What will Adidas think about letting a Nike coach work with Nico Young

Nico Young is literally saying FU to Adidas being coached by a full time contract coach at Nike.
They do have this entire year to work things out before Smith is officially a Nike coach. So maybe things will evolve.

It’s crazy how the article said Mike Smith got permission to train a few non Nike athletes, but nothing about how adidas feels about the situation or if they are ok with it. The bottom line it’s a bad situation for Nico and Adidas next year. Especially if Nico wants to be the American distance poster child for Adidas. If that was Nico’s hope he can kiss that dream goodbye. It’s a sketchy way to start off your relationship with adidas being an adidas athlete in a brand new Nike group. It makes zero sense.

When you have the best recruits in the country it's pretty easy to have good results. He inherited a NCAA championship team and is in a place that good runners want to train. There is a list of runners that looked like they would do great things in college who didn't end up doing much of anything, and Rupp didn't exactly rise from the ashes under Smith. I'm not at all saying he's a bad coach, but I'm sure there are multiple others that would be just as good or better with the athletes he has. Nico was the best or one of the best high school grads ever, it's not shocking that four years later he's the second best active American at 10,000 meters.

Grant Fisher's high school coach is obviously doing things right, having made him fast in high school, then after his career stagnated at Bowerman elevated him to another level this year to win two olympic medals. Also Ron Warhurst for middle distance. Hobbs has continued to improve, becoming a 1:43/3:29 runner at the age of 21. Took Hoppel to a new level after a few years of stagnation to run the American Record. Ferlic got hurt, but helped him get to the olympics in 2021 and he wasn't exactly a high school stud and had to develop quite a bit to get there. Not to mention Nick Willis' long and successful career.

Usain Bolt was coached by Glen Mills, whom adidas supported, and all of Bolt’s training mates had adidas kit sponsorships. Do you recall Puma being livid about the arrangement? Neither do I.

Glen Mills did not coach a specific Adidas group. Being supported like Warhurst is with Adidas is not an adidas group. Mike Smith coaching an Adidas athlete in a Nike group is like Jerry coaching an Adidas athlete in BTC. It can’t and won’t happen.
Adidas definitely has their wheels turning right now with this Nico Young thing. It’s a bad look. Or should I say it will look bad

Look what happened to Grant Fisher. I wouldn’t be surprised if things changed in a years time. Mike Smith will be getting paid to coach Nike athletes to a world class level and win medals. Nike will use this as a marketing tool like they did at Oregon Project and Bowerman TC. Having an Adidas athlete will be a conflict of interest for Nike and Adidas.
Again a lot can change in a year with coaching for Nico and Adidas. It’s way early to make judgement on what they will do. Just because Smith has permission to work with certain non Nike athletes doesn’t mean he will.

Imagine working your job, but doing it at your biggest competitors office and under their manager. No way this works in the long term and Nike knows this which is why they accepted it to get the deal done. While Mike might coach these athletes, his ultimate loyalty will have to be with Nike athletes. This will show up in small subtle ways until the fissures grow too big.

I think Mike Smith getting the green light to grandfather certain athletes in his group is off. Nike had a chance at Nico and didn’t pay up and he went with Adidas. Smith is still in Adidas and at NAU this current year so no harm done for now. It’s will get sticky when this Nike group is up and running. If Nico starts breaking American records training with Nike in Adidas shoes is where things will go bad. Nike won’t be ok with Nico winning medals on the world stage in adidas as Mike Smith is paid by Nike. The best thing for Nike is if Nico runs well but never gets really good and doesn’t take success away from the group. This is a business and there is no way this will work out. Mike Smith is already saying I’m not loyal to Nike and he hasn’t even started yet.

Why would Adidas be upset? That literally makes no sense.

If Nico does well, they have a top athlete wearing their shoes and the competition’s coach? Adidas doesn’t sell coaches, they sell shoes and Nico beating Nike athletes in Adidas shoes is what they want, this is like gravy.

Nike probably isn’t super happy, but at the same time if they think he’s the best coach, at least this is putting their athletes on a more level playing field.

Nike should do everything they can to buy out Nico's contract.

One will come to realistic conclusions when they finally accept that things have radically changed. Smith’s job now—what his employer is paying him to do—is to put Nike athletes on the podium.

If an athlete from a different sponsor also wants to be trained by Smith, then that athlete better settle up with the reality of what Smith is being payed to do.

This situation won’t pan out down the road. It’s a marketing disaster for Nike. Whom we are assuming is paying Mike Smith a high salary and assuming the group will have a generous budget for Nike athletes. Not a chance having an Adidas athlete in their top Nike group pans out next year.

I’m the CEO of Nike but I’m going to guide Adidas employees to have success for their company.

Yeah this is a good situation for sure 😂

Since when is a 26:58 runner a top runner?

This is exactly correct. This will not work long term. The good thing they have this entire year to transition and figure things out.

How in the world did you come to the conclusion Smith is saying he isn’t loyal to Nike? I doubt they would even pay him if that is the case.

Let’s get real. It is obvious this is difficult for some of you to accept, because 24hrs later we are still getting ridiculous assertions. How can Nike not be anything but elated with this?

Nico is the only college athlete ever to run under 13min in the 5000m. He actually ran 12:57 indoor and broke the NCAA record. He ran 26:52 to break the NCAA record and is the third fastest 10000m US runner is history. He also ran 1:47 and 3:34 in college. He made the Olympic team at 21 years old. I’d say he’s a top US distance runner and had the potential to be the best.

I’m surprised John Capriotti was dumb enough to sign this deal with Mike Smith allowing him to coach and guide an Adidas athlete to success under the Nike’s dime. I also thought Cap made good choices. He must be losing it in his old age.

I don’t think Capriotti is in this position anymore. Whoever is the new person may have some screws loose.

runningmagazine.ca

John Capriotti steps down from Nike - Canadian Running Magazine

Madeleine Kelly

The decades-long head of track and field at Nike has retired

Open link