Steff Gardner is the Trail Marketing Manger for Salomon Running based in Ogden, UT.
In this conversation, we talk about how she got started managing Salomon's North American trail running team, how the athlete-sponsor landscape has changed over the last 10 years, creating virtual team environments for athletes, what qualities she looks for in potential sponsored athletes, and Salomon's short and long-term trail running strategies in the United States.
Deals:
- For Kodiak Cakes, use code Singletrack15 at checkout to get 15% off your next order.
- For Athletic Greens, go to athleticgreens.com/singletrack to get 20% off your next order.
- For Insidetracker, go to insidetracker.com/singletrack to get 31% off your next order before 7/17/22 or 20% off after that date.
Timestamps:
(0:00) - recapping Mount Marathon experience, remainder of summer event schedule
(8:18) - Steff’s background, career at Salomon
(13:44) - what’s involved managing the Salomon trail running team
(15:33) - what Salomon does to create a team environment for it’s athletes
(18:15) - what Steff looks for in athletes when recruiting them to the Salomon team
(22:55) - moving away, to some extent, from athlete social media obligations
(31:10) - how Salomon thinks about athlete contracts
(41:09) - How Salomon pitches their trail running brand
(44:44) - talking about the Salomon “Inspiration Team”
(49:46) - differences in the athlete-sponsor relationship over the last decade
(55:17) - when the athlete-sponsor relationship changes in terms of payments
(59:23) - Salomon’s short and long-term strategy and investments in trail running in North America
(68:41) - final thoughts
Follow Singletrack on Instagram:
www.instagram.com/runsingletrack/
Subscribe to Singletrack on Apple:
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/singletrack/id1572382413
Subscribe to Singletrack on Spotify:
https://open.spotify.com/show/7jAsWCRNSCU8nh81vrAaC2?si=3ac02e4e32b946c4
