Hobbs Kessler to Adidas!

For anybody saying they hope adidas didn't just sign the next Drew Hunter, remember - adidas has like ... A LOT of money. They can afford to pump money into these HS people and when they find the next Galen, it'll all pay off for them.

King99 and Zat0pek in the same thread. I am flashing back to Dyestat days. Ritz, Webb and Hall, those were good times. Where is SteveU to ban those trolls giving King a hard time?

king999 wrote:

Exponentially more, if anyone thinks he is getting less than Drew Hunter, they need to know how to watch tape and read a result.

Calm down, man. Getting worked up about HS kids was never a good look. So what? Some people don’t have an idea of what the market for distance runners are. You seem to have some inside info, but that’s ultimately the problem with funding in our sport. Nobody actually knows, it’s all speculation and drives everyone’s price down. Hopefully the kid lives up to the record setting contract and Adidas starts making some decent shoes.

But how does it really pay off for adidas even if they are able to sign the next “Galen” at a young age? I just don’t see how Galen rip generates much money for Nike. Am I missing something? Sure he has fans that might be influenced by who he is so they’ll buy a pair of Nike spikes..but that’s it right? Galen is nowhere near the pull of a nba or nfl player..How are brands profiting off runners to the point where they would be offering them 100k+ a year. Is it just nice publicity for them to say a top pro runner has won medals in Nike shoes? Does that really generate 100k of value back for Nike? I just want to understand the financials for pro running does anyone have thoughts or insight (and I’m sure Galen makes way more than 100k due to who he is but my question still stands in my head as to why exactly he gets paid so much from Nike since he’s simply a pro runner and in grand scheme of things seems like he’d barely generate any money for Nike..?)

you take the cash, and put most of it in a trust, and give yourself living expenses, so as to not get spoiled, and keep hungry.

college is super goofy now.

degrees are quack quack.

grab the cash that is on the table now. take the biggest signing bonus.

and run baby.

the future is now.

not in 5 years when you have literally no clue.

100k is nothing to Nike or Adidas. They probably eat losses for most athletes they sponsor. But, having a diverse roster of athletes is important to advertise products at their target markets.

Individual athlete effect is probably weaker than the group effect. Having most of the top runners wearing Nike/Adidas shoes is what drives the sales. Less so when you have just 1-2 top athletes doing it. Simply, I think they are optimizing overall sales. They don't really care who is driving it (first it's hard to attribute the sales mathematically). This is likely especially true for T&F since their contracts are small compared to other sports like Basketball or even Tennis, where Federer was making ridiculous amounts of money (but, they can measure his worth given they had a TON of RF branded gear) lol

There's more to running a business than making money. Companies are corporate citizens. They have to justify making money off of citizens, and one way to do this is through sponsoring charities, sporting and entertainment events, and sports teams. It's the same as a prominant individual spending time and money to improve the quality of life for the community by making charity donations, coaching a youth sport, throwing parties.

People want the product but also demand good feelings when handing over the money. Supporting professional runners (and many other sports) in countries adidas does business gives them credibility in the running community and with casual runners too. It's probably also insurance for when PR crises happen like Salazar.

And it's cheap. In 2019 adidas' gross revenue was 27 billion dollars (Nike 37.2, NB 4.5, Brooks 11.8.) These amounts for public relations are a bargain.

100k is not a lot of money if you think about the scale that Nike is operating on. The Alphaflys are $275 and 100k divided by 274 is less than 400 pairs of shoes. I absolutely guarantee that 400 random runners saw Galen or some other runner running well in those shoes and bought a pair because of it. Every collegiate runner I race against has a pair of Nike spikes because of how good their pros are running. I really think Nike makes their money back especially because there's probably only a handful of runners that are actually being paid well.

johnnyonthespot2 wrote:

349534959375793 wrote:

Given that a cut of this will go to people like coach, agent, etc., is this really all that much? Plenty of young people making way more than this especially in NYC, SF bay area, etc. Most of my classmates did at least (admittedly I went to a top school).

It really isn't. Pro runners aren't getting rich. You can go into Tech or Finance and make a better living but you'll be grinding away at a computer many hours a day rather than doing something you love. Take the money to go pro and then pursue something else when you retire from competition.

It's a lot for a pro runner but not uncommon among young people who go into fields like tech (or certain finance places) and make 200k+. Also way to assume "you don't love it," plenty of people in tech love their jobs. Hobbs is going to be grinding as much if not more, and who knows how much he will still love it.

I seem to recall reading Alan Webb got put on a $200K contract and this was back in the early 2000s. So $50K as a base definitely seems a tad low even if college tuition is added on top!

Someone made a good point a few days ago that it's cheaper to sponsor runners than buy a bunch of commercial time. If NBC does a couple 30-second human interest pieces on Kessler and he's wearing adidas in some of those shots, then NBC is basically producing and airing adidas commercials for them. Plus, a lot of people just skip out on commercials, right?

Makes more sense to me why Nike would sponsor someone like Galen who isn't necessarily a fan favorite when you think about doing that instead of buying commercial time.

GreatDane1 wrote:

I seem to recall reading Alan Webb got put on a $200K contract and this was back in the early 2000s. So $50K as a base definitely seems a tad low even if college tuition is added on top!

I think these numbers are being put out there by high school, college, or young adult posters and the amount represents a good first year salary out of college.

cheaper than commercials wrote:

Someone made a good point a few days ago that it's cheaper to sponsor runners than buy a bunch of commercial time. If NBC does a couple 30-second human interest pieces on Kessler and he's wearing adidas in some of those shots, then NBC is basically producing and airing adidas commercials for them. Plus, a lot of people just skip out on commercials, right?

Makes more sense to me why Nike would sponsor someone like Galen who isn't necessarily a fan favorite when you think about doing that instead of buying commercial time.

The real winner here is Nintendo with all the free publicity Mario Kart is getting.

from the craddle wrote:

Let's hope Adidas doesn't end up with another Drew Hunter. Hope this HS superstar works out.

Honestly I can understand why LRC hates on Drew all the time but do you really think he hasn't provided any value to the brand? He's doing more for Adidas than guys faster than him who are winning medals.

A little ancient history wrote:

In the early 80s I was a pretty good, but no superstar, miler coming out of college. Nike offered me a $30k, plus incentives, contract 35-40 yrs ago. That's the equivalent of $80k+ today.

So you were being paid twice the money Jim Spivey was getting?

Hope adidas has a super shoe otherwise he’ll probably never see a 3:34 again.

The only way for Hobbs Kessler to make a place in the worldwide elite is to start with long distances and Cross Country (this is the little secret of that Pianotage).

The only way for Hobbs Kessler to make a place in the worldwide elite is to start with long distances and Cross Country (this is the little secret of that Norwegian).