Valbymania: Shoe Companies Expecting Great Things! Her base may be between 650k-800k

Since you are aware of it could you please post links or references to research suggesting slower miles can “produce poor form”? Thanks.

No such research. Most runners don't even race faster than 8 minute pace.

I don’t trust Ritz. I don’t think anyone in that team is clean. But she’d be a better choice for the 5K than Andrews who is basically at the end of her career and in the way out

There is a pretty terrible history of parents handling the money for their professional athlete children.

Rojo is correct.
Parker Valby has no future at a World Level. She will never run 14:00-29:00 and that is where the bar has been set.
Her cross training can only take her so far.
Not durable enough to move to the marathon.
The 650–800k number is real but no coach would recommend paying it from a performance point of view.
This number is coming from the Marketing people and from that side she is worth it.
A SPLASH SIGNING

From a “performance point of view”, although it might be nice, Valby doesn’t need to break 14:00 in order to be selected by USATF to participate on the world stage (Olympics and World Championships), regardless of how she stacks up once she gets there.

Ignoring all of the previous posts and looking at just the topic of the thread....In the past, I've generally defaulted to top collegiate runners going to Nike, but that doesn't seem to be the case anymore. What about New Balance? They seem to spend money, and have a strong women's group.

John Davis' biomechanics research, studies on elite athletes, and discussions with some prominent coaches is pretty fantastic. The above book is a great place to get started. It fully supports the concept that frequency of run training, and not simply volume, enables the body to adapt quicker to training. He discusses "easy" mileage and base building as well. It's a great read along with most of the things on his website.

Former runners who have been doing this role for many years, have strong relationships with those involved and trust from proven past successes?

Just because someone is a ‘business’ person does not mean they understand a category what so ever, nor have the ability to maintain the relationships and fulfill the terms.

OP links to msn article saying that 'it is thought' that base may be in the range in the thread title. Also says PV's agent is out, father is negotiating. No way the shoe companies will leak details of negotiations so that leaves Parker's FATHER as the leaker. It is totally in his interest to inflate if he is fishing for high offers. So no I don't believe the numbers.

Being a beautiful woman makes you extremely marketable. Ask Alicia Schmidt who regularly shows up in non-running social/news media outlets.

This is the main reason the asking price has risen so high. Her excellence in running is the door opening for this opportunity, her beauty will help sell shoes and Jack up the shoe company presence just because guys want to gawk at her.

Emma Coburn, for example, has a massive non-running presence. Guys want to stare at her. Gals want to be her. Valby is the next gneration in attractiveness. That is her $$$meal ticket$$$. Running is secondary with respect to revenue earning.

You guys think everyone is doping. It is depressing to read threads here. Valby is not moving to Eugene, so if she signs with Nike it will be at a training location elsewhere. She can absolutely get below 14:00 and 29:00 IMHO.

Also, the attractiveness is more of an appeal to other women. The guy above talks about "men gawking" but most female influencers are targeting other women. She isn't selling Cameros to men. She is trying to sell shoes, bras, and shorts to other women. Or kombucha and grain bowls or whatever brands line up to get her on their 2025 marketing plans.

Valby will set a world record?

It will not be the world record by the time she does it, but she has a long career ahead of her and I think she can get there. She will not run these times in the next 4 years. I think she can do it over the course of her career.

One company offered her $750K per year for 5 years.

I would bet you my life savings that Valby will not break 14:00 in the 5,000 meters or 29:00 in the 10,000 meters. Doping or not, she ain't on "best distance runner of all time" kind of level.

Why? Kessler got 600k. You don’t think she’d surpass