The Trials and Tribulations of Running YouTubers

I’ll have to check this out. It’s fascinating to me how much a 2.17 marathon can counteract looking like a ginger

He's probably a hero in the Battersea run clubs -- however, I doubt his 2.17 marathon helps him. It's probably more he is the embodiment of what they all aspire to be: a influencer!

I think Phily might be put in an awkward position. Dropped by ON and unlikely to get another big money major sponsor with the times that she ran last year. All the signs point towards a Runna shill collab, with the only 'elite athlete' to have a more embarrassing showing at world majors Anya Culling.

However she has made a few videos where she hints at the fact that Runna isn't very good and obviously has her own coaching platform and so will be faced with a big decision to follow her morals and believe in her own coaching talent or to shill out and take the final step into becoming a runfluencer final boss.

247 or similar brands often work in this space because there’s a gap in understanding of elite running culture.
Brands with deeper knowledge usually spot the red flags early and move on.

Hey, I'm not in Philly fan club but she's a club athelete and coach who respects the sport. She's zainy, a can be a little annoying (although she does have ADHD so I feel a bit unfair saying that) but Runna. No, no, no, she is a former grass roots runner, already doing financially well for herself, and respects coaching.

I can't quite explain why but I really dislike Runna and those in that community.

A lot of assumptions there. Her post on instagram hints that something else is already lined up. Brands are throwing big money at influencers and value them more than elite athletes - I wish this wasn't the case, but thats the way the world works. Phily is in a unique position of being both and probably knows how much Runna and all the 'trendy' brands would pay her, so my guess would be that she asked for more money and then found somone else who would meet her demands when ON wouldn't. ON are very big on influencer marketing, I can't imagine they wouldn't want to resign her, even if just on an influencer contract rather than whatever hybrid deal she's been on.

This is not an endorsement of her content, its been woefully bad recently. I just think some running fans think times matter more than reach with brands, but that's only the case for the top 1%, with everyone else it just comes down to most bang for their buck with their marketing budget.

Phily is destined to be a Lulu athlete. Nicki Hiltz glazing, oversized athletes, female empowerment and anything to fill a stardust doughnut is exactly up her street.

I’m confident that off the back of her On contract, she could sign for a massive sum to Lululemon because she would be an easy replacement/upgrade to Anya Culling to that type of brand.

Yeah I'm pretty sure Phily leaving ON is her own choice. Why would ON not be happy with her performance? Phily's influence has only grown, her videos are being watched by their target market.

I could see one of the newer/trendier brands paying her quite a lot to partner with her. I'm going to guess SaySky.

I can't imagine there are any shortage of shoes brands who would want to support Phily. My guess is Brooks or Puma.

Sorry, Missed a chunk out: I’d love to see the back of gurning Anaya Culling at every major marathon and Battersea Park shill-fest event! However, I can’t see her going anywhere soon — she seems to have very high engagement, which is all these brands care about.
I also can’t see Phily going to Runna. Unlike Mo, Mary, and the other shills, she can’t really pretend to use it if she has a coach and goes on training camps.

who is still sponsoring anya culling? shes been nothing more than a hobby jogger since Nick bester used to pacemake her round every race.

zero decent performances for yearssssssss now. i cant see any value in sponsoring her and would have thought she'd gone back into the corporate world to be wheeled out as a superstar for the 2 weeks before London every year about her heroic journey from jogger to elite... they also need to talk about the sequel of her going back to bein g a jogger

My guess is that On offered her a renewal but she got a better deal with another brand. Could be Hoka, could be Puma (yes their shoes are fast but their sales absolutely sucked last year so they could want to experiment with hybrid influencer-running type deals), could be Saucony, could be Decathlon. Could be Adidas (they already sponsor a couple hybrid influencer-running male athletes). Could be Mizuno (they seem to be going big at the influencer train). Probably isn't New Balance.

The goal of the running companies isn't to have the fastest times (other than hoping their race flat is worn in a world record). It's to sell shoes. And to somebody with three kids, 45 and a full time job paying six figures hoping to break 25 in the 5k, all that really matters from a marketing perspective is whether the person pitching her on whatever shoe knows more about running than she does And because of how running works, anybody who runs sub 7 minute pace for a 5k fits the bill. And maybe even some people who run 8 minute pace. I mean Mizuno and Skechers collaborate with Track Club Babe all the time, she must sell shoes for them.

Lululemon. She sells lots of crop tops and bun huggers for them for the reasons I explained above.

yeah bruh, BIG MONEY. we're talking HUNDREDS of dollars here

The Fast-R 3 releases were a joke. In the UK they were selling out in <1min if the vendor sent an email to alert customers, ok that's fine to happen once or twice. Still happening after four releases would suggest they could just get more stock out there to meet demand?

One of the later releases (SaySky version) the new stock dropped around midnight with SportsShoes, who hadn't sent an email but bizarrely they were only showing stock in womens' sizes. ProDirect also sent no email, so you could purchase at your leisure if you'd worked out they were there. Start Fitness did email, released stock at 8am, most sizes out of stock within minutes. Puma? Never showed any stock through their website/app.

Probably the most wanted shoe for the last year, but the release was like watching an episode of The Apprentice where one team have the best product by a mile and still somehow manage to lose.

I think there are some concrete things that are easy to dislike about runna - especially the plans themselves. Of the people that are sponsored by runna to go to whatever race their conversion rate to hit their targets is probably worse than 50/50 from what I've seen. Having seen other people doing their plans, and used one of the trail codes to peek at the app the plans seem pretty whack. Targeting a 2:19 marathon and it's telling me to run like 45 miles a week even at the "advanced level", and only in week 6 or something introducing tips like "think about fueling on your runs". Looking at the runna subreddit people who can barely run - like 35-40 minute 5ks are saying they need to game the algorithm and ask for aggressive high mileage plans. Stupid. Anya culling running pretty equivalent times is not getting any utility out of an app with that little flexibility or advanced training nouse despite her socials suggesting she does.

The co founder lying about his marathon pb every time he ever gets a chance is pretty poor behaviour, and having "coaches" with no coaching qualifications similar. I think grates the most for me.

Also the general vibe is just bad - again I think this forum isn't the target market but the influencer insta girly type stuff doesn't work for me.

Bester to run Tokyo Marathon.

This seems like a flawed methodology. Comment counts are susceptible to trolls (both positive and negative). It's not too far-fetched to suggest that some of these influencers are in this thread and arguing on behalf of themselves; others may be a victim of a salty troll who doesn't like them/disparages them for whatever reason.

A better methodology of thread sentiment might be to combine upvote/downvote numbers with positive/negative comments. If a negative comment gets heavily downvoted, that seems to indicate that the thread is probably actually in favor of the subject, and vice versa.

This must have taken a lot of work, so I hope this doesn't come across as overly critical.

She’s perfect runna girl material, some pink washed brand like sweaty betty for those who run 12 minute miles might like her too to rope in the girlies