Genzebe Dibaba - Adidas to Nike - Why the switch?

Where did you hear she switched?Have you noticed some runners have to wear certain brands due to contracts with their governments?For example, Mo Farah was wearing Adidas Supernovas during the Olympic ceremonies but he is a Nike athlete.That's because the UK had the contract with Adidas.

zachpleune wrote:

When she broke her World Record indoors (Feb. 2015) she was wearing Adidas, at PRE, she was wearing Nike.

Why would Adidas want to let her go as an athlete, do you think she was asking for too much money?

Ethiopian thing wrote:

Where did you hear she switched?

Have you noticed some runners have to wear certain brands due to contracts with their governments?

For example, Mo Farah was wearing Adidas Supernovas during the Olympic ceremonies but he is a Nike athlete.

That's because the UK had the contract with Adidas.

zachpleune wrote:

When she broke her World Record indoors (Feb. 2015) she was wearing Adidas, at PRE, she was wearing Nike.

Why would Adidas want to let her go as an athlete, do you think she was asking for too much money?

Ethiopia has an Adidas contract, so that's a great point.

No, she was legitimately an adidas athlete, not just because Ethiopia has an adidas contract. Given her star power and the amount of records she has already broken, as well as the ones that she will likely break or at least attempt to break going forwards, it is likely that Nike simply offered her a larger contract than she was previous under with adidas. People change companies in all industries, running too.

As you can see in the next two pictures, she is wearing the adidas pro kit plus spikes.

http://dt9guucc6nuua.cloudfront.net/media/LargeP/9a6d9a1e-1357-403c-a1c9-512fb98660c3.jpg?v=1572872705

http://ethioforum.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/Genzebe-Dibaba.jpg

Nike is better at covering up doping

Must be trying to make up for mistakenly losing Meb and Leo.

Nike may give smaller base contracts with big incentives. She probably got it into her head that she'll win big this year and wanted more money from the records and wins.

I was more disturbed by how structured the meet was to include Nike athletes (just like New Balance does at their meets or adidas at theirs) . Some people commented on the depth of the men's 5k field. Was there a single non-Nike athlete in it? I could swear every shirt had a Nike emblem. Similarly in the women's 5k I thought Molly Huddle was going to run it. Figures that a Saucony athlete wouldn't end up running it (not that I blame her for not flying across the country).

Shoebacca wrote:

Nike may give smaller base contracts with big incentives. She probably got it into her head that she'll win big this year and wanted more money from the records and wins.

I was more disturbed by how structured the meet was to include Nike athletes (just like New Balance does at their meets or adidas at theirs) . Some people commented on the depth of the men's 5k field. Was there a single non-Nike athlete in it? I could swear every shirt had a Nike emblem. Similarly in the women's 5k I thought Molly Huddle was going to run it. Figures that a Saucony athlete wouldn't end up running it (not that I blame her for not flying across the country).

1) the point re: Nike contracts makes sense. She set something like 3 world records in 9 days last year. If she could get a contract to reward that, more power to her.

2) I don't find the composition of the fields to be disturbing at all. Nike is sponsoring the meet, why wouldn't they want their own athletes in the field? As you noted, adidas and New Balance do the same. In this case, Nike seemed to invite many of the top runners, regardless of sponsor (see: Ajee Wilson - adidas, Jenny Simpson - New Balance, Manzano - Hoka, Brenda Martinez - New Balance, etc), and then filled in the rest of the fields with their own athletes. This makes perfect sense to me. They are paying to put their brand out there, they want to get the best bang for their buck. That said, there is no doubt in my mind that if Rudisha (adidas) or Bolt (Puma) wanted to race, they would have.

3) Huddle was there, she just got food poisoning the night before and decided to skip the race. It had nothing to do with Saucony vs. Nike (unless you are a conspiracy theorist who thinks Nike poisoned her food so that she wouldn't race, in which case it is totally a Saucony vs. Nike thing).

Shoebacca wrote:

Similarly in the women's 5k I thought Molly Huddle was going to run it. Figures that a Saucony athlete wouldn't end up running it (not that I blame her for not flying across the country).

1) According to her twitter, it didn't have anything to do with shoes!

"Really disappointed to have missed PRE due to food poisoning, a first and hopefully a last in race-day disasters. Hoping to race again soon!"

2) There was a big kerfuffle here before the meet about Katie Mackey not getting an invite. Lot's of people claimed Nike didn't want to give Brooks a place in the race. Then she tweeted that she'd gotten invited. Interestingly, she thanked her agent. She's not alone -- runners understand that agents are often key to getting them into races. Fans, on the other hand, never talk about agents.

3) You are right, races are stacked, but the goal isn't simply to get in as many Nike/Brooks/Adidas athletes as possible. Meet directors have a variety of goals, as do athletes.

Take the Pre. Every year, there are lots of Ducks/OTC athletes. Partly, it's convenience, and partly it's because of the crowd. AJ got a nice intro before the 10,000 on Friday, even though he was just a rabbit! I'm pretty sure that wasn't just because he's got his own nation.

4) As for the men's 5,000 it probably didn't help getting runners that: a) it wasn't an official DL event; and, b) there is an official DL 5,000 at Rome later this week. There's some overlap in the fields, but it's not complete.

Ditto for the women's 1500.

5) For my money, the real puzzle is why Ben Blankenship was in the International rather than the Bowerman Mile. He's a Nike guy who trains in Eugene. And he ran very well in an official DL race (Shanghai).

The one thing that I find very odd about this is there was no press release saying she switched sponsors or that Nike didn't announce it via their PR or from her agent.

For me, this is a big deal and what shoe companies (Nike, Adidas, NB, etc.) do a terrible job at...advertise their athletes. You can go on any of their sites & can't find a list of their athletes.

Her switching teams (Adidas to Nike) should make news. How many years? Reasons....for NBA or NFL players this makes headlines on ESPN but there isn't a single press release about the greatest indoor female runner of all time when she signs with a new company?

LR, next meet you see her at make sure to ask her about the switch. Reasons...

Musings about track wrote:

2) I don't find the composition of the fields to be disturbing at all. Nike is sponsoring the meet, why wouldn't they want their own athletes in the field? As you noted, adidas and New Balance do the same. In this case, Nike seemed to invite many of the top runners, regardless of sponsor (see: Ajee Wilson - adidas, Jenny Simpson - New Balance, Manzano - Hoka, Brenda Martinez - New Balance, etc), and then filled in the rest of the fields with their own athletes. This makes perfect sense to me. They are paying to put their brand out there, they want to get the best bang for their buck. That said, there is no doubt in my mind that if Rudisha (adidas) or Bolt (Puma) wanted to race, they would have.

The announcers certainly hyped Wilson, Simpson & Martinez. In fact, I think Simpson got more attention than the Nike women, including Rowbury.

Maybe they didn't get the memo.

Zachpleune wrote:

Her switching teams (Adidas to Nike) should make news.

A quick Google search only turns up a couple of pictures of her signing the contract on her coach's FB page:

Birds of a feather.

Because I go on FB to read about news in the track and field world. Am I suppose to follow or friend every major athlete in the sport too? I'm sure you googled her name and signing with Nike. Because I search just her name and the first page doesn't say anything

Because I'm friends with her coach on fb.

Zachpleune,

I am pretty sure we agree. Like you, I think her signing with Nike deserves more than a few pictures on her coach's FB page. I think you are right. It's hard to understand why Nike didn't make a bigger deal of it.

My name -- "Hey, it was on FB" -- and the tone were meant to be sarcastic, or even snarky. That doesn't always come across well in short postings.

On a happier note, I see that Nike featured her on their web page bragging how well Nike people did at Pre. So maybe they'll make better use of her from now on.

Cheers,

Hey, it was on FB

PS To add to the mystery, her coach posted the pictures of her signing with Nike on April 1, aka, April Fool's Day. .