That sounds AWESOME. May I please get your special access code for this amazing product?

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http://www.fitspeek.com the Fraser Valley's fitness, wellness, and endurance sports podcast

When I own a business my sponsorship will be this catchy slogan....

Star athlete- "with this code you will pay double the asking price"

(it may or may not be an incredible idea...there are a lot of dentists out there I've been told)

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Brooks Doughtie, M.S.
Exercise Physiology
-USAT Level II

100% agree with this. Tri might be the closest thing to this still having an impact; mostly because a bike that is really aero is going to be good for a pro as well as an age grouper. That said there are plenty of people who go really fast on not the fastest bike, and vice-versa.
I think mountain bike racing would be the furthest to the other end of the spectrum. When you look at a world cup XC course that are no doubt very technical and a rider will benefit from the slack long low that is so "on trend" right now. But if you go to your local XC race; the course is probably more or less the same as it was 10-20 years ago. So do I really need a bike with "confidence inspiring downhill pedigree" also, a very high % of mountain bikers will never race, and I think the non-racing group would be pretty unlikely to watch a race. (I am a total XC guy for the last 15 years; and even I only got into watching pro races last year.
Also since a lot has been brought up about Kate Courtney. You do have to remember that when she left Specialized she was not the mega-star she is now. Since there has been a couple football analogies here; she was a first round draft pick talent who had not yet proved herself out in the pros; you knew she probably would based on her U23 results; but lets face it, there are a lot of talents that do not. She signed with Scott because she did not want to be the backup to Annika; then went out and won the rainbow jersey a couple days later. I think that one can be marked up more to poor communication; sounds like the team favored the euro pros while Specialized corporate wanted to bet on Kate, but somehow that did not get worked out in time and she went to Scott.

I don't know if it'll work or not but I'll bet you can get Peter Sagan to sell a special edition product that's twice the price but green.

As long as he brings the accent, I'll pay whatever the F he asks me too.

"anyone want to paarrttee"

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Brooks Doughtie, M.S.
Exercise Physiology
-USAT Level II

There is a guy I know on EMJ team that used to make posts about various random interesting stuff--but since on the team it's been mostly promo "ads" for the most part--I'd rather just sit down for a coffee or something to chat personally than read a product post--but I get he likely has to do that. I am betting B. Doughtie that you are right in that there must be "X" number of product posts per month to meet a quota of sort. I started looking into social media presence of other EMJ members & much of the same thing. If they're not big SM users they are pretty much pushing product. That kind of stuff from pros is a bit of a turn off to follow them--I found a few awkward product placements by Gwen J. on her sponsor's stuff. But at least she hasn't fully fallen to the non-interesting stuff. Posting food stuff & some interesting training tidbits. Showing a person side of things not just a product side push of stuff. Her husband Patrick looks like an amazing cook...he needs a cookbook.

same here. its sad that instagram and the like has turned into nothing more than a sponsorship / influencer outlet for so many.

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80/20 Endurance Ambassador

Edit #1: I'm sorry for the thread derail.

Not to be snarky, and an honest question..........but what else is it supposed to be?

Edit #2: I'm not on Insta or Twitter. I am on Facebook.

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Pink? Maybe. Maybe not. You decide.

at its heart and base social media is for people to share whats going on in their lives with their friends and families. if it were nothing more than that i would absolutely love it. unfortunately its turned into the cesspool of society with the vast majority of it being product placement / pushing and political arguments.

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80/20 Endurance Ambassador

In mountain biking nobody's watching or taking much notice of XC though are they? That's SOO last century.
What sells is 'enduro'. And it's pretty evident it does sell. Take a look at how many folks are over-biked at trail centres or even out in the normal hills. Very few routes really need 170mm travel. But plenty of folks riding 160-170mm travel enduro bikes.

I agree, and I think that is why the wins on sunday sells on monday is even less true in mountain biking.
Everyone wants an enduro bike, but even less people are going to watch an enduro event than will watch an XC race.

Totally agree there.
I think what does work to a degree for mtb, is that Enduro races better reflect what most mountain bikers want to do and actually do.
In the UK, XC is near dead and has been for years. 24 hr races are a shadow of their former selves. Its general trail riding and Enduro which is thriving. Its not about who gets to the top of the hill 1st. Most couldn't give a monkeys about that. But it's about who's fast back down hill. On something more normal than a full on downhill rig (and can be ridden uphill too as most times most riders don't actually have a chairlift or uplifts). So just maybe seeing good / great riders on a particular bike in mtb mags / web sites (rather than in person at an actual race) may help sales. I'm particularly thinking of brands like Transition, YT, Yeti, Pivot, Nukeproof and Commercial. And obvs Santa Cruz.

Some skinny guy or gal in lycra on a hardtail with a 100-120mm fork is selling precisely zero bikes here no matter how high their VO2max and hematocrit levels are.

Rinny joins Amberger in departing Felt...

And Amberger joins Specialized.

Curious to see where Rinny is headed. Back when she was pregnant for the first time, she often repeated how supportive her sponsors were so I naively would have thought she'd stay with all of them until her retirement.

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Instagram
Youtube Channel
Meta Endurance

With the best intro Video ever on their social page. Man I love how laid back Josh is.

Surprisingly, xc is actually doing quite well in the US

I'm fairly certain Kate won the world championship while with Specialized, then switched to Scott that offseason. I also feel like I read that the signed the Scott contract after the championship.

"In the week before the 2018 world championship, Courtney and her mother worked out a deal with Scott-SRAM, managed by Swiss mountain-bike legend Thomas Frischknecht and led by Swiss world champion Nino Schurter. Days later she shocked fans with a world title of her own, catching and passing Langvad with superior technical skills on the final lap.
Her new contract came together before her world title but was not made public until early January; the global cycling audience couldn’t have known the vindication Courtney felt on that podium in Switzerland. "

American Muscle by Neal Rodgers. July 2020 issue of The Red Bulletan

I’ve heard rumblings for years that the Big Red S is moving away from triathlon. As someone who worked there from 2016-2018 . These moves tend to lead me to believe that’s still the direction they are going. They have so much tied up in UCI racing with sponsorships and ITU/Short course racing is much more popular. Plus, the latest version of the Shiv was just awful. Sure it’s aero but with that price tag? I would expect that the remaining Specializefd long course athletes will be gone when their contracts end as well. Just my perspective

Amberger riding specialized now

I wonder how localized that Sponsorship agreement is. It just screams to me that Specialized downsized their contracts. As much as I love Josh, he's funny as hell. Moving away from Lucy Charles and grabbing smaller contracts is just a kinda weird move.

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Washed up footy player turned Triathlete.

I think it’s simply a sign of the current times. Go look at how much turnover has occurred at ESPN as they are going to younger, cheaper talent. My local tv network (WRAL) is one of the most productive markets in the country and they recently in last 18 months have “retired” 60% of the staff.

I also think even though bike sales are booming it’s not due to any uptick in sponsor promotions but because ppl just want a bike...any bike (well tri bikes obviously are low sales). The tri shop I work PT at does higher end ish bike sales. Our cheapest bike is roughly $1500 and I bet I’ve taken 100 calls or ppl coming to store since April from customers asking for under $1k bikes. In the 7 years I’ve worked at IOS I haven’t taken 15 calls or drop in from ppl asking for that price range. We just were a bike shop that showed up on their google search and were #5 shop checking inventory etc. so while the bike biz is booming I do think it’s easy to see why. So if you can’t justify the full expense anymore, I think you’ll continue to see cost cutting measures.

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Brooks Doughtie, M.S.
Exercise Physiology
-USAT Level II

Well, Amberger is clearly cheaper. But he is not younger.

Lucy Charles-27

Insta- 339k Followers
Twitter- 24.2k Followers
Facebook- 83k Followers
Youtube- 37.4k Subscribers

Josh Amberger-31

Insta- 45.1k Followers
Twitter- 7k Followers
Facebook- 7.6k Followers
Youtube- 317 Subscribers

And comparing this to ESPN isn't apples to apples at all. ESPN over inflated the industry and then went a certain way, some of their younger and highest rated talent already jumped ship as ESPN retained a certain POV. ESPN is struggling for its own soul as the worldwide leader.

I'm just trying to figure this out, is Specialized going to sponsor a bunch of smaller reaching but cheaper contracts to get back to the same activation?

I find Josh pretty hilarious, guess he decided to do a launch video. I wouldn't really call it a youtube channel but rather than an account...but I'm guessing this video was made weeks ago before Lucy and Specialized ended their relationship or he didn't know. Since she's mentioned at 3:13.

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Washed up footy player turned Triathlete.

Maybe it was Felt's choice and not hers? Maybe she got offered a lot more elsewhere....triathletes need to make a living too.

I'm just trying to figure this out, is Specialized going to sponsor a bunch of smaller reaching but cheaper contracts to get back to the same activation?

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But that's not really something anyone will know. For the same reason, we have no clue if said athletes came to the table and balked and the "new contract" because they rate themselves higher than what they were being asked (or had a better contract in their back pocket). So sometimes it's companies are cutting payroll, and sometimes it's the athletes themselves "valuing" themselves at a higher number that they maybe can get somewhere else. It's not always the companies fault when a sponsorship ends.




I took freshman econ and it was the only thing I basically remember.....Most of the time the value that people think their lives are is over inflated than the value that the market has for said person.


So I think it's important to note that there is always 2 sides to the discussion. Colin Kapernick before the whole long term exile, was given I believe 2 different NFL contracts.....he just balked at the money he was going to be offered and didn't sign to stay in the NFL, and that was while he was still an 49er's...this wasn't the whole "black ball" period. So there's always 2 sides of the story and it's not *always* the company being the big bad corporation who ends up ending contracts.

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Brooks Doughtie, M.S.
Exercise Physiology
-USAT Level II