published on 07.05.26
Although the fashion and luxury sectors are frequently labeled as materialistic, our students continue to demonstrate their profound social impact. The Distribution class in the specialization branch in Fashion & Luxury within our third-year Bachelor program recently concluded its final presentations, and the project ‘Night Run’ truly stood out. The brand addresses a critical issue: the safety and confidence of female runners at night.
Developed by Natalya Ayranjian, Yasser Moustakbal, Aleksandra Malek, Anaïs Maillet-Souël, Rim Mouaid, and Matilde Vandeweghe, the project is as thoughtful as it is innovative. We caught up with members Anaïs and Matilde to dive into the details of their winning vision.
Q: Tell us about the brand Night Run!
A: Night Run is a purpose-driven, premium running brand created to empower women to run freely, even in low-light conditions. The idea came from a simple observation: many women adapt their running habits because they don’t feel safe at night. Instead of accepting this, we wanted to create a solution that allows them to keep their freedom.
Our concept is to design high-performance running apparel where safety is fully integrated into the product itself. Rather than adding accessories, we build protection, visibility, and connection directly into the garments through reflective materials, embedded technology, and app connectivity. Beyond the product, Night Run is also built around a strong community. Through our app, running clubs, and events, we aim to create a supportive environment where women feel connected and confident. Overall, Night Run is about changing the running experience: from something limited by fear to something driven by freedom.
Q: Why did you decide to focus on this niche of female runners that practice their sport at night?
A: We wanted to create a brand that really had an impact and that was not only focused on a materialistic but practical aspect. We wanted to come up with something useful that people needed. This is how we imagined Night Run. When we pitched the idea to the rest of the group, we all agreed on the necessity for a brand like this one.
The market is full of activewear brands that put the emphasis on looks first or that have specific features for niche sports like yoga, tennis or swimming, but nothing had that special aspect that would bring safety to female runners. Running is quite an easy sport in terms of environment or material. Anyone can run anywhere. But for women, it has become less and less easy and safe over time to do it alone, at night or dressed in a certain way.
Night Run was envisioned to solve this issue. We wanted to create a brand that focused on women’s safety first, by creating products that reflect light, have integrated technology in situations of danger or insecurity and most of all: high-performance products. Most of our clothes are water-repellent, have a special feature to glow in the dark or reflect light, or even integrate technology to protect the runner or are connected to the “Night Miles Club” app. This app was designed firstly to create a community around women runners, to create a safe club in every city to run with when you don’t want to go out alone or have a close network of people that are easily alerted and ready to help in case you are in danger.
Q: How does your project redefine the concept of ‘safety’ within the high-end luxury activewear market?
A: As we know, many sports apparel items are designed to look nice, even more so for luxury brands. However, none are focused on safety. Night Run is designed to create luxury products at an attractive price to stay competitive in the market, but mostly to allow as many women as possible to get those items and run safely. We want to offer quality and security in a nice-looking product. We want to redefine the concept of ‘safety’ by creating a brand that promotes women’s sports and outdoor activities rather than just another sportswear brand.
Q: Which specific retail channels (digital or physical) are most critical for reaching your target female runner?
A: Our main channel is our DTC (direct-to-consumer) website, which is where we would sell our products. Additionally, like any other brand, we would also use social platforms and social media to promote our brand. ,
However, as our products might lack the trust of our customers at the beginning, we might need to implement some pop-ups or demonstrations of how the product works to earn trust and spread the word about our innovative products. Those events would be centered around night runs to show how the product works in real conditions.
Word of mouth will then do the job, and people will discover our products like that. Women runners know other women runners, so they will easily talk about our brand and do our marketing “themselves”, and if they don’t know other women like them, this is why we created our app/community.
Q: What do you think would be the biggest challenge in merging electronic light/security systems with high-performance fabrics?
A: The biggest challenge would be our customers’ care of the product. If they do not remove the technology before washing our flagship product, our “Aurora Jacket”, they might damage the technology.
Nevertheless, we want to try and design products that are easy to use but also to take care of. We want the maximum amount of textile and technology to be washable and, if it has to be removed, the app will send you a notification or you might remember it because of the price of the item.
We also want to offer a warranty for all damaged items based on some conditions, with the intent to also build trust and show that we trust our products so much that we are willing to replace any malfunctioning piece.
Q: If your brand could be described in only three words, which would they be and why?
A: Community, safety, running. That could be our motto. The whole brand is focused on women’s safety while running, so those would be the three words.
Q: Beyond visibility, how does the ‘security’ aspect of your design improve the emotional experience of a night run?
A: You don’t only feel protected while running, you feel safe. You can go on a run lighthearted. You don’t have to worry about looking behind you every three seconds to see if cars are able to see you at night, checking if someone malevolent is following you or just being scared of being alone at night at any time of the day or the year.
Q: How have you planned for the lifecycle of clothes and accessories, particularly regarding integrated technology?
A: Any clothes that we would offer would be in very resistant and high-quality materials, making the items wearable for many years.
In terms of technology, to offer the latest technological innovation to our customers (and technology also has to be replaced at one point), we would replace those parts with a small additional cost (that would also come with a discount or some rewards on the app or something similar). It’s like any other technological device, you either have to it completely or replace someparts. It would be the same for the jacket’s device, etc.
We also keep in mind our sustainability commitment so we would try to maximize the recycling of our technological devices and manufacture them in a way that they are easily repairable to ensure a long life for our products.
Q: Do you see this ‘tech-safety’ aesthetic expanding into other sports, or will it remain an exclusive niche for runners?
A: We don’t believe that all sports are relevant to our products. However, there are a few that might be relevant, particularly outdoor sports such as hiking or cycling. Again, our offering is specifically aimed at women who feel unsafe, and we don’t think expanding it to men would be particularly relevant. But later, we could potentially developp genderless models.
We would like to congratulate the entire group on this outstanding project. It challenges us to think outside the box and reconsider which products are truly essential in today’s society.
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