I would really love to believe this is true, however, after a conversation with Tate about this a few years ago at a competition, he confirmed it. Heres how the convo went....(Of course not exact since it was at least 4 years ago)
Tate: What shoes does your program wear?
Me: Nike
Tate: Why not ours?
Me: A few of my girls got them, and they fell apart after one season, and they stretch out pretty quickly.
Tate: Think about competition runners, they replace their shoes after almost every run. Our shoes are designed after shoes made for other sports like this, you can't get a shoe that is this light and expect them to stay together for more then a year.
@marianicole1216, That sucks that your shoes started to fall apart!
Rudags, I completely agree that I would rather buy a pair of shoes from a shoe company. That's why we go with Nike.