The Nine Four Wreak Havoc on CTM 2024
"THEN NOTHING BECAME SOMETHING, AND I WAS BORN, AND I WROUGHT GREAT HAVOC IN THE WORLD IN THE TIME ALLOTTED TO ME, AND I RETURNED TO NOTHINGNESS.”- Bangambiki Habyarimana, Pearls Of Eternity
Two things The Nine Four have gotten down to a fine art is how to run and how to celebrate! In anticipation of the Cape Town Marathon this coming weekend, they are doing a three-day takeover with some incredible events, all revolving around the theme of their 2024 marathon campaign: WREAK HAVOC
A cultural powerhouse in its own right, The Nine Four has been breathing new life into our traditional understanding of running for more than a decade. The crew brings together a mix of individuals from all walks of life but all sharing the same love for building community. Since 2013, the Nine Four’s impact is undeniable, with sponsorships from Puma and Oakley to having built connections with like-minded crews across the globe.
Since 2014 The Nine Four have been hosting “Bridge The Gap” community events around South African running events. Bridge The Gap (BTG), is a cultural running phenomena started two decades ago by Mike Saes of Bridgerunners, and exported to Europe by Charlie Dark of Run Dem Crew - almost certainly all of the modern “Running Club” hype can be traced back to these two pioneers. BTG fundamentally infused running with culture and community, and opened up running to a broader group of people who, back in the day, never had a space in running.
From 2012 to 2014, Nine Four attended some of the earliest European Bridge The Gap (BTG) events. In 2014, they hosted their own first BTG event in Soweto, partnering with the Berlin Braves, an iconic Berlin crew and close friends of Nine Four. Each event is designed to build a community around a running race, offering local runners the chance to connect with visiting athletes and helping visitors feel welcomed and at home.
For the past decade, Nine Four has hosted "BRIDGE THE OCEANS," a BTG event centred around the Two Oceans Marathon. With the Cape Town Marathon now rising in prominence as it bids to become a World Marathon Major, Nine Four has added another Festive weekend to their calendar around Cape Town Marathon.
WREAK HAVOC
“Our internal marathon campaign is titled ‘WREAK HAVOC’, inspired by a poem. It’s been our inspiration for the collective twelve week training journey, as well as the weekend ahead.
For the campaign we created a number of merch items for the community, as well as the iconic 94 x Puma WREAK HAVOC race vest exclusively for the 94 members who took on the 12 week journey of training for the race.”
THE CAPE TOWN MARATHON 2024
The weekend kicks off on Friday night with a Group Photo Exhibition titled "What I Think About When I Think About Running," featuring the work of 16 Cape Town running photographers. The evening includes a panel discussion with elite Puma athletes Glenrose Xaba and Elana Meyer, accompanied by the Nine Four Sound System and friends on the decks. To make the evening even better, there will be tooth gems and flash tattoos by paradisecosmetics.co.za, carbs from Holy Macaroni, and liquid carbs Jack Black. For balance, there will also be a recovery boots station provided by The Athletic Recovery Centre.
On Saturday morning Shelflife will team up with our friends at the Nine Four to host a shake out run, with a sexy pace 5km city trot. The shake out is open to all and will be ending at the Shelflife Store and Café for some tasty treats and coffee! We will also be joined by the Puma Nitro Van for everyone to be able to try out some of the latest in footwear innovation. To top things off, there will be some exclusive, super limited runs of 94 merch up for them!
Sunday gets serious on and off the road, as the Nine Four joins other crews to form an epic Cheer Point at the 36km mark in Green Point, as they cheer their runners to the finish line and all the way to TEXAS. The iconic After Party, will be hosted at Texas with an incredible Cape Town lineup from Mila & Bujin to Niskerone to our very own Jakobsnake. Of course a few more surprises on the way but you’ll have to attend the events to see them for yourself.
The Nine Four Cape Town Marathon weekend kicks off on Friday, 18th October - Sunday, 20th October 2024!
SIGN UP FOR A WEEKEND OF HAVOC HERE!
Friday: Panel discussion and photo exhibition at 6pm-10pm, 34 Loop St (The Burrow)
Sat: 5km shake out run at 8am, 34 Loop St (The Burrow)
Sun: Cheer zone at 8am, Green Point Main Road
Sun: After Part at 3pm-10pm, 11 Albertus Rd (TEXAS)
