how much do pros make? all all the tinman elite guys sponsored? guesses on hocker and tear salary?

I’m 29 years old thank you for asking :p

You shouldn't use Hunter as a baseline for figuring out the Nike salaries. Nike will often give lower offers than other companies because they are Nike and know they have the best shoes, training groups (at least historically), etc. Nike is also the most aggressive with their reductions if athletes don't perform well - so gaps between year 1 and year 2-3 comp can be larger than other companies that don't reduce as aggressively.

Smaller companies often invest more money in fewer athletes. For example Drew Hunter with Adidas, Jenny Simpson with New Balance back in the day, Colleen Quigley with Lululemon, Justyn Knight with Reebok, Kessler with Adidas - all got a lot more than they would have with Nike. Quigley said she got 3x her Nike base with Lululemon with the same performance incentives.

Also keep in mind that athletes' compensation is based on their perceived potential at the time they signed their contract and not necessarily based on recent performance. Those are likely more aligned than usual right now since it's right after an Olympic year when a lot of athletes had contract renewals. However until this year someone like Woody Kincaid likely wasn't making much since he wasn't perceived as a top talent when he would have signed his contract a few years ago.

How would Nike know? That's like saying Google knows how much th employees at Microsoft and Apple make.

I have some inside info here. Drew is obviously making great money. Reed and Sam are the only other ones on contract and they are on less than 30k a year. The rest of them are on gear and travel from being employees of tinmom "elite" and they have either part time jobs or they get money from mommy and daddy.

Athlete sponsorship, whether it's Cole Hocker or a 2nd string bench warmer on the Celtics, is all about building brand image and marketing. Period. It's not about selling X amount or Y% increase in running or basketball shoe sales. If Nike feels that Cole Hocker can bring the swoosh great exposure to sports fans who are active and buy anything they sell, from running shoes to golf gloves, then they'll make an offer they feel is competitive in the market for available athletes based on their determination of current and potential exposure for that athlete. If you're Noah Droddy (nothing against him, he's just known for making an example of himself) and you're hardly ever seen on-camera - still or video - in national or international press (sorry, IG doesn't count unless you have at least high 5-digit followers) then your level of visibility isn't going to bring much value to a brand and your offers will reflect that.

Based on offers accepted and counter offers submitted. Or agents basically tell them.

MS and Apple often publish salary range for job openings, it's not that hard to find out this information.

This is a terrible example. Google knows exactly how much Apple/Microsoft are paying for similar roles. Its not a secret.

No they don't and the shoe companies don't know either. My son recently switched companies in the tech industry. He was making $120k. He received offers from 2 different companies for similar jobs at $110k and $175k.My son didn't know what his coworkers were making at his previous company nor does he know what his coworkers are earning in his new company. And the companies don't know either. My wife is a hiring manager in an accounting firm. She often comments to me that she wished she knew what applicants were earning.

I thought there was quite a lot of money around at the moment. I know someone who makes 90k base. And he's nowhere near the names mentioned here.

He lied to you.

Gusman also has a contract

It’s very easy to figure out the compensation for a big company that has a lot of people at a certain position (for example, software engineer at Google). Like other posters said, companies find out when negotiating offers or through other resources. There are plenty of resources online too (Glassdoor, forums, etc.).

For shoes companies it’s harder but they have some data points, with the most helpful ones being contract negotiations when athletes are choosing work brand to go with. Definitely harder than a big company like those you mentioned.

Yeah, I've always thought it's weird with all the bashing of runners chasing their dreams while being supported by their parents. Makes me think there's a lot of people who are bitter that their parents didn't/couldn't pay to support them for a few years so they could chase faster times, or bitter that they weren't good enough to chase those times.

To me, the goal of making a bunch of money would be to set my kids up well and give them more freedom to enjoy life. Paying for their living expenses for a few years while they chase their dream of running fast seems like exactly what I'd want to do. That way they could hang up the spikes and move on from running knowing they'd done all they could.

My background - been drinking buddies with two different agents and also friends with a national federation physio so I build up some good gossip over the years (and have leaked some news a couple times over the years on here).

There is massive variability with contracts.

Some of the biggest variables dont even have anything to do with either talent or instagram following: two big things are nationality and timing.

Country:

Athlete A is an American in a less popular discipline. Never won a US title but made a few teams. Almost never does Diamond Leagues, and in peak shape is maybe 8-10th in the world.

Athlete B is not American in one of the most popular disciplines. Consistent top 5 finisher at global champs, consistent Diamond League competitor, top 20 all time in their discipline.

The same sponsor offered Athlete A $200,000. Athlete B got offered $70,000.

Another example that pulls in timing as well as nationality would be Athlete C, a recent NCAA champion who while still collegiate almost made team USA for a global games. They went pro, signing the week after US champs for $250,000.

Athlete D had run the marginally faster at a younger age than Athlete C and had already made multiple global champs, but were not American. They didn't have an agent until after making these national teams, and were looking for a contract several months removed from their best performances. They got shoe only offers from two sponsors and $10,000/year from another.

Years later, Athlete C is yet to PR post college, Athlete D is consistently among the top 10 fastest athletes in their discipline in any given year (they're on a better deal now thank God). Athlete B and D also aren't East African FYI.

Even within the USA, timing is a huge factor. Another athlete I know once got offered a contract extension at $300,000/year following Doha 2019 to kick in before their contract expired Dec 2020. They turned it down figuring they could get more money as a "free agent" in 2021 if they had a good Olympic performance in 2020. Of course, covid hits in March, Tokyo is postponed, and the same company that offered $300,000 in October 2019 offered $125,000 January of 2021.

Being a pro runner to the extent these guys are where they do nothing else is a dream at a serious expense; you are not investing for your future. What's gonna happen to legit the entire tinman squad after they burn out after getting too old at age 34? Get a sub par job, smoke weed and hip around the Boulder joint? If that's what you want then by all means, but I think it's smarter to pursue running post college if you want while maintaining a part or even full time career, so you can become a decent runner while moving up in work so you can make 200k a year in your 50s as opposed to 50k a year. Without a plan like that, there is no chance they are able to retire later in life, and boy will that suck

This was a terrible clickbait article. It was all speculation. No real numbers.

If parents can support them, they will never be in need of anything.

What about Rupp? When does his contract come up? Or even if he is on the down side of his career will Nike have some kind of job for after he retires? Is he Nike for life?