Just saw LA grand prix 5000m and realised that athletes have soo many empty spaces on there kits. They can atleast have 3-4 more sponsors on there kit. What is stopping them to do so?
And why not allow athletes to have there personalized kit with all the sponsors they have?
Shoe companies have it written in the contract that you cannot add additional sponsors without consent. Usually they will refuse this as it gives them more control over the athlete. World athletics also only allowed 2 personal sponsors on uniform. Athletes are being held back financially by these rules. We need a system where shoe companies have less control over athletes sponsorship potential.
What about a runner with no shoe sponsorship? Can he have more sponsors on his kit or it is restricted to 2 sponsors in all the races and marathons?
It's not just the non-compete from shoe sponsors -- it's local governing bodies/races/world athletics. Remember USATF restricts logo size & you can only wear your sponsors shoes at World Champs (nothing on the jersey). How valuable are you if you're a non-Nike runner & every photo of you at a World Champs is of you in a Nike jersey?
Seems like an easy fix for T&F to let athletes turn their jerseys into NASCAR ones. But the shoe companies have all of the influence. Need a real athlete collective/union that can try to engage in meaningful negotiations. This is why the Symmonds stuff bothered me so much at the time. He was 100% right but only cared about himself/versus trying to get meaningful change for everyone. There was a massive petition that he had no interest in using. & now we're in the same exact place years later.
This is a great topic OP. Would like to see this website take up this issue & do some meaningful reporting on this. Maybe trying to get athletes to better wages doesn't generate enough clicks, idk.
If it's a WA sanctioned event in addition to the kit's manufacturing logo, all other sponsorship/advertising cannot exceed 40 centimeters squared in size.
That's pretty small.
NERunner03533 wrote:
It's not just the non-compete from shoe sponsors -- it's local governing bodies/races/world athletics. Remember USATF restricts logo size & you can only wear your sponsors shoes at World Champs (nothing on the jersey). How valuable are you if you're a non-Nike runner & every photo of you at a World Champs is of you in a Nike jersey?
Seems like an easy fix for T&F to let athletes turn their jerseys into NASCAR ones. But the shoe companies have all of the influence. Need a real athlete collective/union that can try to engage in meaningful negotiations. This is why the Symmonds stuff bothered me so much at the time. He was 100% right but only cared about himself/versus trying to get meaningful change for everyone. There was a massive petition that he had no interest in using. & now we're in the same exact place years later.
This is a great topic OP. Would like to see this website take up this issue & do some meaningful reporting on this. Maybe trying to get athletes to better wages doesn't generate enough clicks, idk.
Magnus Carlsen has multiple sponsors on his vest. Same with Anish Giri
Jakob is sponsered by Nike, Coros, Vitamin well and Mercedes.
If he adds all his sponsors on his speedsuit it will drastically increase the amount of money he makes.
+ it will also look soo cool
Rupp\'s brother wrote:
What about a runner with no shoe sponsorship? Can he have more sponsors on his kit or it is restricted to 2 sponsors in all the races and marathons?
It's either restricted by the event, the sponsor, the association or all 3. number and placement of logos, as well as size are written into the agreement to participate.
An unsponsored runner at an international event obviously runs in the national kit that has a set sponsor. they can run in whatever shoes they want, but cannot add logos, messages or sponsors.
If you watch closely at some events a step or two down from the Olympics or world champs, Nike Will sometimes make their logo slightly bigger than the maximum allowed particularly on the USA kit. world cross comes to mind as an example. compare it to the standard Nike race singlet issued to all their global athletes to comply with the size standards.
If you listen to Kessler on the recent coffee club podcast he mentions the mandatory nature of sponsor apparel, and that they'll punish you financially if you don't comply.
Personally I dont think we need Nascar levels of logos, but for godsake, let the athletes where a variety of race singlets. it succckkkks seeing everyone in the god awful annual edition of the Nike or Brooks or Adidas race singlet. no personality at all whatsoever, and the race is terrible to commentate.