Boston Marathon Cover

Comprised completely of shoes that ran the marathon. It was important to the staff to be the magazine that the city deserved and needed at that moment. Posters of the cover went on sale which raised 120 thousand dollars for the victims of the bombing. After the bombing, we spent the first few hours making sure our editors who attended were safe and back in the office. My editor then gave this great speech on how we need to be the magazine that the city deserves and needs at this moment. That really stuck with me, and was what I used as a starting point. We were days away from final ship so we scrapped our cover. I then pitched about 12 ideas to my editor first thing Tuesday morning, saving the shoes with the knockout heart for last. My editor immediately went for it. From there it was all hands on deck to get the shoes. We were all over social media, and editors were on their phones. The interns set up boxes at their colleges to collect. They trickled in at first and I had a few sleepless nights, but by Thursday morning we ended up with around 120 pairs. Mitchell Feinberg then shot them on that afternoon. Mitch was my first choice, and he was sold on the heart idea before we even had a single shoe. When we pitched it to him he could not say yes fast enough – he saw the power in it immediately. The next morning, while the city was on lockdown, I was in the office in order to approve the proof and put as little type as I could on the thing. I fought for a bit to have no type on the cover, but in the end I think it helped, just a great cover line. Although that dek is like 7 points.