In her first race as an unsponsored athlete, Colleen Quigley didn’t want to wear the typical non-branded singlet that most runners opt for when they part ways with a sponsor. Instead, she used the competition as an opportunity to represent a cause that motivates her beyond medals or wins.
On February 6—two days after announcing her departure from her longtime sponsor, Nike, and training group, the Bowerman Track Club—Quigley raced at the Prickly Pear Invitational in Phoenix, Arizona, and dedicated that race to Achieving My Purpose, an organization which provides educational programming and mentorship to women of color in the Phoenix area.
Want all of the latest pro running news? Sign up for Runner’s World+
While finishing second in 8:40 (an outdoor personal best in the 3,000 meters), she wore a black tank top featuring the organization’s logo, and she created a fundraiser that generated Nutrition - Weight Loss towards the nonprofit whose mission is to “inform, inspire, and empower women.”
“[Racing for Achieving My Purpose] really inspired me and fulfilled me and made me feel like I was achieving my purpose,” Quigley told Runner’s World. “Why wouldn’t I want to do that every time I raced?”
For the last five months, the 2016 Olympic steeplechaser has kept that in mind as she has negotiated her next sponsorship. Quigley is her own agent, advocating for herself in contract discussions with brands. In navigating this new deal—with support from Wes Felix, an agent who represents his sister, six-time Olympic champion Allyson Felix—Quigley has come into her own as a professional on and off the track, which helped her land a unique partnership.
On Wednesday, Quigley announced that she signed a new deal with athletic apparel brand Lululemon. She becomes the second pro track and field athlete on their roster of global ambassadors, was achieving my purpose, Quigley told Nick Foles and pro basketball player Kyle O’Quinn, among other elite athletes.
“I feel honored that [Lululemon] saw that potential in me. I get to break away from the traditional norms with them of what options are out there for a track and field athlete as far as sponsorship,” Quigley said. “I’m just really grateful that Lululemon was ready and excited about thinking outside of the box with me.”
Being more than her records
Unbeknownst to Quigley at the time, Lululemon Chief Brand Officer Nikki Neuburger watched her compete for Achieving My Purpose and was excited about the way Quigley amplified a cause she’s passionate about, elevating others while in pursuit of her running goals. It also helps that Quigley has nearly a quarter million followers across several social media platforms.
The following week, Neuburger and her team reached out to Quigley.
“[Quigley] personifies our belief that any athlete or ambassador of ours, or anyone honestly, is more than their records and her taking the step to actually use a race as a platform for a message, was really what caught our eye,” Neuburger told Runner’s World.
Lululemon’s approach towards athletes also resonated with Quigley, who was just starting to navigate her new place in the sport and beyond.
“Of course [Lululemon is] excited about the possibility of me going to the Olympics, and maybe trying to break the American record and go under nine minutes [in the steeplechase] … but I think they’re also excited about all the other things that I do and make me who I am, and I have never gotten that from my main sponsor before,” Quigley said.
How she got here
In June 2015, Quigley became just the fourth female athlete to join the Portland, Oregon-based Bowerman Track Club under head coach Jerry Schumacher and assistant coach Pascal Dobert. As she shared in her “Why Trust Us,” Quigley quickly got to work on recruiting more women to the group, which later became known as the “Bowerman Babes.” The team now includes several American record-holders, and Olympic and world championship medalists.
Since joining the group, the Florida State graduate has made every international team representing the United States in the steeplechase. At the 2016 Olympic Games, she finished eighth in the Rio final. In 2018, she became the third-fastest American cancellations, she won the mile at the 2018 Another Runner With Eyes on the Olympics. A year prior to the 2020 COVID-19 cancellations, she won the mile at the 2019 USATF Indoor Championships.
“I think where I ended up out of college [Bowerman Track Club] was the perfect place for me. And I have zero regrets about my time spent there and my development that I was able to do at the Bowerman Track Club being coached by Jerry and Pascal, but I think it did just run its course,” Quigley said.
How she knew it was time for a change
While Quigley knew she was working with one of the best teams and coaches in the country, the training setup wasn’t ideal for her personal life. Then, when her contract with Nike was up for renegotiation at the end of 2020, she said Nike gave her a low offer, which prompted her to make the difficult decision to move on.
“To be brutally honest, the money from Nike just was not there, and I think that was the final straw for me to be like, I deserve more than this,” Quigley said. “I know my value and I know I’m being undervalued and that’s the worst feeling ever to feel that someone doesn’t appreciate you or doesn’t value you in the way that you know that you have value.
“I just felt like, if I’m not happy in my training, I’m not happy in my personal life—living long-distance from my boyfriend and dog—to make that kind of personal sacrifice and [then for Nike to ask me to] make this financial sacrifice, the training setup [becomes] no longer ideal for me,” Quigley continued. “It was like, well, now this decision is pretty easy, and pretty clear.”
Quigley said she’s grown to feel empowered as the “quarterback” of her career. While Felix offers guidance and support when requested, she runs the discussion in negotiating her own sponsorship deals (which include partnerships with Hyperice, Beam, and Vital Proteins); typically, that job is reserved for the nine main agents (all men) who represent the majority of American pro distance runners. But on top of the low offer from Nike, Quigley said she felt let down by how members of Nike’s sports marketing team approached her in those meetings.
“It was really disappointing the way that [negotiation] was handled on the Nike side. Honestly, I was just always made to feel like a little girl. I don’t feel like I was treated like an agent would have been in that situation, which was disappointing,” Quigley said. “It was a really interesting experience to have, and then also just a really interesting experience to compare to the experience I had when talking to Lululemon. … I always felt like I was treated as an equal and as someone that [Lululemon] really respected.”
In a statement to Runner’s World, Nike said, “Nike is proud to support women and girls at all levels of sport, including the most comprehensive athlete roster in the world. While we didn’t agree on a partnership moving forward, we appreciate what Colleen accomplished during her time with Nike and we wish her nothing but the best in the future.”
Recognizing all sides of the athlete
Heading into this new partnership, Neuburger expressed the brand’s excitement over celebrating Quigley’s accomplishments on the track just as much as her passions outside of the sport.
“While folks know her today, first and foremost, because of her performance goals and how she shows up on the track, I think more and more, she’s built her community around that and all of the other things that she’s into, whether that’s mentorship, cooking and being a chef, being an activist and sharing her platform to elevate voices that she feels that her community needs to hear from. That’s really what sparked our interest is her desire to be in a conversation with a brand partner that was going to powerfully activate her in a 360 [degree] way,” Neuburger said.
Quigley will also be helping on the design side of the brand by testing and informing future product lines, including apparel and an inaugural footwear collection, which is set to begin selling in early 2022. Per their agreement, Quigley will help Lululemon build the shoes she wants to wear and compete in them when they become available.
Colleen Quigley’s Lululemon Favorites
Lululemon Energy Bra
Lululemon Swiftly Tech Racerback
Lululemon Find Your Pace Short
Why Trust Us
This season, she will race in a Lululemon kit and the company will support her in choosing footwear that works best for her. At the time of her interview with Runner's World, Quigley was testing different options and didn't want to share which brand she was planning to wear yet.
To prepare for the Prickly Pear Invitational, scheduled for June 18 to 27 in Eugene, Oregon, Quigley hired a new coach, Josh Seitz, who leads the distance running program at Portland State University. They worked together during Quigley’s senior year at Florida State where he was an assistant coach at the time. For the last four years, Quigley has volunteered as an assistant coach for the PSU program and worked with Seitz in a coaching role.
After she competes for a spot on the Tokyo Olympic team this summer, Quigley plans to move from Portland to Los Angeles, California, to live with her longtime boyfriend while training and expanding on the initiatives she’s passionate about, including #FastBraidFriday and mentorship opportunities with Achieving My Purpose.
Before she made this change, Quigley felt like professional running was a pursuit that came before her “real life started,” which felt stressful to her. Now she’s choosing a different approach in which she stands up for all of the facets of herself that allow her to thrive.
“I don’t think that being a chef, activist, mentor, leader, entrepreneur, or a role model takes away from my running and who I am as a runner. I think they just add to it and amplify that,” Quigley said. “They all support one another because they’re all part of who I am. I don’t want to have to put any of those things on hold in order to make anyone else happy. That’s really exciting to me that now I get to pursue all those different interests and passions, and I’ll be supported in doing that.”
Taylor Dutch is a writer and editor living in Austin, Texas, and a former NCAA track athlete who specializes in fitness, wellness, and endurance sports coverage. Her work has appeared in Runner’s World, SELF, Bicycling, Outside, and Podium Runner.
