Runner’s World, born as Distance Running News in 1966, is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year. Throughout the year, RW editors have been digging through the archives to share stories, photos, and videos that highlight the most interesting, moving (and sometimes silly) moments from our—and all of running’s—past five decades.

It culminates with our November issue—a special collector’s edition that takes stock of where the sport has been, and looks at where it’s going.

For this issue, we wanted a cover that was truly special. As Editor-in-Chief David Willey says in this issue’s editor’s letter, we wanted to pay homage to our readership (which is split down the middle: 50 percent male and 50 percent female), as well as our own history of covers, some of which look pretty funny from the vantage of a few decades out.

Our idea? To get a couple funny people—who are also serious runners—to help us reenact covers from two memorable eras: the running booms of the ’70s and ’80s. But they couldn’t be just funny; we wanted people who really embody the current state of running. Who better than Kevin Hart, the popular comedian who’s been bringing thousands of new runners to the sport, and Alexi Pappas, the Olympic runner making a name for herself with a series of irreverent short films and a full-length comedy? But getting them on board was only part of the process.

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Below, Design Director Benjamen Purvis shares a little bit about what went into the shoot, and we offer some of our favorite outtakes.

The 1970s-Era Covers

Looking through magazines from the ’70s, Purvis says, “You can’t help but laugh. From the hairstyles to the typography, to the style decisions, such as borders with notches, or having people stepping out the frame, it all looks very dated.”

Not that these effects were easy to pull off originally. “For me, using a computer, it’s really easy to do this kind of stuff. But it was much more of a challenge back then.”

To evoke the era, “we intentionally chose an orange that looks a little aged,” Purvis says. “And font-wise it was a bit of the Wild West. Typefaces and even logos would change month to month. I ended up settling on one called Serif Gothic, which felt pretty classic. We weren’t aiming for a certain year, but an impression of the whole decade.”

“Photo-wise, the ’70s was a period where we transitioned from what I call a ‘documentary style’ cover, which was simply a person or people—usually not models—just running outside somewhere, to more posed shots where you started to see people smiling, or acknowledging the camera,” says Purvis.

“We wanted to get that outdoors feel, which often included a lot of blurry backgrounds.”

Before the shoots, Purvis created “look books,” pulling together photos that represented the times, to help inform and inspire the covers. “It was important that we be faithful to the period as well, and not just our imaginations of what it was like, so we did a lot of research into what people wore, how they looked, even how they ran,” Purvis says.

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Stylist Heidi Meek sourced the clothing used in the shoot, with lots of help from Nike. “We were really grateful they provided the shoes,” she says. “Those would have been the most difficult to find, especially since we needed them in good condition, and in [Kevin and Alexi’s] specific sizes—since they needed to be able to actually run in them.” Hart wore Nike’s classic Cortez Ultra Moire. Nike has recently reissued the shoe, making it available for purchase.

“In order to mark the transition from less-posed to more, we decided to use an image where Kevin is smiling for the camera, and one where Alexi is more serious looking for the covers, though we shot both,” Purvis says. “This one, where Kevin is trying not to smile, is hilarous though. It still makes me laugh, seeing it.”

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Hart was into trying various poses, as well as props. The 1970s-era aviator shades were a hit.

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Hart’s comedic tendencies were on display thoughout the shoot.

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“We wanted it to be funny, but true,” Purvis says. “We found that women were not tying their hair back, as they almost always do today. Women also wore mostly the same clothes as men. That helped us select the wardrobes.”

Pappas also wore classic Nike shoes: the Cortez 72, modeled after the first pair of track shoes Nike made.

“The amazing thing about L.A. when it comes to wardrobe is the incredible costume rental houses we have here,” says Meek. “Some items were found there and some—such as the vintage L’Eggs Mini Marathon shirt that Alexi wore—we found online.

“I don’t know what we would have done for sourcing some of the pieces in the days before the internet. It’s incredible what you can find when millions of people are looking to sell their vintage activewear.”

The 1980s-Era Covers

“Covers in the ’80s really embraced studio photography and performing for the camera,” Purvis says. “This is when you see lots of people holding props and looking pretty stilted and wooden.​ Especially with Alexi, I liked the idea of evoking a model who’s doing serious beauty modeling with an outfit that isn’t compatible with that. Alexi really nailed the pose and the serious expression. It’s totally in keeping with the photos from that time.

“The logo, with Miles (the official name of the runner who forms the apostrophe), first appeared around this time, and the magazine had finally settled on a font—Futura—which I used here. We also gave the images a little bit of a tint to echo the archival quality. They were big on yellow in that decade.”

SHOP RUNNER’S WORLD: Miles the Apostrophe Baseball Tee

“We established that track suits would be the look for the ’80s before we even started to sketch anything,” says Purvis. “I found they were creeping in even in the late ’70s, but they really defined that decade.”

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Purvis also knew he wanted to have the iconic Walkman to signify the changing technology. Hart wore a reissue of the Nike Air Pegasus, first issued in 1987.

There were plans to have Hart and Pappas recreate an awkward ’80s cover together. While the idea didn’t quite pan out . . .

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. . . Pappas and Hart definitely brought the awkward.

The style of big and baggy ruled the ’80s for men, as well as women. Pappas wore reissues of Nike’s famous Air Max shoes, also first issued in 1987.

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At times, Pappas and Hart had the entire crew at the photo shoot cracking up. Says Willey, the editor in chief, “I’ve never had more fun at a photo shoot.”

The pair—she an Olympic runner who acts, he a comedian and actor who runs—played off each other on the set.

Today: The New Boom

“We wanted visual references to echo through the ages, so for instance with technology, you have the sports watch that became popular in the ’70s, and the Walkman in the ’80s, but for the modern runner, it’s clearly the smart phone,” says Purvis. “So for both of these runners, we wanted to reference their own social media influence.”

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“We considered having them surrounded by other runners all holding up their smartphones,” says Purvis.

“But Runner’s World almost never does conceptual covers (and we only rarely do celebrity covers). We did shoot the crowd,” which you can see, here. “But in the end, it made more sense to have them each just running by themselves to create consistency” across the decades.

The outfit for “modern” Kevin Hart was also supplied by Nike. He’s wearing an AeroLoft running vest, Flex running shorts, and the LunarEpic Low Flyknit running shoes.

Related: Watch Editor-in-Chief David Willey’s Review of the LunarEpic

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Papas also wore an AeroLoft running vest, as well as a pair of Dry Modern Tempo shorts and the latest Air Zoom Pegasus shoes from Nike.

Days after the shoot, the two competed in the 199-mile Hood to Coast relay in Oregon. See the November issue of Runner’s World for a lively account of their experience.

“From idea to execution, this took two solid months to pull off,” Purvis says. “It probably took four times as much effort as a traditional cover, including meetings, finding and sourcing all the clothes and equipment, doing the research, and and getting the designs just right. I think it was worth the effort.”

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