CITIUS MAG has today amended its rules governing competition jeans to provide greater clarity to athletes and jeans manufacturers around the world and to protect the integrity of the blue jeans mile.

The rule amendments that blue jeans mile godfather Paul Snyder has approved were recommended by the CITIUS MAG internal working group containing idiots as well as athletes. Back in March 2017, Paul wrote up a gimmicky post wondering what’s the fastest that people could run a mile while wearing a pair of blue jeans. It was silly until we had one of our writers attempt it. Then other people tried it themselves. And eventually, a few collegiate runners got competitive and went after the world record. We put up a prize of $1,000 for the first person to run under four minutes. It has yet to be done. The current world record is held by Dillon Maggard, who ran 4:11.80 in November 2018. The Blue Jeans Mile got press in SB Nation, Podium Runner, Canadian Running Magazine and there was even an official race held in Raleigh where dozens of runners competed in jeans.

From May 15, 2020, any jeans must have been available for purchase by any athlete on the open retail market (online or in store) for a period of one month before it can be used in competition.

If a pair of jeans is not openly available to all then it will be deemed a prototype and use of it in competition will not be permitted. Subject to compliance with the rules, any pair of jeans that is available to all, but is customized for aesthetic reasons or for fashion reasons will be allowed.

Where CITIUS MAG has reason to believe that a type of jeans or specific fabric technology may not be compliant with the rules or the spirit of the rules, it may submit the jeans or fabric technology for study and may prohibit the use of the shoe or technology while it is under examination.

Furthermore, we have set these changes in place:

The previous rules stated: “The jeans must be 100% cotton/denim, to avoid any confusion over the eligibility of jeggings. Skinny jeans are permissible but can’t be commuters, and have to live up to the required material standards. The 100% denim content of the racing pants must be proven via photo of the tag on the jeans.”

Our new rule will state that jeans should be at least 72% cotton.

The CITIUS MAG competition has the power to request that an athlete submit proof of cotton/denim percentage before or after a race if we have reasonable suspicion that the jeans worn by an athlete do not comply with the rules.

With these new rules, we aim to strike a balance between preserving the integrity of the blue jeans mile and keeping up with the advancement of technology as we continue to wait for the first-ever sub-four mile in blue jeans.

The men’s world record remains 4:11:.80 set by Dillon Maggard in November 2017. The women’s world record is 4:58.84 by Heather Wilson in August 2017.