Did you hear?… GU takes on a few more small title sponsorships

The little guy GU is stepping forward to take on a few more small title sponsorships to keep and to build its market position. The company, Sport Street Marketing, has just signed a several three-year title or category title deals — one with Sierra Nevada Ultras to sponsor three trail events, Way Too Cool 50K (title sponsor), American River 50 (energy gel sponsor, with title held by Montrail and Patagonia), and the Western States 100 (energy gel sponsor); and the other deal with Ironman in Hawaii and the Ironman North America Series where the company will be the category title as official energy gel, says promotions manager Eric Gilsenan. “Finally, we’re getting some title sponsorships,” Gilsenan told SNEWS®. “What it takes to get these is a good race director who cares about his athletes. We can then step up and take advantage.” Gilsenan says GU can’t begin to compete with the large promotional budgets of other companies like Nestle-owned PowerBar. But these core athletic events will retain the top-end athletes. GU is also racking up huge sales spikes, he said. In only the first two months of 2002, sales are already up 25 percent over the first three months of 2001.