Jenny Simpson signs with Puma

Unfortunate comment. Just keep your comment to yourself and have kids. Why slug it out on the message board?

Puma have tried several times to crack the UK market - and each time they've failed miserably.

I thought New Balance didn't sponsor men but I guess they really only sponsor young women.

The shoe-buying public aren't athletes and they don't care what track people wear on their feet.

Why? Umm.... because she likes running, is super fast, and doesn't want to stop.
Poor trolling 1/10

Give road racing a try? She won the 5th Aveenue mile multiple times, I think 8, and that was run on roads.

I think they're talking about 5k and up. Maybe even up to the marathon.

Rod Dixon was an 800/1500 guy who moved up and eventually ran a great marathon.

And he ran road races all over the place- making money and making the sport more popular than most people on this board can imagine- You're too young.

The 1980's were the Golden Age. People watched on TV, from the curb along the course and hung out with the athletes after the race in the food tent.

Our top runners now rarely race.

Sounds to me that NB is really pulling back from sponsoring professionals. They got hurt badly by being passed by in the super shoe arms race and probably decided to sponsor races instead of individuals. Jenny probably got lowballed and felt insulted and put herself on the market.

NB used to have a whole crew of women. No more. Having second-tier shoes hurts.

good on Jenny . But a little sad that she couldn’t retire with NB. And that shoe tech is so important now.

New Balance has great shoes.

Jenny Simpson is FINISHED. She is now a mediocre national class runner and it is only going to get worse. Let us be real here.

I like NB shoes, but Puma's are just as good. I wear both.

I wonder if NB is pulling back in general, or they lowball Jenny because she isn't big on social media.

Why not just have grandkids, a replacement knee and continue to slug it out on the roads?

Well fair enough - they may be good but fast people are not wearing them.

I *never* see NB shoes on the feet of fast people in the large local competitive races I do.

Can you name someone running world class times in NB shoes? Coburn? Anyone else? Just seems NB got passed by in the supershoe revolution.

She got on the wave, rode it and found a way to extend it. You were never on any waves, bro. In fact, you never even dipped a toe in the water.

All of them are comparatively irrelevant in the US market, which is what Puma is hoping to penetrate and expand with the Cragg group in NC. Simpson may have been lowballed by NB but she can still be plenty useful to Puma. Her accomplishments speak for themselves, she has few peers in that realm in the sport. She gets in the press often enough and has a good social media following. And even if the shoe buying public aren’t athletes, they sure do watch them on tv. She can put the firefighting career on the back burner for a while.

my guess is that Puma wants to get a group going and Jenny will slide into coaching it. In other words, I think this is more about Jenny's post-racing career than anything else. A group of young fast women in Boulder, coached by legend Jenny Simpson? Sounds like a good plan.

If ON can do it with so much success, so can Puma.

A few points of order: 1) What women have left New Balance lately? I think of NB as only sponsoring women on the distance front in the US but I can't think of major ones that have left.

2) What's wrong with their shoes? Doesn't their track spike get really good reviews? Nick Willis was praising it last year and Jake Wightman won Worlds in it. Not sure what they have in terms of a super road shoe but I doubt that had anything to do with Jenny's decision.

Because she still feels the competitive fire and wants to see how she stacks up in a different arena? Just smh at clods such as yourself.

NB is solid with Syd, Jake and rising star MacLean. Simpson's departure clears the way for future Nico & Katelyn signings.