Frodeno’s footwear sweepstakes?
Jan Frodeno says that there's no impending announcement with regards to a new footwear sponsor - one would imagine there are more than a few companies looking to try to sign the German star.
Yesterday we learned that Jan Frodeno and long-time sponsor Asics had parted ways. We’ve since learned that he doesn’t have an immediate sponsor lined up … and that he’s never run in Nike’s Vaporfly shoes.
Well, so much for the thought that Jan Frodeno was looking to jump on the Vaporfly bandwagon in the hunt for even more records this year. After posting yesterday’s story that Jan Frodeno and long-time sponsor Asics were parting ways, we heard back from the three-time Kona champ and world record holder that there is “no news as to new shoes” as of yet.
“Haven’t even tried the vaporflies yet, though,” Frodeno reports.
None of the top three men at last year’s Ironman World Championship were in the Vaporfly shoes that have caused so much controversy in the marathon world because of all the records that have been set in them. In Kona, Frodeno wore a pair of prototype Asics shoes that, like the Vaporfly shoes, featured a carbon plate – that shoe is said to be released at the Tokyo Olympics this summer. While none of the top-three men were in the Nike shoes, eight of the top-15 men were, while seven of the top-15 women wore the shoes, including all three women who were on the podium – Anne Haug, Lucy Charles-Barclay and Sarah Crowley.
Related: Could Nike’s Vaporfly shoes be banned from triathlon?
One has to imagine that there are more than a few companies who would be clamouring for the opportunity to partner with Frodeno as he looks for a fourth world title this year.
In his social media post yesterday, Frodeno implied that Asics probably hadn’t anticipated that he would have continued to race after his record-setting win in Kona last October. They were hardly the only ones – we caught up with Frodeno after the race and asked the same question – he couldn’t have been clearer that he had no intention of calling it a career.
