I Have a New Sponsor!

Myself! Okay, don't laugh too hard. Why did I leave Athletic Republic, after all it seems that the sponsored never leave the sponsors. I always hear about runners getting dropped by their sponsor. I turned the status quo on it's head, sort of.

Athletic Republic was the first company, besides a school, to stand behind me. In the fall of 2011 they gave me some clothing, and I thought it would be the start of an exciting journey. Specifically I was hoping to train at an Athletic Republic facility. Unfortunately, that just never happened due to scheduling issues and holidays. Plus, they never gave me anything new in 2012 or to date in 2013, yet I still had a link on my website and people still talked to me about the company at races. I am very thankful for the time that I wore the jersey, but after setting personal records in the 800, mile, 5000, 10,000, half marathon and marathon over the last year and a half I wanted more.

I decided that instead of giving all of that attention away free, and getting impersonal cheers during road races, I would go it alone. So I ordered a running singlet from Running Banana for about $36 including shipping and now I'm officially sponsored by myself. Plus designing my own singlet I moved the name and logo up high so that race bib numbers will never get in the way. Unfortunately, I moved it up too high so shoulder sticker numbers in track will probably get in the way. Also, the cut along the bottom is terrible, the thing is three inches too short, especially on the sides. Fortunately, the colors came out just how I wanted them to, matching my blog. So I'll have to order another one to get the fit and design I like just right. The top three reasons to sponsor myself:

1. People who don't know me will cheer for me by name at races.
2. I have a lot of white space on the jersey to sell to other sponsors.
3. It's a personal branding statement about doing my own thing and not giving the impression of being dependent on a company I barely know. 

My New Race Singlet