Today, Saucony announced a partnership with the popular language learning app Duolingo, to help educate clueless runners on how to properly pronounce Saucony’s challenging name.
Saucony hopes Duolingo’s gamified approach to language education will make learning Saucony’s difficult name fun and engaging, instead of boring as hell and a total pain in the butt.
The collaboration comes on the heels of over a century of folks wildly mispronouncing Saucony’s tough name. The Rockford, Michigan-based brand has heard it all over the years: Sauce-ony, soo-cony, sow-cony, so-cony, say-oo-cony, you name it — except, you can’t name it. No one can.
Recently, the desperate company went so far as to print the phonetic spelling of their hard-to-say name on shoe boxes. The only problem is, the phonetic spelling — SOCK-A-KNEE — came across as quite the sinister threat to sock (hit) runners’ knees. Not the best association for a running brand to make, especially given the stigma that running is bad for the knees. (It’s not — sitting on the couch all day is bad for the knees.)
Saucony issued a statement as part of the announcement:
“Ever since our name was derived from some ugly-ass cesspool of a river in Pennsylvania way back in 1898, folks have had an endless amount of trouble trying to say our perplexing name. It’s really quite awkward that we’re the only major shoe brand that is unpronounceable to the average person. In retrospect, we definitely should’ve chosen an easier name like all the other shoe companies did. Honestly, we should’ve just changed our name awhile ago, considering our headquarters moved from Pennsylvania more than 50 years ago.”
They added:
“I mean, it’s totally not fair; the other brands chose really easy names like Brooks, Nike, and HOKA. Hell, there’s even that brand called On. Go figure: we could’ve named ourselves ‘Off’, and we’d likely be the leader in running shoe sales. But, you know what they say, hindsight is 20/20. Anyway, we hope this partnership with Dua Lipa will help empower millions throughout the globe to finally say our grueling name correctly.”
Key Features
In a press release, Saucony and Duolingo outlined features available to users of the language learning app:
- Personalized learning: Combining the best of AI and language science, lessons are tailored to help users learn to pronounce “Saucony” at just the right level and pace.
- Universally accessible: Unfortunately, learning a language is expensive and inaccessible to most. But with Duolingo, everyone can have a chance to learn how to pronounce “Saucony.” No hidden fees or premium content.
- Real-life communication: Language is a communication tool, so lessons focus on a real-life goal — in this case, pronouncing “Saucony” correctly in a public setting, like a restaurant, or in the comfort of your very own home. Learners develop the vocabulary and grammar needed to achieve that goal through lots of varied practice in writing and speaking.
- Learning variety: A mix of formats help learners with interaction, conversation, and reading and listening comprehension — all valuable skills for real-world “Saucony” pronunciation practice.
Users can download the free Duolingo app or visit duolingo.com to get started today learning how to pronounce “Saucony.”
