A major milestone!

Please note - this update does not apply to parkrun South Africa

Since our last post on 26 March we’ve been busy rolling out the new milestone t-shirt claim system. In that update we said we anticipated it would take 6-8 weeks to contact everyone currently waiting for a milestone t-shirt. Eight weeks on we’re pleased to say that we have now activated profiles for everyone with an eligible claim (excluding junior 10s) up to 31 March 2018.

Please note, if you haven’t received an email from us but have qualified for a milestone t-shirt that you haven’t already received, it could be because you have unsubscribed from our emails. Check your profile to see if you have an active link by going to parkrun.com, sign in, then click on ‘club progress’.

We don’t want you missing out

A priority for us when thinking about the new system was that, should your size not be immediately available, you wouldn’t lose your place in the queue. So, with the help of our fulfilment partners Pro:Direct we made pre-ordering available on milestone t-shirts. So now, if we have temporarily run out of stock in your size, you can still place your order and when new stock arrives your shiny new t-shirt will be sent straight to you!

Another new feature we wanted to implement was the ability to tell us you did not want to receive your milestone t-shirt. If for whatever reason you’d prefer not to receive a milestone t-shirt, letting us know by clicking the link in your profile is a really helpful way for us to understand future order quantities.

Meanwhile we are closely monitoring stock levels and claims made and, using this insight, we will be placing a new order for milestone t-shirts very soon. We expect a new delivery to be available in a couple of months time.

What about youth sizes and junior 10 milestones?

Feedback indicated that including youth sizing for all milestone t-shirts complicated matters and added considerable expense. Every different size of every different milestone is effectively its own product item or SKU (Stock Keeping Unit). The more SKUs we produce the more costly it is to maintain the product range. So we took the decision to remove youth sizes, but ensured the sizes we do offer go from XXS to XXXL.

We can confirm that junior 10 t-shirts will be available in the next delivery, which should be available in a couple of months time.

So what happens now?

To give everyone currently with an active link sufficient time to place an order, we are now going to wait a couple of weeks before opening the system up to all remaining eligible parkrunners (i.e. those who have qualified for a milestone since 1 April 2018). When we do this (probably week commencing 4 June) we will have successfully eliminated the backlog (currently excluding junior 10s), with everyone eligible able to place an order for their milestone t-shirt.

From then on, profile links will be activated weekly for those parkrunners who hit their milestone the previous weekend.

We are extremely proud that, after a huge amount of hard work, we are now in a better position with milestone t-shirts than we have been for years. As the system is still very new, we are experiencing the occasional issue. If you do have a problem completing your order we appreciate your patience as our support team along with our friends at Pro:Direct resolve it for you. For issues ordering your t-shirt on the Pro:Direct website, contact Pro Direct here. For issues with the link on your parkrun profile, you can contact parkrun support here.

We have been able to secure the future of milestone t-shirts thanks to the sale of our apricot clothing range. We hope to have more apricot stock arriving at the same time as the next batch of milestone t-shirts. In the mean time, you can get 40% off remaining items over at our apricot shop!

Thanks for being so patient throughout this process. It really does bring us so much joy seeing the new milestone t-shirts being worn with pride at parkrun events around the world.

Please note: the best way to ensure you get the latest news from parkrun is to subscribe to our communication channels. You can opt in to our emails here, and you can also find us on Facebook and Twitter.

Common questions:

Are these milestone t-shirts the same size as previous milestone t-shirts?

We’ve listened to feedback that previous milestone t-shirts came up short and had a tendency to ride up. Our new t-shirts are therefore longer in length for a more comfortable fit. Additionally, we had universal feedback that women’s milestone t-shirts were a larger fit. We have amended the design based on this feedback and they are now a better fit.

A size guide is available on the product page.

Can I buy a (replacement) milestone t-shirt?

Not at the moment. We would love to be able to offer this in the future but right now we can only provide one milestone t-shirt for each eligible parkrunner.

My t-shirt looks like it costs £25?

In order for each milestone t-shirt to exist on Pro:Direct’s stock system and website everything has to have a retail price. We’ve made sure that, despite £25 being displayed as the retail price for milestone t-shirts, by the time you come to checkout, the product is discounted 100%, with only postage payable.

Are milestone t-shirts sustainable?

Absolutely. Milestone t-shirts are a critical part of parkrun: rewarding participation over performance. The parkrun community’s continued support of Apricot is directly linked to our continued supply of milestone t-shirts - every purchase contributes directly to the future of free milestone t-shirts.

Can I claim a running milestone (e.g. 50 or 100) and my volunteer milestone (v25) in the same order and save on postage?

We haven’t been able to find an appropriate solution for multiple claims. At this time each claim should be made on a different order.

Can I bundle all the claims for my family on one order and save on postage?

As above, we haven’t been able to find an appropriate solution for multiple claims. At this time each claim should be made on a different order.

What are the delivery charges?

Standard postage for each of our territories is currently as follows (please bear in mind this is subject to variations in exchange rates and outside our control):

UK - £3.95
Australia - £9.95
Canada - £9.95
Denmark - £9.50
Finland - £9.95
France - £5.70
Germany - £4.70
Ireland - £6.95
Italy - £5.70
New Zealand - £9.95
Norway - £9.95
Poland - £4.70
Russia - £11.95
Singapore - £11.95
Sweden - £9.95
US - £9.95

Will you be introducing new volunteer milestones?

No. We really do value all parkrunners equally (whether you choose to volunteer, walk, jog, or run). But with near exponential growth and dramatically escalating costs, we have to set realistic expectations about how many free milestone t-shirts we can commit to. We will continue to offer the purple volunteer milestone after 25 volunteering instances.