Meb Keflezighi’s historic Boston Marathon Collegiate Records Go Down at BU.
Two weeks after Keflezighi became the first American male to win the Boston Marathon in 31 years, Skechers has announced that Kara Goucher, a top American female distance runner over the past decade, has signed on as a Skechers shoe-sponsored athlete—just like Meb.
“I started meeting with Skechers back in December. They were actually the first company I met with when I realized I was a free agent,” said Goucher, a two-time Olympian who had been a Nike-sponsored athlete for more than 12 years. “I really liked the people in the performance division a lot. They are really dedicated to the athlete. They don’t have a ton of athletes, but they live and breathe the athletes that they do have. They’re really proud of what they have done in a short time.”
Skechers, based in Manhattan Beach, California, made Keflezighi the centerpiece of its running-shoe division, which launched in 2011. Company officials built a series of shoes for him (the GOMeb Speed line), used him in an expansive marketing campaign, and then watched as their investment paid off when the then-38-year-old won, in shocking fashion, the 118th Boston Marathon on April 21. The victory, and the subsequent media rush, has put Keflezighi, and his shoes, in front of millions of potential consumers.
Now Goucher, 35, one of the most popular athletes in the sport even though her podium finishes have been rare in recent years, is hoping to follow in Meb’s footsteps.
After watching Keflezighi, himself a former Nike athlete, win Boston, Goucher said, “I was like, ‘Yeah, let’s do [the deal]. Clearly, [Skechers is] onto something.’”
Skechers officials said the contract with Goucher was a multiyear deal, but would not disclose financial details of the agreement.
The deal caps off four months of negotiations between leading running shoe companies and Goucher, the 2007 10,000-meter bronze medalist at the World Championships. The bargaining leaves her with one of the more unusual arrangements in the sport: unlike most professional runners, she now has separate sponsors for her apparel and for her shoes.
Goucher, a graduate of the University of Colorado, placed third in 2:25:53 in her first marathon — the New York City Marathon — in 2008. She competed in the 2008 Beijing Olympics and finished 10th in the 10,000 and ninth in the 5000. She placed fifth in the 2011 Boston Marathon and qualified for the 2012 Olympics by finishing third at the U.S. Olympic marathon trials in Houston. She finished sixth at that 2013 Boston Marathon in 2:28:11.
Last December, with her Nike contract expiring, Goucher began exploring the sponsorship market. Following weeks when she met with representatives from such companies as Saucony, Asics, Reebok and Skechers, she surprised many in the sport by signing an apparel agreement with Oiselle, a seven-year-old Seattle-based company that specializes in women’s apparel but does not make running shoes.
When that deal was announced, Goucher said, the shoe companies ended negotiations with her, including Skechers. Even though its apparel line is limited, “like many of the other athletic companies, we do a top-to-bottom story with apparel,” said Rick Higgins, vice president of merchandising and marketing for Skechers Performance Division who negotiated the deal with Goucher. “We have Meb head to toe in Skechers apparel as well as his running kit and his shoes.”
But about two weeks after signing with Oiselle, Goucher said her husband, Adam Goucher, who handles many of her business arrangements, contacted Higgins to see if he would consider reopening talks. Around the same time, Higgins received a Wall Street Journal article about Goucher from the Skechers CEO, Robert Greenberg. According to Higgins, Greenberg attached a note saying, “You guys got to get her on board.”
“That helped us get the conversations moving,” said Higgins.
The talks culminated during Boston Marathon weekend in mid-April. Goucher says she and Oiselle founder and CEO Sally Bergesen met with Skechers representatives in Boston to see how the two companies could work together. Adam Goucher, meanwhile, continued negotiations with Higgins, who was at the company’s headquarters in California. The day before the marathon, Kara Goucher said, “I was definitely leaning” toward Skechers.
Then Keflezighi won the epic race.
Approximately 35 minutes after Keflezighi crossed the tape, Higgins texted Adam Goucher. “I said, ‘Let’s announce Kara. It will be huge impact. Call me. Timing is everything,’” Higgins recalled, reading the text he had sent to Goucher.
As it turns out, some details still needed to be finalized. Also, said Kara Goucher, “I [didn’t] want to do anything that would overshadow Meb. What an awesome thing he had just done.” Goucher said she signed the deal Tuesday, April 29.
As part of the agreement, Higgins said Goucher will appear in Skechers marketing wearing Oiselle apparel with both a Skechers and Oiselle logo.
Higgins added that the signing of Goucher “will reinforce the image that Skechers, a longtime leader on the fashion shoe side, wants to be considered a big-time player in the performance athlete division. We continue to grow this side of the business and high-profile athletes running in our shoes aids in our credibility.”
Goucher, who is recovering from a stress fracture, has tested a new Skechers model that is in development and is expected to be available next February. She has already offered her input to company designers, from suggestions on the shoe’s firmness to its color. The first pair she tested was black. “I am not a huge fan of black,” she said. “They were like, ‘What do you like?’ Well, I like pink. So the next shoe they sent me was pink. So to have that kind of input is pretty fun.”
Goucher admits that when she began shopping for a new shoe sponsor, she “was nervous at first” about not running in the Nike Zoom Structure Triax a shoe she has worn for much of her professional career. “But as soon I got my first box of shoes from [Skechers] and I ran in them, I was like, that was fine.”
A signature Goucher shoe line like the GOMeb is not currently planned, but both Higgins and Goucher said such a shoe could eventually develop. “I definitely don’t rule it out,” said Higgins.
Due to her injury, Goucher is not planning to race on the track this summer. She does expect to compete at a marathon this fall—and in a pair of Skechers. “I don’t feel like I need to prove that this is better fit than Nike to anyone,” she said, “but, of course, I would love to podium in a major [marathon] or run a PR for these companies that really believe in me and are excited that I am part of their team.”
