Experiments are the biggest moment for running brands

It’s hard to think of a better example of how athletics can provide compelling entertainment than last Sunday Women’s 400m Final in the Olympic trials. Allyson FelixNamed Nine Medals, is already the most beautiful female American track and field star in gaming history. By dipping on the line, Felix defeated Wadeline Jonathas by 0.01 seconds and fourth-placed Kendall Ellis by 0.08 seconds. The competition was so close that Felix didn’t know if they did a shed for the team until he saw the results on the scoreboard. After that, the winners of the race, Felix and Quanera Hayes, joined the track with their two-year-old children. As the cameras spun and thousands of exhausted Hayward spectators watched, there was a brief embrace between the little offspring of the newly made Olympics. Talk about good TV: Babies hug. Supermommit cementing postpartum returns by making an Olympic team. You can almost hear NBC executives screaming with joy.

The reaction of some of Nike’s senior employees may have been more subdued. Two years ago, Felix signed a sponsorship agreement with the women’s clothing company Athletan. She had been a Nike runner for nearly a decade, but when she got pregnant, the company apparently didn’t want to include performance-related maternity protections in its contract, as Felix claimed in 2019 New York times ed. Since then, Nike has updated its pregnancy policy for sponsored athletes, launched the maternity line, and has generally tried to establish itself as a progressive force in women’s sports. By failing to arrest Felix, the brand lost the chance to win a new mother-cum Olympics that also happens to be the most well-known face in U.S. athletics. Click the Nike-hater schadenfreude.

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Maybe it’s because I subconsciously expected the event hosted by Phil Knight’s new super Stadium to be a relentless Nike tribute show, but what I’ve tried so far is the extent to which other brands have managed to share the glory. To be sure, Swoosh has still had more athletes on the podium than any other company, but that hasn’t been complete dominance. Among the women, there was a bold prize correction from New Balances 1,500 meters behind the steep lead to lead victory. Elle Purrier St.Pierre. What’s more, the Boston-based company can now also boast its 100-meter championship Trayvon Bromell in its list. Although Noah Lyles reached 100, her sponsor Adidas already has a sprint logo, thanks to Kendra Harrisons ’dominant performance in the women’s 100m hurdles. And then Puma, who has recently invested in professional sports, seeing its representative Will Clay take gold in a three-jump.

It wasn’t just established, old companies that got their presence in Eugene; top performers repopped brands that didn’t exist a decade ago or were still in their infancy. On the same day that Felix made his fifth Olympic team wearing the black Athleta series (and spikes his new shoe company Saysh), Rudy Winkler set a national record in hammer throw at Tracksmith. (New England-based clothing manufacturers also appeared prominently in NBC’s commercial breaks, thanks to the new location where fast amateurs tore a quarter-mile replay when we hear an audio narrative from the speech of transcendentalist poet Malcolm Gladwell.) .

Of course, when these athletes compete in Tokyo, they all wear the Nikes Team USA series. In addition, due to the restrictions imposed by the 40 rules of the International Olympic Committees, they have limited opportunities to repeat their sponsorship during peak visibility. The purpose of the regulation is to protect the exclusive rights of athletes. brands (e.g. Coca-Cola and Visa) that have used ocean money to be the official sponsor of the games. In the past, competitors have been banned from advertising their sponsors in any way during the Olympics, and the threat of rejection hangs over their heads if they do not. But things are different this time, at least nominally. The following amendment to Article 40 from the end of 2019, for the first time, the U.S. Olympics will be able to directly thank their sponsors when competing in Tokyo. And these companies can also identify their athletes during games.

Although this represents a significant loosening of the IOC’s marketing policy, strict regulations are still in place. For example, athletes may send up to seven thank-you notes to their sponsor between July 13 and August 10, when Rule 40 is in effect, while sponsors may only congratulate athletes once during that time. (Retransmission of Athlete Messages is permitted unless any other text is included.) If you think it sounds restrictive, please provide the official wording on how Athletes may recognize sponsors during Rule 40:

In accordance with the rules in force, Athletes’ Thanksgiving advertising may not mention or promote the products or services of personal sponsors and may not use the IP address of the Olympic or Paralympic Games, including, but not limited to, the Olympic or Paralympic Symbol, game logos, game word marks (eg Tokyo 2020), official games / team clothing and medals, any still or moving images from within the venue, republishing or referring to US media, USOPC, IOC, IPC, games or other Olympic or Paralympic social media content the relationship between the personal sponsor and the U.S. team, the USOPC, the Olympics or Paralympics, the NGB, or the Games.

In other words, athletes can only thank their sponsors without mentioning any of the sponsored products mentioned and can only advertise their Olympic status without using Olympic-related images or language. (The fact that Tokyo 2020 is undeniable gives you a pretty good idea of ​​how the IOC protects trademarks.) At least this should be done for some creative Instagram posts in mid-July.

However, there are no such restrictions on social media in litigation, so we can expect declarations of hashtag-heavy gratitude as the action continues over the weekend. Held every four years at the Olympic Trials, the spectacle has had a reputation as the most interesting meeting place on the domestic track, where the stakes of athletes looking to form their first Olympic team are even greater than in the games themselves. Athletics is short, and athletes only have as many opportunities to earn the title they can claim for the rest of their lives. Now is the time for both athletes and sponsors to seize the moment.