Meb Keflezighi was a bit of a long shot in today’s Boston Marathon today. He’s American, for starters, and American men haven’t won the race in three decades. He’s also 38, a bit old for elite running. And he was wearing Skechers.
But the shoe brand perhaps best known for putting cushy kicks on elderly women (and a creaky Joe Montana) has emphatically stomped on one of the running world’s biggest podiums with Keflezighi’s victory in Boston. “It’s a pretty massive deal for a nontraditional running shoe company,” said Eric Smallwood, senior vice president of Front Row, a Philadelphia marketing and analytics company focused on sports. “It’s definitely going to get new adopters, the 30-year-old to 40-year-old who just started running.”