Why did Nike drop Meb?

Meb thought he was worth more than he actually was. Nike can't pay all the delusional athletes the insanely high salaries they are asking for.

come at me BRO wrote:

Meb thought he was worth more than he actually was.

You mean Meb thought he was worth what a white athlete would be for the same achievements. Right?

Let's review:

Olympic silver.

NYCM champion.

That's about as it gets for US distance runners.

Dropping Meb during an isolated bad year was just pathetic, and shows the kind of company that Nike is. You simply wouldn't see Puma abandoning their biggest performers, for example.

the smartest letsrunner wrote:

come at me BRO wrote:

Meb thought he was worth more than he actually was.

You mean Meb thought he was worth what a white athlete would be for the same achievements. Right?

Let's review:

Olympic silver.

NYCM champion.

That's about as it gets for US distance runners.

Dropping Meb during an isolated bad year was just pathetic, and shows the kind of company that Nike is. You simply wouldn't see Puma abandoning their biggest performers, for example.

Nike can do whatever the hell it wants. If it speculates that a sponsored athlete is getting past his prime and a better investment would be in the emerging talent, then it can do that. It just turned out in this situation that may have been a poor decision.

I always surprised how people on these boards think a sponsorship is almost a right for someone. A company that sponsors athletes does so because it sees a potential to make money from the deal.

The real reason ? He's simply not all that marketable. Americans can't relate to him as they would to someone like Ritz, Hall or Rupp. They simply see another African distance runner.

Even his new company,Skechers, knows this. That's why they used a dog instead of him in their Super Bowl commercial.

come at me BRO wrote:

Meb thought he was worth more than he actually was. Nike can't pay all the delusional athletes the insanely high salaries they are asking for.

Right. It's not that hard to figure out what happened. Anyone who thinks Meb was dropped outright by Nike, or was passed over for being "unmarketable" (in other words "black") needs to explain why Abdi has been with Nike all these years. Abdi had a longer dry spell than Meb on top of having achieved far less than Meb. Yet he's still with Nike and Meb is not.

The answer is Abdi is willing to stay with Nike for less money, and Meb wanted more than Nike was willing to pay. Meb is with Skechers because Skechers offered more than everyone else did.

I think Nike wanted Meb, but not for the price that Meb (or his brother/agent) was asking. Supposedly, Nike just wouldn't offer what Meb was asking.

Since the amount of Nike's offer and the amount of Meb's demands are not public, you can't judge whether Meb was asking more than he was worth, whether Nike was lowballing him, or exactly why they couldn't get together. The fact that Meb wasn't picked up by another big name shoe company suggests that Meb was asking for more than the market would bear, but the information to judge that isn't public.

I disagree that Meb isn't marketable. He has a silver medal, a great story, an interesting book, makes an effort to market himself and connect with the running public, and is an all-around nice guy by all accounts. Even so, he's not Usain Bolt and can't just name his price.

I think that Meb is marketable as well, but I think it's a fair argument to say he's not as marketable as some of his peers. My point was that some people have argued that Meb was dropped because he's foreign-born and black, and therefore not as marketable as Rupp or Ritz. That's not what happened.

Rodeo Clown wrote:

I disagree that Meb isn't marketable. He has a silver medal, a great story, an interesting book, makes an effort to market himself and connect with the running public, and is an all-around nice guy by all accounts. Even so, he's not Usain Bolt and can't just name his price.

It would certainly help if he spoke fluent English. How was that guy able to take classes at UCLA? That, and of course his age...odds are going down and so are the contract $$$.

the smartest letsrunner wrote:

Dropping Meb during an isolated bad year was just pathetic, and shows the kind of company that Nike is. You simply wouldn't see Puma abandoning their biggest performers, for example.

bartz wrote:

Nike can do whatever the hell it wants...A company that sponsors athletes does so because it sees a potential to make money from the deal.

Yes, of course Nike CAN ditch a loyal athlete after years of partnership and unparalleled success. You are only furthering my point.

Other companies (Puma is the example I gave earlier, but there are many) believe in loyalty even if it interferences with the bottom line by a the equivalent of one or two salaries out of millions in profits.

This was so gross PRECISELY BECAUSE Meb's shoe contract would not make or break Nike. The money they refused to pay would not have been even slightly felt by shareholders, but it certainly was felt by America's most successful distance runner of the past decade.

Absolutely gutless move by whoever showed Meb the door rather than the money. And now that paper-pusher is beyond embarrassed, hopefully fired, while Meb is representing the US in his third Olympics.

This is the same Nike that stood by Lashawn Merritt.

The same Nike that has no problem marketing Allyson Felix, Walter Dix, Bernard Lagat, Sanya Richards-Ross...

Allyson is with Nike (for $1 million) because she was not willing to accept the offer Adidas made. Nothing at all wrong with Meb doing the same thing. Asafa Powell also did this (from Nike to Li Ning).

the smartest letsrunner wrote:

Other companies (Puma is the example I gave earlier, but there are many) believe in loyalty even if it interferences with the bottom line by a the equivalent of one or two salaries out of millions in profits.

You're kidding, right? All of these companies are businesses first and foremost. All have shown loyalty to certain athletes over the years regardless of performance, but all have also dropped athletes because of the bottom line. There are many, many examples, but one recent one is Adidas dropping Bauhs despite his making the World team last summer. Without much trouble, the posters on this forum could come up with countless examples of athletes from all companies getting cut or not having a contract renewed. As others have pointed out, it's quite possible Nike offered Meb a very nice contract, but he simply thought he deserved more. There seems to be no evidence that Nike "ditched" Meb.

Does anyone think the chip Nike put on his shoulder might have served as a useful training aid? Motivation to push through a long tempo in training? A reminder not to skip a stretching session?

Maybe even something that allowed him to run on a little bit of hate as he surged to break away from Hall?

Oh well it has worked out fine for him. Would he still run in Nike's, he would still heal strike and would have never won those Olympic Trials. Would probably have been sidelined by another form related injury.

If Meb was worth what he was asking then another company would have snapped him up in a heartbeat.

At the price that he was asking.

FlakJacket wrote:

If Meb was worth what he was asking then another company would have snapped him up in a heartbeat.

not so smart wrote:

There are many, many examples, but one recent one is Adidas dropping Bauhs despite his making the World team last summer.

Great comparison.

One guy has an Olympic silver medal and won the New York City f#cking marathon the year before he was dropped.

One was very fortunate to make a national team and has no done nothing to suggest a future medal of any colour, ever.

Bauhs is a very strong runner, much better than you or I will ever be, but bringing him to say "hey, look, other companies drop great athletes, too!" is a joke.

You are only making my point for me. You see that, right?

The op is asking the wrong question here. It should read "Why did Meb drop Nike?"

Explain why Nike has been so loyal to Abdi all these years, but decided to dump Meb, if you think that's what happened? Abdi's certainly less well known and less successful than Meb, but he's still there with Nike? Perhaps it's because Meb wanted too much money, and Abdi takes whatever Nike will give him?