Welcome back or welcome to the Single Track podcast.

I'm your host, Finn Melanson, and this episode kicks off a mini series we are doing with a bunch of the major brands in our sport around the athlete-sponsor relationship.

First up is Steph Gardner, who serves as the Trail Marketing Manager for Solomon North America based in Ogden, Utah. Part of her role involves

working with Solomon's North American athlete team, and that's where we focus the majority of

this conversation. We talk about what's involved in the day-to-day, managing the team, how Solomon

thinks about signing athletes, retaining athletes, and creating a virtual and in-person team environment.

We talk generally about how the athlete sponsorship landscape has changed over the last decade.

We talk about social media obligation, what else is involved being a pro athlete.

We also look at Solomon's short-term and long-term strategies in the trail running space, among many more

things. I really enjoy talking with folks like Steph who are largely behind the scenes, but play a

pivotal role in making things work in our sport. Before we get started, though, I have a few

discount codes for listeners. For Kodiak cakes, use SingleTrack 15 to get 15% off your next order.

For InsideTracker, go to inside tracker.com backslash single track to get 20% off your order.

For Athletic Greens, go to athletic greens.

Go to athletic greens.com backslash single track.

That link is going to give you free vitamin D pills for a year as well as five free travel

packs when you sign up for a subscription.

These deals are possible because single track is now brought to you by the following sponsors.

First, Codiac Cates.

I'm super stoked about this partnership, almost as stoked as Chris Mako when he secured a similar

deal with them back in the Mako show days.

But seriously, if you're like me, your weekend long run is followed up with a big stack of

...