Nice Uniform Move By Boston Marathon

[gh]

Working with the runners' shoe companies, the Boston Marathon people have come up with unique uniforms for the top dozen guys this year. None of that cookie-cutter stuff that makes so many distance races so tough to watch.

Superb news that the sponsors were amenable. I'm sure their marketing whizzes much prefer it to see a solid wall of the same thing as a sign of superiority of their product.

[dralmorris]

I thought London announced this first for their Marathon race in about 10 days.
Will Boston also do it in their race on Monday?

[polevaultpower]

You can see which uniforms some of the top athletes will be wearing from a link on the front page of letsrun.com

[trackstar]

You know, there's a real easy way the shoe companies could get the "wall" effect they want, yet still visually help the fans: Rather than put the tastefully small logos in a corner of the singlet, give the elites really huge logos right smack in the middle of their chest. You could have individualized color schemes but still leave no doubt who's paying for each runner.

[Bob R]

I thought London announced this first for their Marathon race in about 10 days.
Will Boston also do it in their race on Monday?

London did announced the same move. With Boston doing the same, I would imagine that the other three races in the World Marathon Majors will be following suit.[/url]

[gh]

You know, there's a real easy way the shoe companies could get the "wall" effect they want, yet still visually help the fans: Rather than put the tastefully small logos in a corner of the singlet, give the elites really huge logos right smack in the middle of their chest. You could have individualized color schemes but still leave no doubt who's paying for each runner.

I don't have time to look it up, but the IAAF has very strict rules in this regard. You'll even see people at the WC/OG on the infield with tape on their bag, for example, because the logo was too big. And the max size is relatively small.

While this may sound nit-picky, it's not really when you consider sponsors and their fear of ambush-marketing.

If adidas buys advertising space on a bib, for example, the don't want a bib that shows up on TV with adidas blown away by the athlete's shirt

NIKE
adidas

This doesnt' apply at all meets, of course.

[jla]

Re: Nice Uniform Move By Boston Marathon

Working with the runners' shoe companies, the Boston Marathon people have come up with unique uniforms for the top dozen guys this year. None of that cookie-cutter stuff that makes so many distance races so tough to watch.

Well, not quite "unique". Checking the Boston-info at http://www.letsrun.com/2006/bostonuni.pdf
it turns out that No 2, 6 and 8 (Nike Kenya), No 10 and 11 (Nike USA) and No 5, 9 and 12 (New Balance) share outfit colours/design. But the three Adidas runners (no 1, 3 and 4) have individual colour combinations.

In London, however, all the top men (but not the women) do seem to have got unique colouring of their outfits:
http://www.london-marathon.co.uk/site/m ... cement.pdf

Hopefully this initiative will spread to the middle and long distance GP races on the track where it has been even more troubling/confusing for the spectators and TV viewers with all the lookalikes.