For those of you deep in the running industry, you may have heard the story that's rocking the US domestic track and field scene. For those of you who haven't read about it, Nike is suing 800m runner Boris Berian for breach of contract. Letsrun has great coverage of the story; here's a link to it.
(Sidebar: When is there not some off-track story rocking the track world? Jeez.)
I'm not going to go into my opinions on the story or rehash any of the details here, but I think it brings up an important issue in the sport that everyone wants but no one actually talks about: sponsorship.
Every athlete enters to the post-collegiate world wanting some sort of sponsorship, even though just the word "sponsorship" has a nebulous definition. Does it mean a full, professional-scale salary? Gear and a small stipend? Performance bonuses? A pair of free shoes here and there? A logo on a jersey?
The real definition is all of the above, which is incredibly confusing. Everybody wants to make money in the sport, but most young athletes don't know how to go about getting it in the first place. It doesn't help that most pro contracts have a non-disclosure clause in them, which prevents them from ever becoming public knowledge. (Compare that to contracts in other pro sports, which are regularly broadcast on ESPN, etc)
Because of the non-disclosure agreements, most casual runners have no idea how much track and field athletes make, so they assume they're just like any other professional athlete and are a spoiled millionaire. So when the young, fresh out of college runner comes to the running store looking for some discounted or free shoes, he/she is viewed not as a starving artist in need of support but as a greedy pro athlete slumming for free handounts.
If nothing else, this Nike-Boris Berian issue finally brings to light how sponsorships work and how much money athletes actually make. Here is Berian's proposed New Balance contract. Here are two articles (Number one and number two) detailing how much money track athletes make. Spoiler alert: it's not a lot.
As it turns out, the vast majority (vast vast vast) of runners are the starving artist type. They're just trying to make ends meet, pay rent, travel to races, etc.; and constantly buying running shoes (and other gear) is no cheap ticket. But for most athletes, sponsorships are about more than money; they're about the psychology of support.
These are runners who have grown up their entire lives in a supported position: in high school and college, they had teammates and coaches to lean on. They always had a uniform with a logo that meant something. They were running for something more than themselves. Sometimes they got free gear, sometimes that had to pay for it.
And then they graduate college, enter the post-collegiate world, and BOOM!...nothing. No teammates, no coaches, no supporters. Oh, and not to mention everything costs money, which, since they're just starting out, they don't have much of. Can you blame them for obsessing about sponsorships?
To people in the running industry: Quit being cheap and start supporting post-collegiate athletes. Sure, the odds of them hitting it big are slim. Without your help, you're basically guaranteeing that the odds of them hitting it big remain less-than-slim. You have an obligation to support the sport; that involves helping out young athletes. I'm looking at you, running stores. Running brands. Race directors. National governing bodies. Running clubs. You are these young runners' supporters -- start acting like it.
To the runners trying to make it: Stop obsessing about sponsorships. Seriously. You're just coming across as whiny and entitled. Don't ask for a sponsorship; earn it. Blow their minds. Within you running community (local, regional, national, international, whatever) do something they haven't seen before. Make them notice you. Give them a reason to support you. And remember this: you don't need a sponsorship to make it as a runner. While in many ways running is slowly making a transition from an amateur to a professional sport (right now it's caught in this weird middle ground so that it's neither amateur nor professional), you can take a lesson from the past: runners ran just fine without sponsorships and while working other jobs. Roger Bannister broke 4:00 as a student in med school. Bill Rodgers laid the foundation for his success running 150 miles per week around a teacher's schedule. Steve Jones was an aircraft technician with the Royal Air Force when he set a marathon world record.
Stop worrying about things that are out of your control and just get on with running already.
____________________________________________________________________________
5/30 - 6/05
Back to running! Or, boy am I out of shape...
Monday: One hour on the bike
Tuesday: 6 mi - 39:46
Wednesday: 6.5 mi - 45:34
Thursday: 5 mi - 36:04
Friday: OFF
Saturday: 6 mi - 42:02
Sunday: 8.5 mi - 54:03
Total: 32 miles over 5 days
(Sidebar: When is there not some off-track story rocking the track world? Jeez.)
I'm not going to go into my opinions on the story or rehash any of the details here, but I think it brings up an important issue in the sport that everyone wants but no one actually talks about: sponsorship.
Every athlete enters to the post-collegiate world wanting some sort of sponsorship, even though just the word "sponsorship" has a nebulous definition. Does it mean a full, professional-scale salary? Gear and a small stipend? Performance bonuses? A pair of free shoes here and there? A logo on a jersey?
The real definition is all of the above, which is incredibly confusing. Everybody wants to make money in the sport, but most young athletes don't know how to go about getting it in the first place. It doesn't help that most pro contracts have a non-disclosure clause in them, which prevents them from ever becoming public knowledge. (Compare that to contracts in other pro sports, which are regularly broadcast on ESPN, etc)
Because of the non-disclosure agreements, most casual runners have no idea how much track and field athletes make, so they assume they're just like any other professional athlete and are a spoiled millionaire. So when the young, fresh out of college runner comes to the running store looking for some discounted or free shoes, he/she is viewed not as a starving artist in need of support but as a greedy pro athlete slumming for free handounts.
If nothing else, this Nike-Boris Berian issue finally brings to light how sponsorships work and how much money athletes actually make. Here is Berian's proposed New Balance contract. Here are two articles (Number one and number two) detailing how much money track athletes make. Spoiler alert: it's not a lot.
As it turns out, the vast majority (vast vast vast) of runners are the starving artist type. They're just trying to make ends meet, pay rent, travel to races, etc.; and constantly buying running shoes (and other gear) is no cheap ticket. But for most athletes, sponsorships are about more than money; they're about the psychology of support.
These are runners who have grown up their entire lives in a supported position: in high school and college, they had teammates and coaches to lean on. They always had a uniform with a logo that meant something. They were running for something more than themselves. Sometimes they got free gear, sometimes that had to pay for it.
And then they graduate college, enter the post-collegiate world, and BOOM!...nothing. No teammates, no coaches, no supporters. Oh, and not to mention everything costs money, which, since they're just starting out, they don't have much of. Can you blame them for obsessing about sponsorships?
To people in the running industry: Quit being cheap and start supporting post-collegiate athletes. Sure, the odds of them hitting it big are slim. Without your help, you're basically guaranteeing that the odds of them hitting it big remain less-than-slim. You have an obligation to support the sport; that involves helping out young athletes. I'm looking at you, running stores. Running brands. Race directors. National governing bodies. Running clubs. You are these young runners' supporters -- start acting like it.
To the runners trying to make it: Stop obsessing about sponsorships. Seriously. You're just coming across as whiny and entitled. Don't ask for a sponsorship; earn it. Blow their minds. Within you running community (local, regional, national, international, whatever) do something they haven't seen before. Make them notice you. Give them a reason to support you. And remember this: you don't need a sponsorship to make it as a runner. While in many ways running is slowly making a transition from an amateur to a professional sport (right now it's caught in this weird middle ground so that it's neither amateur nor professional), you can take a lesson from the past: runners ran just fine without sponsorships and while working other jobs. Roger Bannister broke 4:00 as a student in med school. Bill Rodgers laid the foundation for his success running 150 miles per week around a teacher's schedule. Steve Jones was an aircraft technician with the Royal Air Force when he set a marathon world record.
Stop worrying about things that are out of your control and just get on with running already.
____________________________________________________________________________
5/30 - 6/05
Back to running! Or, boy am I out of shape...
Monday: One hour on the bike
Tuesday: 6 mi - 39:46
Wednesday: 6.5 mi - 45:34
Thursday: 5 mi - 36:04
Friday: OFF
Saturday: 6 mi - 42:02
Sunday: 8.5 mi - 54:03
Total: 32 miles over 5 days
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