Well Cam Wurf has a relationship with Nike in that his running coach is the same as Kipchoge's and he gets a bunch of shoes free from them. Whether they're paying him idk.


Just checked Lucy's IG and she never tags Nike in her posts. She would have been the one that would probably be sponsored if anyone..

In early 2008 Gary Hall Jr - the reigning Olympic Champ in the 50M free at the time - got testy about the Speedo Lzr and said he wasn't going to wear them because it is the swimmer not the suit. He relented when the obvious could no longer be ignored. If this isn't about money Jan will wear them. If he doesn't wear them - and Lange doesn't wear them either - someone like Matt Hanson (This is important: Matt Hanson looks just like Damien Lewis) is going to run 234 and win Kona.

they are the same person :D
you nailed it!!!!

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Spaniard. Sorry for my english for the sensitive ones :P

I like Matt and his connection to H-Town is cool and all but he isn’t winning Kona with any shoe. He doesn’t have the swim+bike weapon like the usual suspects in the top 5-10. Yes, he’s an excellent runner but that doesn’t mean much when you enter T2 already down 15-20 minutes because of being a B+ swimmer and cyclist.

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Favorite Gear: Dimond | Cadex | Desoto Sport | Hoka One One

The point of bringing matt Hanson into the discussion was to point out he looks like Damien Lewis. So I said “like Matt Hanson,” meaning not actually Matt Hanson.

Though - while I agree with you - you never know.

Coincidence. The 33 line-up was so named due to the number of joints in the foot.

Asics has been reducing spend on the professional side for a little while. Andy went to Skechers a couple of years ago before he swapped into Altra. With it being an Olympic year and being a gold level sponsor for the games, my guess is that they needed to find marketing budget somewhere and Jan wound up being cut loose.

Let's face it: triathletes are the least brand loyal audience on the planet. Good news if you're trying to be a market disruptor as we tend to be super early on the bell curve for stuff. Bad news if you're trying to continually hold onto specific market share.

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Editor-in-Chief, Slowtwitch.com | Twitter

If ASICS really is getting out of the triathlon market we may see a similar post from Ryf soon. I'm not sure whether she was actually sponsored (assume so), but she's been wearing ASICS for a longtime. She could choose to stay, but at least other options would be available.

Given she tags all her instagram posts with the other brands which sponsor her (Redbull, Mercedes, Breitling...) and Asics is also in there, I think it's safe to assume she is.

Let's face it: triathletes are the least brand loyal audience on the planet.//

Not disagreeing with you here, but you seem to be putting the blame for this on the athletes? Triathlon sponsors are also among the most fickle of all sports, and to be honest, there really is not that much difference between one companies top product, and another. So many companies do a drive by with triathlon sponsorships, been that way since the beginning. It has been very hard, if not impossible for a pro triathlete to stick with just one company in a particular product category. Most of the blame has to be with companies, which in turn have created an environment where the athletes think this is a normal thing to do. A self fulfilling prophecy so to speak...

I'm a former retailer. I'm always thinking about where vendor dollars went, and what consumer behavior drives the response out of those vendor dollars.

Let's go with a different run brand example: Saucony. Saucony comes out with the Kinvara at the right time, blows up in both run and triathlon, signs some pros (the Wurteles, Piampiano to name a few), comes out with an apparel product line. Brand sales decline because everybody jumps ship to HOKA and the tri apparel never takes off (I'm 90% sure this was rebranded Squadra but I could be wrong). Who's fault when the pro contracts (outside of Sarah's) dry up?

We as consumers scramble around a lot. I've ridden Felt, Blue, Specialized, Trek, Scott, Quintana Roo, and Cervelo bikes for triathlon. Most of that driven by fit changes, crashes, and being dirtbag cheap when it comes to my equipment purchases. I've run in just about every brand out there (except Salming, but that's because I loathed the feel of their line-up). I really don't think it's a matter of "dabbling in triathlon." I think it's that we tend toward the new and shiny as consumers in this particular vertical.

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Editor-in-Chief, Slowtwitch.com | Twitter

I just hope he doesnt go with those Vibram 5 finger toe shoes

I don't think ASICS Olympic partnership had an impact on Jan's contract. Overall, ASICS is a very big company and 1 athletes contract is not going to make a difference.

I had lunch with the ASICS North America CEO yesterday and while I didn't ask about Jan's situation I can say the company is in very good hands and headed in the right direction. New product is going to be awesome in 2020 and 2021 (I've seen most all of it already). They are back as the official sponsor of LA Marathon, they are in talks with a couple of other big events from high school to big marathons, they will be getting huge exposure at the Olympics this summer and they have a lot of really good athletes in their core categories.

Hopefully Jan finds a shoe that allows him to run as well as he did in the MetaRacer's he wore at Kona last year

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Boots
Fleet Feet Rochester, NY
Fleet Feet Buffalo, NY
YellowJacket Racing, Rochester, NY

Hey Boots! Hope all's well. I've been jealous of your shoe game on IG.

You are right that a lot of the Asics product line is really coming around -- it's been a good 10 years since I've looked forward to their product and they've got some really interesting stuff coming down the pike.

I get the feeling that Jan's contract expired and wasn't renewed versus a specific situation where Jan was "cut loose." But that's just based off of Twitter readings.

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Editor-in-Chief, Slowtwitch.com | Twitter

Who's fault when the pro contracts (outside of Sarah's) dry up? //

I get you now, you were talking about age group athletes tastes being fickle, not the pros. I guess I had wrongly assumed that you meant pros were the problem with so many sponsorships..


And yes, as a group we are much more inclined to go with the latest and greatest, it has been our nature from day 1. But it is also why as a group, we have ushered in the lions share of actual innovations in cycling, and to lesser degrees, running and swimming. Without us, they would probably be racing on some aluminum road bike with odd sized wheels, and maybe the Tinley wing bar. There certainly would not be any wetsuits in OW swimming, which also led to the suit wars in pool swimming. I don't think the aerodynamics of cycling and running would be near to the forefront in design, probably hit where we are now in about 10 years without all that experimentation we facilitated. Certainly no Hokas, which probably no Nike % shoes, and we are all running in Air Mariah's still... (-;