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A small change might work wonders on numbers
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I was reading Hurbert Krabel's write up on managers and sponsors. I got to thinking on why isn't there very many outside sponsorships in triathlon. Maybe its getting a company or manufacture to come out of their comfort zone for support in a new sport and trying to sell them a good value for their advertising dollar doesn't work with endurance sports. Maybe not enough tv coverage. Maybe there isn't enough people watching. Obviously there are not enough managers to find outside sponsorships . Shit I do a ton of laundry cleaning all my running gear day after day.........maybe a Tide sponsorship would work.

A few things that bother me in triathlon from a spectator's point of view is they don't know who the main racer is. Or last years national championships runner up. Or the 9th ranked best triathlete in the world is. Who is number 102 is or 435 or whatever. Who is that guy? what number was that? Names and numbers are very difficult to see on the athletes apparel.

This sport can really use a system to advertise our professional athletes. Let the consumers and would be customers know who our personalities are.
Here is one system that works. The sport of Motocross took up the idea of seated racers having permanent numbers years ago so spectators can reconize their favourate racer year after year. They found that before this system, the public got confused every year trying to find their favourite rider because the riders ranking changed every year and their numbers. So Motocross did the nascar trick. As an example, Rick Carmichael raced the #4 for years even though he was number 1. People began to reconize him and follow him year after year because they recognized the number. Motocross has a ranking system that the top 100 ranked racers in the country used the ranked numbers year after year.

Even if the athlete changes manufactures, or clothing they still will have their same number. Promotion, advertisements, merchandise can continue for longer runs because they have the same name and number on thier back of their jersey and bike.

Would triathlon benefit from this way of advertising the sports athletes?
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Re: A small change might work wonders on numbers [Dirtsmart] [ In reply to ]
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Yes it would and it's a good idea. It would not only create a marketing opportunity (marketing the # like your example of Carmichael) but would also be logistically easier for the racers. Their bikes, helmets, and kits could be printed with cool versions of the numbers....really big to make sure they could be identified.

Triathlon is in desperate need of a star. Like a Tiger of sorts. The first step in that is recognition of the athletes by "normal" spectators.

Right now, even those of us "in the know" still have a hard time identifying racers on the course. This needs to change beyond printing a name on their bib. Professional racers should be taking notes. If you race professionally and your name is NOT on your kit....you are doing yourself a huge disservice.


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Re: A small change might work wonders on numbers [Dirtsmart] [ In reply to ]
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World championship stripes like in cycling...? IM Kona Male/Female world Champ....70.3 IM M/F world champ... Possible USAT Long Course M/F Pro world Champ. Duathlon... Etc. Etc.

I do like the idea of dedicated numbers.... Another sport that is great with recognition and uses the career number system ... Is BMX racing... Even at the olympics they race with their Pro career number that they choose. World champ can obviously wear the rainbow stripes and use the career number or "1"... Riders #1-8 in the world at UCI worlds can run either their pro career number or their world ranking plate... Most often times they just run their career number for recognition purposes

But... I agree... dedicated career numbers seems like a next logical step.
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Re: A small change might work wonders on numbers [Dirtsmart] [ In reply to ]
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Dirtsmart wrote:

This sport can really use a system to advertise our professional athletes. Let the consumers and would be customers know who our personalities are.
Here is one system that works. The sport of Motocross took up the idea of seated racers having permanent numbers years ago so spectators can reconize their favourate racer year after year. They found that before this system, the public got confused every year trying to find their favourite rider because the riders ranking changed every year and their numbers. So Motocross did the nascar trick. As an example, Rick Carmichael raced the #4 for years even though he was number 1. People began to reconize him and follow him year after year because they recognized the number. Motocross has a ranking system that the top 100 ranked racers in the country used the ranked numbers year after year.

Even if the athlete changes manufactures, or clothing they still will have their same number. Promotion, advertisements, merchandise can continue for longer runs because they have the same name and number on thier back of their jersey and bike.


Good point and good idea.

Below is a bit of a rant, tl;dr warning.

Regarding pros and sponsorships, I see a real opportunity on the women's side of things right now with Jorgensen and Carfrae. In general, athletics companies (Adidas, Nike, etc) have struggled to market to females because of a lack of "Halo" female athletes. IMO, both Jorgensen and Carfrae could be those athletes if their sponsors would promote triathlon to women. I'm not elucidating things well here but basically what I'm trying to say is that it's a chicken/egg scenario of triathlon being a relevant sport and sponsors recognizing it as relevant. It's not going to happen on the men's side but it could happen on the women's side of things.

Hypothetical New Balance ad using Rinny:

*que Rinny's voice*
"In the average football game a player runs 1.2miles. Basketball? 2.7miles. Soccer? 7miles. When I'm done swimming 2.4miles, biking 112miles, and then start the 26.2mile run, I trust New Balance."

I could see that being an effective ad. Rinny is a Halo athlete at the Iron distance which, let's be honest, most people have heard of Ironman. They might not really know what it involves but they've heard about it and seen the branding. Showing a dominant female athlete doing something the average person would deem impossible... I could see the marketing value.
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