Hoare and Klecker: weird shoe choice?

So your Boston today. What city are you normally? Do you suffer from Multiple City Disorder(MCD)?

snowdays wrote:

half of the posters in this thread are employed by nike

This is common on threads involving shoes. Pretty standard for Beaverton to start threads about Nike and weigh in on any thread about something else.

OK, everybody knows OAC races in Nike; this is old enough news that I was aware of it. Where I disagree with the crowd here is on 2 points.

First of all, I don't buy the whole 'training daily in On then Nike for races only'. I'd be surprised if they do much running in On at all. Sweat Elite videos don't fool me; that proves that they wear them whenever there is a camera around. By the way, I watched one in which the subject wore On spikes for the track portion of the workout. But you know what I didn't see? Every other time any of them have run. A video or picture of someone wearing On proves that they wore them once.

So I don't suspect the ration is 1000 miles training (On) : 10 miles racing (Nike). I believe the ration is more like 1 mile in On (when a camera is there for training; for races they admit it's all Nike) : 999 miles (all non-filmed training and of course all races).

The other point where I'm not too sure everybody has it right is that there may not be a rule that you can run in anything. It may have to be Nike. I mean, there is nothing special about the Dragonfly. It is not 'super'. If you had a sponsor who paid you not to run in their shoes (like On), wouldn't you wear something besides that particular shoe? Adidas has an actual super spike. I'd be in that or NB myself I suppose. In fact, the Hoka and asics distance spikes would be above the Nike on my list, but I don't know, that's just me.

Thing is, OAC doesn't just wear something besides On - that is a given and they (strangely) seem proud of that. They wear (and I include training, but that's just my opinion) exclusively Nike. Any way, I have a lot of respect t for Ritz and some respect for these folks on the team, but none for On. Literally paying them to wear Nike. Not just any other brand - Nike. You know what would happen if you didn't form the team, didn't pay Ritz or any of them? They'd wear Nike. Do nothing and spend $0, you get the same outcome. What a joke the whole OAC idea is. What a joke On is!

They wear ON hoes for all of their training. Just look at their social media. Nearly every time they do a workout there are pictures and video clips on Instagram and Strava.

They also remove the Nike logo from their Dragonflies. Many people who post on Letsrun know that they are wearing Dragonflies but the casual fan sees the ON kit and likely doesn't realize the shoes aren't ON.

I guarantee there are people that previously would have never even though about buying ON shoes but have now added them into their rotation since the OAC became one of the best training groups in the world.

Nike makes great racing shoes but inferior training shoes. On makes superior trainers and inferior racers. Why would a runner switch to Nike when nobody is looking? What model would they possibly want to wear for an easy 15 miles?

Jake from the Olympics wrote:

Nike makes great racing shoes but inferior training shoes. On makes superior trainers and inferior racers. Why would a runner switch to Nike when nobody is looking? What model would they possibly want to wear for an easy 15 miles?

Yeah, come on Nike. You need to go back to the drawing board and find a way to make me want to wear pegs.

What i don't understand is why they don't just tear the upper off of some dragonflies and glue/sew on an On upper. They they could claim mostly truthfully to be wearing a 'new prototype.' Or get some elastic shoe covers like cyclists wear and print them with an On logo. Or just blacked out dragonflies. This thread is acting as though On has no option other than providing free advertising for nike until they can produce a competive spike, but it seems like there are options if they really want.

They would get in trouble by putting an On logo on the shoe.

NoVan wrote:

What i don't understand is why they don't just tear the upper off of some dragonflies and glue/sew on an On upper. They they could claim mostly truthfully to be wearing a 'new prototype.' Or get some elastic shoe covers like cyclists wear and print them with an On logo. Or just blacked out dragonflies. This thread is acting as though On has no option other than providing free advertising for nike until they can produce a competive spike, but it seems like there are options if they really want.

They remove the Nike logos if they are racing in Dragonflies.

LetsRun26.2anon wrote:

So your Boston today. What city are you normally? Do you suffer from Multiple City Disorder(MCD)?

*you’re

Must be one of the Johnson Bros? Isn’t trolling your own message board kind of strange?

I’m based out of Los Angeles; but do a significant amount of traveling with my job, especially the last 2 years with Covid. I even spend time in that trash heap of a city that you live in.

And yes, my old roommate was racing. I had 3 days off. Is that acceptable? Anything else you want to know? Hat size? Previous relationships?

track club with no track shoes? wrote:

I’m Boston today:

They’re both decked out in ON, but were both wearing Dragonflys.

Does ON not have a track spike?

What was it like being Boston?

wejo wrote:

weird deal wrote:

I believe that ON is not their shoe sponsor. Much like Tracksmith or Oiselle On does not make quality shoes.

On makes great shoes. They just don't have a super spike yet and have said their athletes can run in whatever shoe is best for them.

FYI On went public this fall at over a $11 billion valuation and was a sponsor of LetsRun this summer.

Speaking of fraud shills

It comes down to this. Nike is perfectly happy for OAC to race in Nike spikes. Sponsoring athletes isn’t about shoes sales, it’s about credibility in the high performance market space. That’s gold. Every time On athletes wear Nike spikes it’s a direct hit to On’s credibility and a boost to Nike. I don’t think you’ll find anyone at Nike hoping On athletes quit wearing Dragonfly’s.

Stock prices have nothing to do with this. On will suffer long term for this. They made a deal with the devil and On athletes are complicit. Don’t fool yourself thinking nobody notices.

grease lightning wrote:

It comes down to this. Nike is perfectly happy for OAC to race in Nike spikes. Sponsoring athletes isn’t about shoes sales, it’s about credibility in the high performance market space. That’s gold. Every time On athletes wear Nike spikes it’s a direct hit to On’s credibility and a boost to Nike. I don’t think you’ll find anyone at Nike hoping On athletes quit wearing Dragonfly’s.

Stock prices have nothing to do with this. On will suffer long term for this. They made a deal with the devil and On athletes are complicit. Don’t fool yourself thinking nobody notices.

I'm more likely to buy On products because of these guys, not Nike.

Runner10287 wrote:

track club with no track shoes? wrote:

I’m Boston today:

They’re both decked out in ON, but were both wearing Dragonflys.

Does ON not have a track spike?

What was it like being Boston?

If you’ve never been to Boston, take the time to go. This was my second time, and I spent most of my time at the meet. My first time, I went all out and did the whole Freedom Trail tour. If you like history, you’ll love Boston.

grease lightning wrote:

It comes down to this. Nike is perfectly happy for OAC to race in Nike spikes. Sponsoring athletes isn’t about shoes sales, it’s about credibility in the high performance market space. That’s gold. Every time On athletes wear Nike spikes it’s a direct hit to On’s credibility and a boost to Nike. I don’t think you’ll find anyone at Nike hoping On athletes quit wearing Dragonfly’s.

Stock prices have nothing to do with this. On will suffer long term for this. They made a deal with the devil and On athletes are complicit. Don’t fool yourself thinking nobody notices.

No one is saying Beaverton is all torqued off about this. They think it's great. Why would Phil be pissed? One of the great groups in the US is Nike shod and he doesn't pay a dime. In fact, they actually buy the shoes!

For those that suggest Nike sucks, trainers especially, look I agree. I didn't run my first 20,000 or 30,000 miles in them; there's no force of habit or anything in some of our cases. But you're signing folks who went to Nike-funded college programs who also wore them in high school. Now, I realize this Nico kid (wears Nike - what he wore in HS - at 'Adidas school') has proven you don't have to toe the party line and wear whatever the school's 'official' brand, but these runners on OAC did.

So you have a gang many of whom have never worn a non-Nike shoe as of signing with On. Why would they train in them any time time there's not a camera around? I don't know; ask them. If it's what they wore in high school and college, maybe just inertia. And I suppose it is possible they really do train in On. You'd have to ask someone who has randomly run into them somewhere. I agree photos on any media are going to show them.

Let's say I give them the benefit of the doubt as far as training. (And there is doubt. They are former Nike wearers and current Nike racers. Sweat Elite isn't there with a camera every day.) It is possible, however, that they all wore On jogging around this morning.

OK, fine. I'll admit that could be the scene. When on the public stage, in front of guys like Gault and various press, you know what they race in. They admit it. Embarrassment for On. Paying them to wear Nike. They don't even wear adidas' groundbreaking spike. Of course uncle Phil has no beef with them! What a joke!