NORSEWEAR

We've all seen it before. The promo girls on the sidelines of the marathon, handing out new product to the people flying past.

There's many ways to skin a cat, there's many ways to launch something new.

When putting together the plan to bring the Endurance sock to the world, we knew we needed to go hard or go home. We couldn't just drive to the next run event, watching cushioned feet hit paved road. As a brand steeped in a history of hard work and authenticity, we needed something legit.

The Whiskey Creek Challenge is in it's first year. It's an event organised off the back of a passionate local runner, who just wanted some extra people to join for a few laps of Dolamore Park. The entry fee was a simple donation to charity, and all were welcome to pick how long they wanted to be running the 5km course.

Including, the option to run for 24 hours. For the Endurance sock, 24 hours running circles in the bush was the exact test we needed. We were going to kit out the runners of the Whiskey Creek Challenge, with brand new gear.

These runners are nothing short of absolute legends. Keen on the outdoors, happy to lend a hand, and for some, already big fans of Norsewear. Turns out we weren't just putting these to the test on any random lot - these guys already knew us, and we had a reputation at stake. Having done a bit of field testing prior, we felt ready to release the Endurance out to some hardcore runners.

James played the noble part of the Norsewear athlete. Procured during a friends 30th, he heartily agreed to run for 24 hours in our socks. He woke up on Monday morning to a reminder that he had indeed committed, and his flights were booked. He was joining the race.

Best part is, James isn't a runner. He's a paddler. An athlete no doubt, but one that does a rather small amount of relying on his legs. Turns out there's nothing a good attitude and a good sock can't do, when it comes to endurance running.

We got off to a rocky start at the Whiskey Creek Challenge. -4 degree wind chill and sleet showed up, which for shooting a summer campaign, tends to catch you by surprise. The going seriously got tough. Our wee doco turned into an elite challenge of trying to capture our Norsewear snowflake under layers of mud.

Things were still feeling pretty rough around midnight. Everyone starts looking a bit worse for wear. There were few hours of very cold sleep. Truth be known, the film crew slept in the car. We accidentally crafted a project to test more than just the sock. By about 7am, James was nearing 100km of running - and the sun was coming up.

There's nothing more inspiring than watching a mate battle with some final kilometres. And somehow the friendship survived. Hundreds of kilometres were covered in the Endurance sock at the Whiskey Creek Challenge.