The Trials and Tribulations of Running YouTubers

Anyone know if Bester is racing this weekend?

Probably a full send parkrun with a pro episode 3. I know he’s signed up to Brighton Phoenix 10k on Wednesday but whether he is toeing the line or not remains to be seen.

While anyone with a brain would find them both disgusting, do you really think Ko and Tommy have alienated their audiences? Their stupid shake outs and meet ups seem more popular than ever.

It's the 163,000 Instagram followers that they're living off of. They also claim their podcast is really popular. But the views on that on YouTube are so low that I have my doubts. But who knows, maybe a bunch of hobby joggers listen to them on Spotify.

Kofuzi's video views plateaued then declined over the past year. His Runna series, especially its last video, seemed to have irritated at least some in his audience from the comments. The views on it and his travel videos are lower this year. And his shoe reviews are 15-25,000 on average. He was getting 40k not that long ago.

The Believe in the Run podcast is a complete and utter disaster. Their shoe review videos are lucky to break 5,000 views these days. Some of their podcasts, at least on YouTube, are under 2k. They seem to be transitioning to having a Baltimore-focused running club they can make money off. And then there's Summer Grift. They haven't sold out, though it's all profit to them bc Asics gave them the swag. It's the Summer and Winter Grifts and the Instagram Account that they're living off of IMO.

This summer grift thing is utterly bizarre to me. The leaders are doing like 200 miles a week, meanwhile robbe can barely hit 25. I don’t understand it.

Considering that these brands have limited funds to spend on sponsorship, I wonder if influencers being sponsored means that there is less money out there for professional athletes looking for sponsorship.

Superfans of the pod want the tshirt, I guess. I do have to give them credit to modernizing selling merch.

I'm assuming those 163,000 are mostly bots and have been "bought" to help them?

Predictions for Bester’s 10k tomorrow?

If RTJ took less than $60k/year from Brooks, I'd be disappointed. That's probably less than they'd pay a social media intern. I'm also curious what the exclusivity agreements are in his contract. If they prevent him from taking other sponsors, then that amount should be much higher because they'd be restricting his earning potential. It has to be worth it.

SJD viewer numbers are rock bottom. He cannot be making anything substantial from YouTube. I think that people are also getting wise to the fact that he is a trust funder and that his whole “brand” is just an ego exercise designed to cover that fact. Eventually, the common person with a job and responsibilities will tire of his shtick. It must be nice to have family money invested on your behalf, a million dollar house, and nothing to do all day but play running guru on camera. With the economic uncertainty and layoffs going on, people are going to resent him as they scramble to provide for their households.

Based on his last video talking about growing up as a hick in upstate new york, im guessing the family money isnt from his side.

SJD is basically harmless compared to the likes of Kofuzi and Thomas from Believe in the Run. SJD sells coffee mugs and every once in a while an American-made singlet or a Dgr hat. Kofuzi sells payday loans you can use to buy said coffee mugs, singlets and hats. Thomas sells whatever gear a company paid him to fly around the world to shill.

It's hard to tell because Instagram hides the followers of verified businesses. I did look at the sampling provided by Instagram and roughly 10% of those had rando numbers in their user name, no photo, both, or nonsensical user names. Lol. If they showed us all the followers, I'd try to find the Thomas' sock puppet account. Instead I think I'll listen to the pod, which is apparently thick, sticky and soupy this week.

Kofuzi picks up the local 5k age group win in 19:36 this morning! Andy's for everyone!

It still astonishes me how someone could run that high mileage consistently for so long, with no major injuries to speak of, and still be so slow. For awhile a few years ago, the dude was consistently running 100mpw, and barely cracking 20 in the 5k. I'm close to his age and have no real talent. If I could run that kind of mileage, I'd be in the 16s at least.

Sub 20 for a M45 guy is a solid time. But it makes him ringing the PR Bell at the Runna PR Stunt (pun definitely intended) all the more ridiculous. Over a minute slower than he was at that shameless event.

30:26

I think the heat is going to make it very tough

For a guy whose job is running the guy barely runs