In Brief:
- Two fresh Marathon Season 3 Sneaker designs have been revealed by STEPN: a Marathon Sneaker capped at 50 candlelit units, plus a Marathon Genesis Sneaker themed around a chandelier.
- Those 50 Marathon Sneakers go exclusively to Season Pass holders who satisfy the Round Energy requirement.
- The season is structured as six 14-day rounds, entries are locked at 50, 100 or 200 USD, and the Season Pass costs 20 USD for the entire season.
Just 50 units of STEPN’s new Marathon Sneaker will ever exist.
Announcing the pair of Marathon Season 3 Sneaker designs on X, the studio placed the rarer of the two behind a paywall and a performance hurdle at the same time. “A little reward for those who go the distance,” STEPN wrote in the post.
A little reward for those who go the distance
Introducing two new Marathon Season 3 Sneaker designs:
Marathon Sneaker
A total of 50 candlelit designs for our Season Pass holders who complete the Round Energy requirement.
Marathon Genesis Sneaker
With its chandelier@STEPNView on X ↗
Leading the pair is the Marathon Sneaker, billed as “a total of 50 candlelit designs for our Season Pass holders who complete the Round Energy requirement.” Alongside it sits the Marathon Genesis Sneaker, which STEPN showed off with a chandelier motif. No supply number or distribution method was attached to the Genesis design in the announcement.
Who qualifies
The Marathon Sneaker carries two conditions, and both count. Picking up the Season Pass on its own won’t do it, and clearing a round without holding one won’t either.
Round Energy refers to the daily burn that keeps a participant in contention through a Marathon round. At minimum, players have to spend two Energy per day across STEPN or STEPN GO (official site), and that spend can be split one and one between the two apps. Across the full 14-day round, there are no rest days.
Skip a single day and elimination follows: the locked entry for that round is forfeited and registration has to be done over. Complete all 14 days instead and the entry comes back, topped up with a slice of what the eliminated players surrendered, and enrollment in the following round happens automatically unless a player opts out.
The pass
STEPN set the Season 3 Marathon Season Pass at 20 USD, one purchase that covers the season from start to finish. Seasons 1 and 2 carried the same price, denominated then in GGUSD and USDC.
There are no refunds on the pass. It remains available for purchase at any stage of the season, and rewards are applied retroactively to weeks already finished.
Among the perks STEPN lists are exclusive avatars, additional Marathon name changes, premium identity features and VIP status — all stacked on top of the GGUSD and free rewards open to every participant. Holders also become eligible for STEPNathon, the capstone event that closes out the season.
Season 3 format
Registration for Season 3 opened Aug. 3 at 10 a.m. UTC and shut on Aug. 10 at noon UTC. Round 1 spanned Aug. 10 to Aug. 24 at 12 a.m. UTC. Round 2 kicked off at 12 a.m. UTC on Aug. 24 and continued until Sept. 7.
The season consists of six rounds of 14 days each, working out to roughly 12 weeks from beginning to end. Each participant selects a reward pool by locking 50, 100 or 200 USD, and entering multiple tiers is permitted.
Insurance is what’s new this season. A single missed day is covered, the purchase has to happen before a round starts, and it’s sold separately for every reward pool. Pricing shifts according to registration numbers and how many players got through the previous round. Coverage that goes unused does not roll forward.
Teams received an overhaul as well. Groups can be created or joined with custom branding, leaders are able to send notices and reminders to their members, and Team Rewards in GGBoxes and Keys are handed to the best-performing teams in each round. Performance across all six rounds feeds into a Season Team Leaderboard. Season 3 additionally brought avatars, custom Marathon names, richer profiles with full-season leaderboards and improved challenge tracking.
Why Genesis matters here
Genesis Sneakers are identified by IDs that start with a “G” and are followed by a number from one to 20,000. Both STEPN and STEPN GO pull from one shared Genesis pool with a 20,000 ceiling, and that scarcity is precisely why any route to a Genesis mint is worth pursuing.
Sneakers have served as Marathon’s premium incentive since the beginning. The Season 1 pass came bundled with additional Marathon Boxes, badges, backgrounds, Starlets, GGUSD coupons and raffle mints for Marathon Sneakers. Season 2 kept the 20 USDC price and brought in teams along with a leaderboard ranked on total Energy spent.
Pass holders in Season 1 who covered the STEPNathon distance in a single effort walked away with a LEGEND badge, an exclusive background and raffle entries for Genesis Sneakers carrying limited skins. One entry came from 21 kilometers. Two came from 42.