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Nick Symmonds signs with Brooks

Nick Symmonds signs with Brooks

Jan 2, 2014 by FloTrack Staff
Nick Symmonds signs with Brooks
After seven years with Nike, 2013 World Championship silver medalist Nick Symmonds has signed with Brooks. Symmonds will soon move to Seattle, WA to train with coach Danny Mackey and The Brooks Beasts.

“I was with Nike for seven years and I accomplished a lot with Nike and Oregon Track Club (OTC),” Symmonds told Ryan Fenton of Flotrack earlier this week. “I'll always be grateful for what they did to support me but moving forward, for me, to accomplish the goals on and off the track that I'd like to accomplish, I had to head in a different direction and for me that meant sign with the ‘Run Happy’ company Brooks.

“It was strictly a business decision," Symmonds added. "I love working with coach [Mark] Rowland, I love my friends at OTC, and I love being a part of the Eugene, OR community.

“Brooks is the Run Happy company and they take such good care of their athletes. They support them through the good times and the bad and they have a phenomenal team set up. I needed to sign with Brooks.”


The newest member of The Brooks Beasts.

Although Symmonds tweeted on New Year’s Day that he was without a sponsor for the first time in seven years, negotiations between him and various shoe companies had been ongoing. In the end, however, the decision to select a sponsor was a no-brainer.

“It was actually a very easy decision when I saw the two contract laid side by side. It was very, very easy to go with Brooks.

“Having met with the Brooks company at their headquarters in Seattle, WA, I just felt like our values were aligned. We wanted to accomplish similar things on and off the track. I knew that for me to be happy, I needed to be with Brooks.”

Labeled a “renaissance man” by both himself and Flotrack, Symmonds is a multifaceted athlete who brings more to a shoe company than just advertising space. In addition to representing Brooks Running, Symmonds will slowly integrate with the marketing team at Brooks as they prepare for the upcoming year. Although no details were released, Symmonds and Brooks have sat down to discuss potential releases for both the indoor and outdoor season.

“I'm going to slowly start spending more time up in Seattle working with their marketing team and working with The Beasts. It's a little bit overwhelming but at the same time it's the only opportunity that I never would have had had I stayed with Nike.

“Honestly, I'm just so freaking excited [to put on the Brooks jersey]. I loved racing in the OTC jersey, but at some times, I felt a little bit like Nike was renting the advertising space. Throwing a swoosh on it and maybe I was just one of the numbers, and I probably was. I understand that they're a huge corporation that sponsors thousands of athletes and maybe, I was just another one who got lost in the shuffle.

“I feel like at Brooks, I'm really part of something, I'm part of a family that really wants to help support me and wants to work with me on a daily basis. They're not just using me as advertising space, but they really really want me to be a part of the family and want me to help them on and off the track. That's what I'm most excited about: when I throw that jersey on, it's not just a billboard. It means something more than just advertising space.
 
Hear the full interview with Ryan Fenton.

While the decision may have been easy for Symmonds from a business standpoint, the Willamette University graduate had to say goodbye to relationships he’s formed from his time in Eugene, OR.

“As a business decision, it was very simple to make. As a guy who loves coach Rowland, OTC, and the Eugene community, that was really tough for me. I like to think that I can maintain those relationships, but I'm always going to be friends with coach Rowland. The time that I spent with my teammates are always going to be there. It's just that I'm close with people on the Brooks Beasts, I'm close with people at Nike, I'm close with people at New Balance, so I'd like to think that I can maintain those relationships. 

“As far as leaving the Eugene community, that one really stinks because I really felt like they adopted me. I know I was a Bearcat coming from Willamette [University], but over the last seven years they really adopted me and I really worked hard to make myself part of that community. So, leaving Eugene will probably be the hardest part of this whole thing.”

After becoming the third fastest American at 800m with his 1:42.95 at the 2012 Olympic final and his recent silver medal at the 2013 World Championships in Moscow, questions were raised for why Symmonds would decide to make a coaching change. However, the transition between coaches and training philosophies will not impact Symmonds’ growth as he prepares to attack the American 800m record of 1:42.60, set by Johnny Gray in 1985.

“I think at 23 or 24, I hadn't seen it enough times to know what works for me, what makes me successful, or how to peak appropriately. I had the privilege of working under Mark Rowland very close for five years and we figured it out. I've made every single final in the last four years. I PR'd at the Olympics in the final. I won the silver medal last year at the World Championships.

“We're not going to mess with that too much. Danny Mackey is humble enough to understand that, ‘If it ain't broke, don't fix it.’ I think he has some great ideas of where we can tweak things to get a little bit more out of my training to maybe find that extra half-second that we're looking for to get the American record. But ultimately, Rowland and I had it figured out. I have five years of training logs to look back on and I'm pretty much going to wake up and say, ‘Well, what would Mark Rowland have had me do today?’”



Although Symmonds has been a part of some absolutely incredible training groups at OTC, the Idahoan is excited to be a part of the up-and-coming Brooks Beasts.

“It's a really, really talented team. They made some great acquisitions with Cas Loxsom and Riley Masters, who are phenomenal talents. Danny [Mackey], as a young coach, I think he's brilliant and I think he's going to be America's great middle-distance coaches. He has a phenomenal philosophy and I think that he works his butt off, so I'm excited to work for him and really, the change of scenery might be nice for me.

“I've been doing the same thing for the last seven years and this year is a good year to try something different. I think I've mentioned to you before that I'm only running the 1500m at USAs. It's a little overwhelming, all the change that's coming all at once, so I'm just trying to take it step by step.”
 
Next month, Symmonds will travel to Mexico for a high-altitude training stint with 2012 Olympic silver medalist and still unsponsored Leo Manzano. Symmonds is scheduled to open up his indoor season on February 1st with a flat 800m at the JBL Fast Track in North Carolina.

“A lot of it's uncertain. It's going to be a big transition. Fortunately, [2014] is a down year with no World  or Olympic Championships. It's going to be a chance for me to pick one step at a time and make the transitions so that I can position myself well for 2015 and 2016.

"It's going to be a fun year to really race the clock as opposed to trying to peak for a championship and race for a medal."


Symmonds' Stats:
· 800m personal record of 1:42.95 (2012)
· 1500m personal record of 3:34.55 (2013)
· Ranked No. 2 in the world, No. 1 in the U.S. at 800m (2013)
· Third fastest American ever at 800m
· 2-time Olympian, 5th in the 800m run in London, 2012
· 3-time World Championship 800m Finalist, silver medalist in 2013
· 5-time USA Outdoor Champion at 800m

Symmonds' new training partners:
Casimir Loxsom – 1:45.28
Mark Wieczorek – 1:45.36
Matt Scherer – 1:46.11 (regarded as one of the best pacers in T&F)
Riley Masters – 3:37.19/3:56.25(i)

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