Is it possible Asics would drop Ryan Hall?

If I was Hall's agent, I'd pay the Brojos to delete this thread.

Sketchers!

pay-for-paly wrote:

If I was Hall's agent, I'd pay the Brojos to delete this thread.

Ray Flynn is Hall's agent.

Bashing or praising on this board has ZERO influence on what any company is willing to pay for an athlete.

Ryan and Ray have already been in contact with several prominent coaches. Ryan will have a human coach soon.

Oh, I didn't realize that an athlete's media persona and the fans' perception of an athlete had nothing to do with an athlete's marketability. Thanks for letting me know that. I always thought it was the opposite. Damn you marketing degree and Madison Ave. experience!

After his Olympic DNF and his nut-case ideas on training, Hall better hire God to be his agent if he wants the same money from Asics.

No way will Asics drop him. Hall could retire and fly fish for the next twenty years and he'd STILL be the Face of Running in the US.

pay-for-paly wrote:

If I was Hall's agent, I'd pay the Brojos to delete this thread.

Good thing that you are not an agent. You would probably want Asics and AT&T to remove their commercials featuring Ryan from TV also.

Marketing-Guru wrote:

Oh, I didn't realize that an athlete's media persona and the fans' perception of an athlete had nothing to do with an athlete's marketability. Thanks for letting me know that. I always thought it was the opposite. Damn you marketing degree and Madison Ave. experience!

your perception =/= the majority perception

damn you common sense

It would appear that Guru is spot on with the general perception of Ryan Hall being:

He quit during his race at the Olympics. Worst and most shameful performance of anyone on the US Olympic team.

He has stated he was coached by god.

There have not been many positive comments from marathon fans on this site about him.

Someone started a thread wondering if his sponsor would drop him.

He is a ding-bat, air-brain with dyed blonde hair.

He is uncoachable.

If there is another perception of Ryan Hall out there please elaborate.

No way. Not only does he love their shoes, he is an integral part of their shoe development program. And Asics loves him. As for the other stuff, it's a matter of opinion and public perception and that only matters to the unwashed masses.

The only way Asics would drop Hall would be if

1. Hall asks for more money than the market will bear, a la Meb (or Meb's brother) or

2. Asics has really stupid marketing people.

Hall is by far the most marketable runner in the US with the general hobby jogger population. He gets by far the most publicity of any runner in the US, and from mainstream publications, not just running publications. Disgruntled fan boys will run him down on Letsrun just like they will run down anybody without a recent stellar performance. He has more of a devoted fan base than any other runner in the US. The average hobby jogger probably doesn't even know about Hall's DNF and withdrawal from the NYM, and wouldn't care if they did know.

My own view is that he got injured in an Olympic year which really sucks but the people knocking him are overreacting. People get injured in running. It's the nature of the thing. I think hobby joggers understand that better than the people on here who immediately go after Webb, Rupp, Solinsky or whoever whenever they underperform.

Finally, if Asics is really dropping the Hyperspeeds, that sucks. It's by far my favorite Asics shoe.

He is recognizable, the running public (the Joe the Joggers, not the elites) looks at him with unabashed awe, he's a devout family man who isn't likely to get into any trouble, and he's a two time Olympian in an event where, on the US level at least, he is almost never not a top 3 guy in the country.