My advice to Lionel is to forego a running shoe contract and find your perfect shoe. You will get knocks on the door but weigh it out. Is the contract more important than winning Kona? I’m not suggesting a running shoe is going to be the difference buy I am suggesting being able to choose is liberating and that might just be better at this stage of the career. When I worked with Lionel and his Team on the One Hour Record ride, I got a bit of a peak under the hood at how he operates now, with respect to his relationships with sponsors. It's evolved over time, and he's now in a very different place than he was a few years ago. Last year with limited to no race-opportunities and exposure opportunities for athlete's sponsors, it was ALL ABOUT the other things you were doing - the Creative Content, you were creating, the Social media Posts - in this area, Lionel has REALLY made a name for himself, and mastered this idea of adding huge value for his sponsors AWAY from the Race Course and the podium!
He doesn't have to win another big races for the rest of his career - he's got this all figured out. He will keep striving and battling for those big wins because he's a warrior, but how his does in a certain race, now, is almost irrelevant.
So I agree with the premise here, that on shoes - he can use what he likes or is "better/faster"? The amount of $$ that he would get from a Shoe Sponsorship these days would possibly be quite minimal. Many of the Shoe Brands cut back on Sponsorship last year and going into 2021. Shoe Sales in the Performance Run category were actually DOWN in 2020 (the numbers were just in last this week).
Steve Fleck @stevefleck | Blog