Pearl Izumi & Smith Optics Form Ultrarunning Team
July 22, 2008 by Bryon Powell · 4 Comments
Back in March, iRunFar reported that Pearl Izumi was rumored to be forming an ultrarunning team based on a comment we received. In private conversations at the time, we speculated that the partner would be Smith Sport Optics. Both the rumor and the speculation are confirmed – Team Pearl Izumi – Smith has formed! Read on for more information regarding Team Pearl Izumi-Smith and its stable of ultrarunners. It turns out that the Pearl Izumi-Smith squad formed back in April, so iRunFar isn’t exactly reporting cutting edge news here… except that we didn’t learn of it until yesterday. Had anyone else heard of the team?
Regardless, for 2008, the team consists of four extremely talented runners:
- Paul DeWitt;
- Lisa Smith-Batchen;
- Scott Jaime; and
- Josh Brimhall.
Rumor is that the team will expand slightly in 2009, but remain 10 or fewer runners. While no official announcement has been made regarding the 2009 Pearl Izumi-Smith Team, potential athletes can contact team manager Aric Manning at aric@teampearlizumi-smith.com. (As a side note, iRunFar is glad to see that the team is managed by an ultrarunner.)
The team’s website is well laid out and the blog has been frequently updated for the past month, although many of the entries appear to largely mirror those found on the runners’ individual blogs. Most of the blog posts are accounts of the team members’ running adventures. The team intends to expand the scope of the pots going forward. To date, there are few comments on the blog other than those by team members, but iRunFar believes that is due in large part to the word not yet being out about the team or its website. We know we wouldn’t mind plugging into a community that includes the likes of these four.
Team Pearl Izumi-Smith’s sponsors include:
We look forward to hearing more out of Team Pearl Izumi-Smith in the future.
For more information about Ultramarathon Teams and Sponsors check out these iRunFar posts:
- 2008 Ultrarunning Sponsorship: The Big Teams
- 2008 Ultrarunning Teams and Sponsors – The Small Teams
- 2008 Ultrarunning Teams and Sponsors – Individual Sponsorships
- A Discussion of the Pros and Cons of Ultrarunner Sponsorship
- 2008 Wasatch Speed Goat Mountain Racing Team Named
Related articles:
- 2008 Wasatch Speed Goat Mountain Racing Team Named Now that Scott Mason has made it official, I can proudly announce that I’m now running as part of the Wasatch Speed Goat Mountain Racing Team. iRunFar previously covered the...
- 2008 Ultrarunning Teams and Sponsors – The Small Teams Here is the second in the iRunFar series on ultrarunning sponsorship in 2008. While the previous post focused on the largest nation-wide ultrarunning teams, this post will focus on smaller...
- Wasatch Speed Goat Racing Team Beginning in 2009 (if not sooner), the Wasatch Speed Goat Racing Team will join the ranks of sponsored ultrarunning teams. To join the team, runners will need to have 6...
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Bryon Powell is the Editor-in-Chief of iRunFar.com, which he founded five years ago. Also the author of Relentless Forward Progress: A Guide to Running Ultramarathons and a contributing editor at Trail Runner magazine, he's quickly approaching 10 years as an ultrarunner and 20 years as a trail runner. These days he calls Park City, Utah and its trails home.
All posts by Bryon Powell
You have to be pretty resourceful to find our website as no “official” announcements of the team have been made. Hopefully moving forward the website will be more of a resource for runners and athletes alike rather than just a team blog, kind of like yours. Thanks for setting the bar high for such a quality site.
2008 is more of a “soft” launch for the team. The idea being that in 2008 the team manager will work out the bugs (website, logistics, sponsors, and team members) and create a clear vision for the team moving into 2009.
I can tell you the talk is about having a team of no more than 10 athletes male and female for 2009. Beginning as a running team then expanding into other arenas such as adventure racing and triathlons.
I do not know the criteria (or requirements) for selection of runners for 2009 but I do know Aric will be making a public announcement soon for potential athletes. Aric will be crewing me in Leadville so that might be a good time for interested athletes to make contact. Or send him an e-mail
aric@teampearlizumi-smith.com
From a personal perspective I have been extremely happy with the current sponsors, in particular, PI, Smith, and Nathan. They have all bent over backwards to get this team off the ground by providing support in every way possible.
On another note, I met one of the Knipling’s (dad) at Hard Rock this year during trail marking events – very nice guy!
Scott, thanks for sharing all that info! It looks like Team PI-Smith is off to a great start and holds much promise in the future.
As soon as I hear back from Aric, I’ll post his contact info on the main post… I emailed him earlier today, but was/am going to hold off posting his email above the fold until I hear back.
Hopefully, I’ll have a chance to meet you and Aric at Leadville, where I’ll be pacing. I’ll also be at the OR show at which I suspect Aric may be as well.
Ah, Gary Knipling… he is a “gift of nature!” What a cool guy!
Yo trailgoat – be sure to look me up during the LT100 weekend; I’ll be up there crewing/pacing my buddy Rick. We’ll be the good looking guys in the CRUD shirts!
– pauld
Paul,
I’ll keep my eye out for you up at Pbville. I’ll be in a Wasatch Speed Goat shirt, hanging out with Adam Chase, and hopefully pacing someone quick (and someone slow later).