Official 2013 Race for the Cure Color Changed to Green Following Vendor Error

The Arkansas Chapter of the Komen Foundation today announced that the official Race For the Cure color will change for 2013 from Pink to Green following a vendor error on all shirts and race promotion materials. This year’s race takes place next Saturday, October 19th, in downtown Little Rock.

The Komen Foundation’s Arkansas Chapter is responsible for the annual Race for the Cure along with various other breast cancer awareness events throughout the year. The foundation typically orders over 10,000 official race shirts each year for participants, along with a number of hats, pom poms, banners, and flags.

First year Chairman Mike Gavin decided to partner with local manufacturer Arkansas Lighthouse this year for materials. Arkansas Lighthouse provides manufacturing and administrative jobs for legally blind individuals thanks to a number of government grants. Lighthouse produces materials for many federal and state government agencies as well as clothing for the military.

“I thought it would be an excellent opportunity to partner with a local service with a great mission of providing employment for an under represented community,” Gavin tells us. “Unfortunately the supervisor for the facility was red/green color blind. This resulted in a mixup between our pink material and some green they had in stock for another order. On the flip side the Army recruits are going to look great in pink.”

The foundation said that unfortunately there would not be enough time before the race to order replacement shirts, so the green will have to become the official color for this year’s race.

“We are going to have to live with it,” Gavin says. “We spoke with our official photographer for the event and he will be able to swap out the green for pink in all of the official race photos in Photoshop.”

The foundation is asking all race participants and spectators who plan to wear their own clothing at the race to please use the official green to ease the photo production process. The foundation is also working with Instagram to create a special filter in time for the race that changes the green to pink so that all social media photos appear correct.