What ever happened to the Saucony Freedom Track Club?

No idea but it's ridiculous that a brand along the likes of Saucony has less track clout than something like ON Athletics...

Add UA to the list.

Training Groups are difficult. Training Groups with shoe deals NEVER last. Shoe companies are fickle. Asics dropped Mammoth and they have never been the same. Reebok dropped Zap. and they have never been the same.

Reebok dropped the Enclave and the group ended. Same with Hoka and NY/NJ. Even Nike and The Farm Team.

There are many others that fall into this same category like Stotan.

Success or failure of these groups have nothing to do with whether or not shoe companies continue to support them.

It has everything to do with whether the shoe company thinks the group helps to sell shoes or somehow add to the authenticity of the brand.

Helen is being coached now by Molly Huddle's husband, I believe. Not sure about the rest except Molly S obviously.

That was a weird group. Never really had any social media presence or any other way to follow them. Never seemed like Saucony was really committed to its success.

trees wrote:

Helen is being coached now by Molly Huddle's husband, I believe. Not sure about the rest except Molly S obviously.

That was a weird group. Never really had any social media presence or any other way to follow them. Never seemed like Saucony was really committed to its success.

That is just tying up loose ends. The group is gone. We will see this same fate with Puma and any other brand that does not sell their shoes in mass to the running community. Tim Broe never understood this.

hard to sell wrote:

Add UA to the list.

Training Groups are difficult. Training Groups with shoe deals NEVER last. Shoe companies are fickle. Asics dropped Mammoth and they have never been the same. Reebok dropped Zap. and they have never been the same.

Reebok dropped the Enclave and the group ended. Same with Hoka and NY/NJ. Even Nike and The Farm Team.

There are many others that fall into this same category like Stotan.

Success or failure of these groups have nothing to do with whether or not shoe companies continue to support them.

It has everything to do with whether the shoe company thinks the group helps to sell shoes or somehow add to the authenticity of the brand.

Don’t forget Adidas pulling the plug on McMillan Elite. The list is endless.

How many groups with shoe company backing have lasted more than a decade?

I don't know about a decade, but Hoka NAZ Elite is still going strong after all these years, as is Hansons Brooks.

They didn't spend a lot of money on this.

hard to sell wrote:

Add UA to the list.

Training Groups with shoe deals NEVER last.

Oregon Track Club

Bowerman Track Club

NAZ Elite

NB Boston

Brooks Beasts

Who has the inside knowledge wrote:

I remember Saucony made a big deal about it in 2017. In their initial press release they were suppose to be coached by Tim Broe with a roster of:

Molly Seidel

Helen Schlachtenhaufen

Paige Kouba

Tim Ritchie

Brian Shrader

Tommy Curtin

MJ Erb

James Randon

Obviously we know Molly Seidel ended up leaving the group cause it was clear she didn't like Broe's coaching and she left the brand all together but are any of these athletes even still in the sport or even sponsored by Saucony? It seems like the biggest fail and waste of money of a training group in track & field history.

The left has taken away all our Freedoms.

That's Saucony.

Droddy & Stinson's Communal Bong wrote:

That's Saucony.

Saucony’s sponsorship rollback really is weird. Usually we see these sorts of things when brands are out in the wilderness and struggling to keep up in the running market (see: Asics a few years ago, Reebok several years before that, Under Armour right now).

But Saucony is one of the most competitive brands right now in terms of running product. Perhaps they haven’t been able to translate good product into sales — if you’re reading this, Saucony, I did my part and bought into the Speed hype. But you’d think a sports marketing investment would help on that front!

Here you have a Boston-based running brand making really quality product and they can’t match an offer from a German company to retain their hometown star?

What does Saucony’s sponsorship program look like when Molly Huddle and Jared Ward inevitably retire?

Apparently, Saucony lost Seidel's trust when they reduced her significantly at a time when she had physical issues keeping her from racing much. It's justified and understandable that Saucony didn't see her potential at that time. Yet that drove why she was never going to re-up with Saucony.

Their marketing seems all over the place, which probably leads the poor execution of Freedom TC and then sponsorship rollback. Seems like it should have been easy for them to do what the likes of Tinman Elite has done in terms of marketing content via multiple channels but here we are.

Doesn't look like sales are doing great. While other brands are struggling with supply chain in the past year, the Endorphin Speed 1 and Pro 1 have been on discount for months once the 2nd versions of those showed up. Have they even tried the influencer route? Parky Stinson probably isn't cutting it.

Good point re: Endorphin line discounts. What’s crazy is that they’re great shoes! This is exactly where marketing would be helpful.

Imagine if Seidel, freed from Rule 40 and with an Olympic medal around her neck, was telling everyone to buy Endorphins right now.

Yep, the Endorphin Speed is fantastic, a huge upgrade in experience from when I last wore Saucony about seven years ago. If I were buying a supershoe racer, I would get the Pro based just on how much I like the Speed. They got lots of love from the shoe reviewers like Believe In The Run last year and yet there was clearly a surplus for any number of reasons.