When the Boston Athletic Association (BAA) released the design for this year’s Boston Marathon Celebration jacket, reviews were mixed. Some loved it, some hated it, and most people thought it was “good”. At least that’s the response from the Toronto runner and designer Richard Kuchinsky seen from his running friends around him. So what did he do? He designed one of his own.

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As an industrial designer, Kuchinsky began designing running gear and racing kits long before he became a racer. Inspired by the people he met in the industry, he finally decided to lace up his running shoes in 2012 and has been an integral part of the Toronto running community ever since. As each iteration of the Boston Celebration Jacket came out year after year, he thought to himself that “the running community deserves better.”

“For me, the Boston Marathon running jacket is just a little behind,” Kuchinsky says. “Every year when it comes out, I see people’s first thoughts on Instagram and they always say something like ‘well, it’s ok but it’s not the worst.'” He adds that the jacket is never enough old or “retro” to be cool. , but never new enough to be aware of current tastes and trends.

Kuchinsky also points out that when runners get their BQ (Boston-qualifier) ​​and are told they’ve been accepted, there’s so much excitement, and he thinks the celebratory jacket should reflect that level of excitement. So, like any good designer, Kuchinsky decided to design one himself.

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“I just thought I’d do a concept quickly,” he says. “I was thinking about it while running the day after the real thing came out, so I faked one, more to illustrate my thoughts on it. It was more of a hands-on exercise than clothing design. In other words, no – you can’t buy the Kuchinsky version of the Boston Marathon Jacket (sorry to disappoint).

Kuchinsky says he took a more graphic branding approach when designing his jacket and tried to better integrate what Boston is with Adidas as a brand. “The actual jacket looks like an Adidas jacket you buy anywhere with different colors of logos stitched on it,” he says. “So I tried to incorporate that with the three stripes on the sleeve, so it has the Adidas look but it says Boston Marathon.”

For the rest of the design, he says he was just trying to achieve something a little more contemporary and fresh. He’s also done this with what he calls “more wearable” colors, as he finds color palette is often the biggest issue with runners. “The purpose of the jacket is to show people that you ran the Boston Marathon, so why not have a little more fun with it and make it a little bolder?” he says.

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When asked if he would buy this year’s Boston Marathon jacket, Kuchinsky, who qualified for the 2022 race, laughed. Then he said, “Yeah, I probably will.” This is the Boston Marathon, after all.

So while we won’t see Kuchinsky’s design on the shelves just yet, his goal is to have the opportunity to design a major global marathon in the future, so maybe you can get your hands on a jacket. limited edition Kuchinsky celebration bag. one day. In the meantime, you can follow his projects on his company’s Instagram page, Directive Collective.