UVU popping up at the North Pole

Premium performance wear brand UVU set a new landmark in the marketing world when it launched this weekend with the first ever pop-up shop at the North Pole coinciding with the 2012 UVU North Pole Marathon.
The custom designed pop-up shop, which was created by Brinkworth retail designers to withstand the extreme conditions of the Arctic circle, contained the full range of UVU race and training wear and also housed a satellite link to feed live footage of both the launch and the race back to the UK. To further support the UVU launch a number of runners were wearing the UVU clothing on the big day, including Andrew Murray, a General Practitioner from Edinburgh, who on Saturday became the first British man to win the race. If that wasn’t impressive enough, he was simultaneously acting as the official race doctor and had only entered the race at the 11th hour after being injured in a car accident the week before, which left him with a broken wrist and a damaged ankle.

Murray commented: “When running in extreme environments attention to detail can be the difference between finishing and not finishing, between 1st and 4th. UVU’s range is exceptional in its attention to detail. To give an example, during the North Pole Marathon 2012, other competitors stopped several times to change garments, look at watches etc, whilst features such as multiple venting seams, and external watch housing meant I didn’t have to, and allowed me to win by the tightest of margins. This clothing is crafted by athletes, for athletes. “

Known as “the world’s coolest marathon”, the UVU North Pole Marathon, sees runners overcome the freezing sub-zero temperatures to finish a range of courses from half marathon, to marathon, to ultramarathon (100 miles) in one of the most remotest parts of the planet.

The ultra-endurance race is operated by the multiple polar marathoner and one of UVU’s two key brand ambassadors, Richard Donovan. Donovan won the First Ever South Pole Marathon (Antarctica) on 22 January 2002 and then pioneered the way for the North Pole Marathon by running a solo marathon later that same year. More recently, Donavan set a new world record for running marathons on all seven continents when he completed the 2012 World Marathon Challenge n 118 hours and 3 minutes (4 days 22 hours 3 minutes).

The brand, which is manufactured by performance wear experts KTC, is designed around a unique layering system to help runners compete in extreme conditions. The garments are crafted from the world’s most sophisticated performance textiles.