great cause.
Run through the shirt
If you want a simple design that reflects the act of running as opposed to shoes, you can find a lot of great shirts that feature a runner. Girls on the run, a group that supports young women and gets them into college, used a basic feminine jogging look that almost looks like paper cut or tied ribbon. Her ponytail flies behind her, and she is all pink to make it clear that the event is for the benefit of young girls. The artist added the text right under her feet so that she could step over them on the way to the finish line.
the Gilead River Run’s design for their annual scholarship run changes every year, but one of their most memorable t-shirt designs is this great vintage see. The two runners side by side in the forest communicate camping, friendship and having fun together. The race includes a pancake breakfast and takes place in the beautiful landscape. Looking at the iconic design, it’s almost possible to smell those baking buns and hear the runoff from the river.
This beautiful and colorful the design of a race in Rio sends so many messages so quickly that it’s hard to look away. The color choice alone reflects the city’s unique vibe and the supporters connected alongside the kneeling runner show unity and community. The design is fluid and, as individual pieces, it is particularly impressive.
Stick to the text
Directory Color stroke, an international race that has raised millions for different charities, doesn’t care about icons or visuals for its t-shirts. The race got big enough that organizers decided all they needed was the name. Of course, the font is very colorful to reflect the funniest element of the race, but the design is kept very simple.
The DAV 5K, a race that honors American veterans, has a great military inspired police design that looks directly like a survival kit. By choosing this basic blocky writing style, the race gets the veterans’ message right away.
The Dirty Girl Run, a women-only event that encourages women to run, play and roll in the mud, has a awesome shirt design. The basic typography, the hint of the event in the background, and the choice of colors all illustrate what kind of day it will be. Running and jumping in the mud with a group of friends? Yes please.
Become crazy
You might just want to turn left with your design. This is what the creators of Terror Trot in Minneapolis did with their design. The race takes place at the end of October and circles a lake. To keep everyone excited about the event (which benefits children’s hospitals), they are relying on the nearby Halloween holidays to keep it spooky. The final look is reminiscent of dark evenings, haunted houses, and the bumps of the night, but at the same time is ironic.
The Zombie OutRun Chase Race takes the fun of being eaten alive and combines it with exercise. There is even a race for the children. Runners escape zombies along an otherwise traditional course and have flags stolen from a belt by the undead-dressed actors right behind them.
To convey the racing theme without making it terrifying, the company comes up with a basic silhouette of a runner being chased by a zombie. The lack of detail makes it much more digestible. The burst of red behind the zombie’s face clarifies that this is a monster versus a human and the text below explains the rest.
Enjoy
Whichever direction you are headed, have fun, think about your cause, and make sure everyone picks one up for the big day. Good race !
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