Join the Run '26

Green Blanket was in full sprint mode this March, racing around California and Texas shooting content for DICK'S Sporting Goods in support of National Runners Month in May.

Featuring photographers Carlos Gil in San Diego and Matt Hawthorne in Austin, with director of photography Cade Vlacos covering video in both cities, Green Blanket took on several unique challenges with the project.

First, and our specialty at Green Blanket, was the Real People casting, done in-house. For this series we needed the unique spirit of each city authentically captured on camera, so we cast through the local run clubs, auditioning 500 performance athletes to find the very best runners who truly represented their cities.

As always, the calendar was tight. Shooting San Diego and Austin back-to-back, with a compressed post schedule to have content ready for air by the end of April. That took some clever logistics to save every minute possible for post, including on-site color grading and uploading footage from the field straight to the editors. To meet the final deadline, one of our post team members flew coast to coast on the red-eye to deliver the assets.

Beyond the tight timeline, the shoot included a complex partnership. It was backed by the top running brands and spanned multiple internal verticals at DICK'S, including their in-house agency DICK'S Media Network (DMN) and enterprise brand. Green Blanket pulled it all together as one cohesive production across the various teams.

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Bonus BTS Footage from San Diego