He told us to stay tuned. We stayed tuned. And the answer is Brooks.
Clayton Young officially announced his new sponsorship on Wednesday, confirming he has signed with Brooks Running ahead of the 2026 Boston Marathon. The announcement ends weeks of speculation and closes the loop on a contract negotiation that Young handled entirely by himself — no agent, no middleman — while simultaneously recovering from a serious ankle injury and trying to build for Boston.
“BROOKS! BROOKS! BROOKS! I am excited to be part of team Brooks — to work side-by-side to run fast,” Young wrote on Instagram. “To bring out my best running, and also to inspire the new runners, the once-a-runners, and the hard-core runners.”
First race in the new kit? Boston. 33 days away.
A Decision Years in the Making
Young didn’t stumble into this. When he decided to represent himself back in early 2024, he already knew his ASICS contract would expire at the end of 2025. That meant two years of quietly building relationships with brands, taking trips, testing shoes, and learning the business of professional running from the inside.
“This has kind of been in the works for a long, long time,” Young told CITIUS MAG in an interview published Wednesday. “There’s a reason we’re doing this announcement in the middle of March — it’s not perfect, it’s not pretty. That’s part of the sport; it’s business at the end of the day.”
He contacted directors of sports marketing across multiple brands, took lab tours, and sat in on meetings with executive teams. By the time he flew to Seattle to visit Brooks headquarters, he came in with a clear checklist: performance footwear first, everything else second.
The Shoe That Swung It
Young has always been blunt about the fact that shoes matter. A lot. Before signing anything, he got hold of a pair of prototype Hyperion Elite 6s, took them into Brooks’ Seattle lab, and ran a blind Stryd test. He wanted the data before the conversation.
“My biggest concern from the start was footwear,” he said to CITIUS. “I’d been in ASICS for seven years but had no idea what performance would look like with any other brand. The data came back really positive.”
There was another factor. Coming off 18 weeks of ankle injury rehabilitation, Young needed a shoe that didn’t feel like a liability. The Hyperion Elite 6’s stability stood out at exactly the right moment.
The Seattle visit did the rest. Brooks walked him through their entire innovation pipeline, introduced him to the performance footwear team, and painted a picture all the way to the 2028 LA Olympics. “Right then, I was like, ‘Wow, this is a brand that really listens to its athletes,'” Young said to CITIUS.
Boston in 33 Days, on a Compressed Build
The timing is tight. Young was injured for 18 weeks from October, which left him roughly nine to ten weeks to build toward Boston. His weekly mileage has climbed from 50 to 80 to 90 to 100 to 110, and hit 128 miles last week.
It’s working, but he’s honest about where he is. “My mind might believe, my body disagrees,” he wrote on Instagram. “I don’t know where my fitness will land come race day, but I know my mindset will be stronger than ever.”
He’s also got a docuseries episode dropping on YouTube soon, documenting his decision to join Brooks and the full build to Boston. After months of quiet negotiations and a carefully managed announcement, Young is clearly ready to open the curtain back up.
Boston will tell us the rest.
