How much does Nike pay Galen Rupp?

Rupp is running in a time with far more competition then the people of before, he could easily beat any American over 10k that has ever run the distance. Which creates the term greatest of all time. He is well on his way to being the best 5k runner of all time. This year I expect the 5k record to go down as well as his 1500 times. He outkicked Lagat who was fresh in the 5k last year who went on to get 4th after getting tripped up with 100 meters go to a breaking stride (he would have medaled). Rupp is amazing, don't deny it because you are stuck on the men of the past.

Grasp of Marketing?

He continues to be a household name, keeps getting faster and winning, he inspires the next generation of distance runners (AKA Pre), and he makes Nike a ton of money. They sell Rupp spikes, clothes, and trainers for years to come and make millions off of the 500k he makes off of them a year.

Please explain what is wrong with that idea?

crumpled paper wrote:

He continues to be a household name,

I actually LOL at this...hilarious.

More to the point - who cares if he is fast? He still loses most of the time. This is not a good story for marketing.

"than"Idiot.

crumpled paper wrote:

Rupp is running in a time with far more competition then

crumpled paper wrote:

He continues to be a household name, keeps getting faster and winning, he inspires the next generation of distance runners (AKA Pre), and he makes Nike a ton of money. They sell Rupp spikes, clothes, and trainers for years to come and make millions off of the 500k he makes off of them a year.

Please explain what is wrong with that idea?

What's wrong with that idea is that Rupp is not a household name (no distance runner is). What's wrong with the rest of your statement is that there's no evidence that Rupp has caused Nike to earn more money and sales.

I'm a big Rupp fan by the way. Let's congratulate him for the things that we know he has accomplished. Go Rupp!

20 million for a 7 year contract with Nike

troofiness wrote:

If these companies do pay runners $x00k, they are morons. The incremental value of one more elite athlete in Nike kit can be offset with another elite athlete who will do it for less.

Except that you also need to consider the impact of the best runners wearing a competing company's kit. Nike in particular could dismissed as "not for real runners" if they didn't have so much of the top talent in the sport. If it was Asics that was supporting AlSal's group you can bet the message would be "Runners wear Asics, unless they are just warming up for a basketball game."

Because Rupp trains in Pegasus, more local elite guys train in Pegasus. so more local mid-packers wear Pegasus (even if they don't know who Rupp is).

There is a very real $$$ value to not letting the other guys sponsor those athletes.

We absolutely do not know how much money Galen makes and we have no clue how much he is worth to Nike. What we do know is that the Joe joggers of the world walk into a running stores and buy what is the most expensive or what some HS kid who makes 7.85 an hour tells him too. The joe joggers don't know of Galen and if they did they would probably think he is a skinny little pus ssy...which may or may not be true. This is a sport of weekend warriors working on their fitness not a sport like Golf where rich white guys buy what they see on Phil Mickelson.

On TV you can't even see the shoes a runner except to compete in....how many hobby joggers buy spikes?

I think the question should be asked regarding paying runners anything. What value do they bring? Nike is not a private company and should have to show the worth that an athlete brings to the table. If they can't justify then why are they paying them?? I for one think we should know. We know tigers and rorys deals with Nike so why not some of these pissants!!

Exactly this. +1. Troofiness should study a little bit of game theory and strategy.

So if elfie doesn't get healthinsurance, those 38 TUEs, syringes, masks, transfusions and whatnot must really eat into the cake.

For the love of god... wrote:

I for one think we should know. We know tigers and rorys deals with Nike so why not some of these pissants!!

Do you really know their deals? Or have you only heard the rumors of what their deals are? Big difference.

Rupp is not marketable, he is not a "household name" - realize that you are running fans on a specific running site, not exactly the average consumer

Rupp is a sniveling twig, at least Webb had some muscles back in his mid-distance days.

Ok he won a medal, but it wasn't gold, and plenty of other Americans won medals, marketable athletes like hot gymnast girls and 6'5 buff guys like Phelps/Lochte

Realistek wrote:

Rupp is not marketable, he is not a "household name" - realize that you are running fans on a specific running site, not exactly the average consumer

Rupp is a sniveling twig, at least Webb had some muscles back in his mid-distance days.

Ok he won a medal, but it wasn't gold, and plenty of other Americans won medals, marketable athletes like hot gymnast girls and 6'5 buff guys like Phelps/Lochte

Unfortunately this is true. Chicks don't think he's hot, and guys don't want to be him. I can't say I remember a major Nike ad with Rupp in it.

Felix probably makes some decent jack. Armstrong made a killing off Nike.

I would thing Rupps total comp from all sources is high 6 figures.

Webb is better branded. People still care, and want him to succeed. Far more interest in him running a mediocre 5000 than for other Americans running in the 13:10-15 range.

They pay him, but in reality they own him. Galen has been employed by Nike since he was a high school sophomore. He's been raised by a personal professional coach paid for by the biggest sporting company in the world. He's received the NOP benefits from the very beginning. Galen Rupp is Nike-built and Nike-owned. I'm sure they pay him very well.

There is no marketability for people who don't race. Pro athletes have league schedules, etc. runners make up races with no audience.

If your talking marketability people know Pre, not Rupp. And he's dead.

Galen Rupp makes a lot of money. He's really good and you don't know what your talking about your probably just mad cause he ran faster his freshman year of high school than you ever will.

Webb was way more marketable and way better known and way more looked up to than Rupp. Everyone knows that Webb basically single-handedly (perhaps with a bit of help from Ritz) sparked the resurgence of American elite running. People cared much much more about Webb than they ever have about Rupp.

With that said, I'm sure Rupp must make more. Webb got 250k when that amount was crazy for an American pro's contract. But nowadays, at least from what I've heard through these message boards, American athletes with much less name recognition than Webb (no one has as much name recognition as Webb did) make more than he did. So I'm sure Rupp must be making a lot more than Webb ever did. Maybe I have bad information, but I remember on some thread here a while back people were saying Centro and Wheating make like over half a million a year, which is just insane, especially for Wheating, but if true it shows that American pro's make way more than they did a decade ago - if that is true if Webb came along today he'd probably be making 4 times what he did. But I don't know if those Centro/Wheating salaries are correct or not. Either way, still, I bet Rupp makes at least 300k.

This thread is strange.

Rupp is a great runner who I respect way more as an athlete than Webb. As people I'm sure I would have no problem with either.

What I like about Rupp is he is consistently the best and always improving. Rupp is a true master of his craft as a result of long term focus, hard work, and taking advantage of resources available to him.

Pretty inspiring from any perspective, athletic or not.