Speaking of egos, it's time to catch up with our running influencers friends!
It's the end of the year. So Kofuzi released the how much he makes on AdSense video. $59k, but that's not the most interesting thing. One of his highest performing videos was the Boston Marathon video. He tried to claim that the cost of the travel (since when has he paid for his own travel?) meant that he lost money on the video, but then thought better of it and said "But I charge appearance fees and other things that make the math work out, I'd have to check with my agent on it but I'm pretty sure I came out positive for Boston." Let's say he's charging $5k per appearance (and that's low in that world), did four appearances and got his travel comped, he may well have made $25k for the weekend. More than the Top Americans probably made! Why should people strive to be fast runners when they can make more money by not even running the race and just walking around with a camera screaming, "Let's Go!!!" Kofuzi is also sad that his channel is 91% male, and can't figure it out. Stop screaming "Let's Go," and definitely stop featuring Matt Choi and your women's viewership might increase! He also released his shoe of the year videos. He seems to have dumped Asics for Puma. I guess the free trip to Jamaica was that good! Of course the free Caribbean vacation is not disclosed in his shoe of the year videos. Bias works in obvious ways and that isn't that hard to understand.
The Believe in the Run crew isn't releasing their AdSense figures, probably because it isn't a significant source of revenue for them. They probably do as well, if not slightly better than Kofuzi, on the appearance fee junkets but don't hold a candle to him on AdSense. Thomas also hasn't come down from his high of the fact (at least in his mind) that the video he made ripping Brooks led to them making a Hyperion Elite 4 with PEBA foam. We may hear about that in every podcast for a year.
In content about actual running, not appearance fees and shoes, Spencer Brown AKA the Athlete Special stole a 5k while dressed as the Grinch, and impressively stayed in character for the entire video. Then he ripped an all out almost 1200 for 3 minutes. His partner Allie Ostrander is recovering from surgery.
The Greatest of All Time, AKA the Original Running ShoeTuber is making a video about how he is semi-retired from the YouTube review grind. He will wear your gear and maybe put it in a video if he likes it if you send it to him for the purposes of review but he isn't making a dedicated video on it. Basically he was pleading with brands to not send him stuff.
Phily Bowden is battling anemia and celebrating 100,000 subscribers.
Ben Parkes is making a video about how he spent £10,000 on running shoes last year. I don't know he might've got where he was going faster if he had bought say a car instead.
But in proof that the arc of the algorithm universe can still bend towards justice, Matt Choi's Instagram viewership has cratered since his New York fiasco. One of the top comments on his NY apology video is from none other than Kara Goucher who was immediately chided by her fans for defending him. Seems like someone reached out to her and asked her to stand up for him. I wonder if they have the same agent? Influencers being that important to agents. Welcome to the world that was in 2024.
Onto 2025, where there will surely be more free trips, e-bikes impeding runners and course volunteers, races in costume, health challenges, and maybe a PR or two. Happy New Year to all of our running influencers friends!