Alameda Runners – Get After It!

Event and athlete sponsorship continues to be absolutely vital in the endurance sports community with dedicated fans.  Sponsors have a variety of different purposes, and often are called upon to fund and supply local races and events.

To help highlight the great effort (and expense) that goes into sports sponsorship, Alameda Runners wants to help you become more familiar with companies that are involved.

We recently chatted with Selle Italia (part one and part two) about the company’s bike saddles, the importance of a good saddle, and how the company contributes to the active community. Selle Italia also is greatly involved in sponsoring bike events and pro athletes, offering a quick glimpse into how it contributes:

“Selle Italia sponsors 11 UCI professional teams, a world champion mountain bike rider, the USAT and a huge number of pro individuals and teams around the world. What is more important to me is the huge number of professional athletes that choose to ride S.I. saddles without sponsorship.”

Selle Italia and most major sports companies choose to help sponsor events and athletes — and these partnerships help the sports community prosper.  Companies that push the boundaries and have success with sponsoring events can help build athlete loyalty (very important!) in a tough market.

If there is a company you’d like to see listed, please feel free to e-mail, Tweet, or comment here and recommend a company.

The endurance sports community is a rather tight-knit group of athletes and select companies in a competitive market that still grows. Alameda Runners likes to interview the companies behind products you’re probably already familiar with, and have grown close to a few companies, but always want to reach out to new companies.

I’d like to give kudos to a few different companies that have helped here and over at TrailsEdge.

– Hydrapak – An East Bay company (we especially love the local people) with a focus on hydration storage products. Some initial thoughts and a basic review will be published sometime soon on a Hydrapak product, while we look to learn more about cleaner hydration.

– Specialized – A bike manufacturer giant well known among athletes, it’s great when companies like Specialized want to help. I appreciate when big companies take the time to answer our questions, because it’s obvious Specialized could focus on bigger interviews with publications that have significantly bigger followings. Here is the Specialized Twitter account – (Specialized Twitter)

– Icebreaker – I like when companies I’m not familiar with can step up and help contribute to the community. I’m not familiar with the company — but know three simple things:

1). Icebreaker uses Jam Media Collective for PR representation, and Jam has proven to be a solid PR firm.
2). Review upcoming, but from first glance after ripping open the package, Icebreaker is good quality stuff.
3). Be prepared to spend. Along with Icebreaker’s superior quality comes a higher price tag that will probably scare away many athletes.

– Honey Stinger. I work with GU and Clif on a frequent basis, but it’s nice to show other companies love whenever I can. I recently got in touch (after too long of a time) with the Colorado-based Honey Stinger company, and will have some questions answered for an upcoming series of stories. (Honey Stinger)

– Greenlight Apparel. We previously interviewed Greenlight and learned more about the company’s social efforts overseas. The East Bay-based company also is helping print a few custom tech shirts that we’ll be wearing out and about this summer.

The warmer weather and longer nights helps get more people active, and Alameda Runners hopes to keep introducing companies you may not have worked with. We’re going to mix in the athletic superpowers with smaller niche companies catering to certain outdoor markets.