Why Would Saucony Drop Molly Seidel?

She has 74k instagram followers.

That is worth more than any of her running results.

And 15k Strava followers.

This time last year, she had a few hundred.

800 dude wrote:

And 15k Strava followers.

This time last year, she had a few hundred.

You get it, too bad so many professional runners don't.

Honestly never heard of Molly Seidel.

That’s okay - not everyone follows the sport.

What you mean is you're a nerd.

go_gunners wrote:

I recently purchased some Saucony running clothes and was surprised at how much I liked them, but they charge way too much. Same with the shoes. I am just as happy getting older models from an outlet of other brands.

I like Molly's story but what happens when there are no Olympics? I guess that's why she is getting the money when she can.

If you were willing to pay X dollars for some Saucony running clothes, and they turned out to be better than you expected, then you didn't overpay, you actually got a good deal.

Saucony's prices are right in line with other brands. And their Endorphin Pros are $25-$75 cheaper than their competition from Nike, Adidas, Brooks, and New Balance.

Truelove wrote:

Honestly never heard of Molly Seidel.

Footlocker winner, NCAA winner, Olympic Trials 2nd. What in the world are you doing on this site if you haven't heard of her???

Truelove wrote:

What you mean is you're a nerd.

And you're married to huge nerd.

TDK wrote:

Truelove wrote:

Honestly never heard of Molly Seidel.

Footlocker winner, NCAA winner, Olympic Trials 2nd. What in the world are you doing on this site if you haven't heard of her???

Easy answer: thought this was Jogger's World. Waddle on, Truelove.

Not really, because when I wear them, I still can't believe I paid $80 for it. I still feel like I got slightly ripped off, and now I won't buy any more.

So I like the Endorphins, but at first my legs hated them. They had a Hoka feel to them. I keep them around but wouldn't buy them again.

Don't even compare to Nike. Nike is garbage.

Once and only once I saw Shalane Flanagan on a big ad outside a Nike store. I don't think anyone knew who she was.

Most of the time it's like the rest of their website: I'm a teenager who's not tied to social norms. Buy these clothes despite my peers in other countries working in sweatshops.

Her radical leftist socialist views and refusal to support The President over real and clear election fraud probably soured her relationship with her sponsor.

Truelove wrote:

What you mean is you're a nerd.

Yea, all sports fans are nerds.

@TheRunningEffect wrote:

She made her first Olympic team, placed high at the London Marathon, and is very young in her career/has lots of potential left. She doesn't seem happy about them dropping her either based on her strava comment replies.

I just don't see why you'd drop one of the best American women marathoners. Makes no sense to me.

Knowing nothing about this I'd just assume she became too expensive for her to keep.

To say she was "dropped" to me implies she wasn't offered a contract. That to me is highly unlikely.

If she wanted to keep getting paid what she got paid and working as a barista, it's an no brainer they'd keep her. But at some point I hope she wants more money and the price presumably got to big for Saucony. Often the existing sponsor has the right to match offers from other companies so if that was the case here then the price got too expensive.

NFL isn't a perfect example as there is a salary cap but the Dallas Cowboys can't sign every player they want to have on their roster. They have to figure out how to best allocate their budget.

Ryan Hill with Nike likely was "dropped" ie they just said, "we're not going to pay you anywhere close to what you're getting now."

Only Molly and her agent know the extent of the negotiations - but if you are Saucony facing a potential 200K/year bill, or more, you have to consider what you're going to get in the future for this. They already have the bump from the olympic trials performance, and London, and Saucony does not have a lot of money to spend.

Molly will run in the olympics this year. Rule 40 still places some limits on how hard she can promote her sponsor. While she's at any official event, she'll be in her full USA gear, which isn't Saucony. Also, with the olympic marathon on August 7, she will not have many options to run a major fall marathon after that unless she wants to try New York. So for the most part, in 2021, between COVID and the Olympics, there are not going to be many new opportunities for her (including other fall road races).

If Saucony were to pay the money, they would really be banking on a decent performance in the Olympics and then a really strong performance in the Spring of 2022 ... for example in Boston. Although because Molly is an olympian, I'm sure London will be calling too.

All this stuff aside, I want to know what Saucony's overall budget is. I think they have a great thing in Molly. She is personable, has a great story, and runs very well. I think she also has great potential for the future. Even though 2021 is a bit of a wash, it would have been worth it to take the gamble on the next 4 years.

That's a really good point up there. She had a contract and yet still had to work as a barista. Now that she has results coming in Saucony doesn't match Pumas terms? It doesn't make sense. Maybe the deal wasn't better but Puma did not include reduction clauses. Someone with her injury history this would be a sticking point for both sides. At any rate Saucony lost out I'd say.

Banned in 60 Seconds wrote:

Second, perhaps Molly and her agent got too greedy? With her Trials and London results, they might have come to Saucony with too high a number. During negotiations, both parties could not come to an agreeable figure and both walked away. If Saucony doesn't feel that Molly creates additional demand for product, then it is not a justifiable outlay.

Too greedy? Sounds like her agent did what they're supposed to do.

I'll exaggerate numbers for effect:

Agent: We think Molly is worth $500k per year

Saucony: We think she's worth $100k per year

You're telling me the agent is supposed to say "Ok" and sign with Saucony?

No. They should look at negotiating something in the middle or looking at other companies. Sounds like that is what they did. At some point they might come back to Saucony and say "Puma thinks she's worth X do you want to match it?"

Considering Puma is trying to establish itself in the US after by and large not sponsoring any distance runners I can think of going to them is a good idea.

Points 1 and 3 are correct. She was offered over $200K/year from Saucony and turned it down because Puma offered more. Or maybe there was some other reason she wanted to go with Puma (can't think of what that would be), but Saucony definitely made her the offer and she turned them down.

Saucony would not drop her after the year she had and she would not turn down $200K without something else (Puma) in hand.