Track without Nike

[tm71]

Maybe it would be better for track with Nike, look what they have done to basketball!

[Tuariki]

I don't think it would go down that well with fans of the sport in other countries either. We may love to try and beat Team USA but it would still be seen as Nike heavily reducing their support of track & field athletes and isn't great PR.

Disagree Trickstat. I don’t think the shoe buying public in other countries give a toss about Salazar / Cain. I reckon if you walk the streets of Auckland, London, Paris and Rome and ask the first 1,000 people what they think of Nike over the Salazar / Cain affair, I imagine about 995 would give you a blank look in response.

Nike have proven themselves to be immoral and unethical a’holes in this sorry saga, but I doubt it will have much effect on their sales or bottom line.

[gh]

Londoners, I suspect, would have a far higher recognition rate than that because of the Sir Mo factor.

[ATK]

I reckon if you walk the streets of Auckland, London, Paris and Rome and ask the first 1,000 people what they think of Nike over the Salazar / Cain affair, I imagine about 995 would give you a blank look in response.

I bet you would get the same blank look from and equal amount of random people in NYC, Chicago, LA etc.

[tandfman]

Yes, the British press have been making a big deal out of that.

[Conor Dary]

A friend of mine in Eugene here was at a science conference in London recently and someone asked where he was from....saying Oregon the other fellow made some nasty comment about Salazar....

[Trickstat]

Londoners, I suspect, would have a far higher recognition rate than that because of the Sir Mo factor.

The Salazar/Cain story was covered in a fair amount of detail in the sports pages of the London Times on Friday.

Of course, the typical Times reader doesn't buy much sportswear although there are probably quite a few who play a lot of golf!

[Trickstat]

Disagree Trickstat. I don’t think the shoe buying public in other countries give a toss about Salazar / Cain.

Which is why I referred to track & field fans rather than buyers of shoes and other sports clothing. I agree that the former is a much smaller demographic and many of the latter are more influenced by fashion/soccer/basketball*.

*Not a huge sport in the UK but it does have quite a 'cool' image.

[Powell]

I don't think it would go down that well with fans of the sport in other countries either. We may love to try and beat Team USA but it would still be seen as Nike heavily reducing their support of track & field athletes and isn't great PR.

Also, speaking of countries other than the US, the national teams may not be sponsored by Nike, but many individual top athletes are.