Craig Alexander Testifies: I Don’t Modify my Newtons!

There’s been a rumor floating around that Craig Alexander, aka Crowie, shaves the lugs off his Newton shoes. Now, we do know that Crowie did shave his head, his face, his legs, and most importantly, a bunch of time off his run in Kona, but NOT his shoes. To quell the rumor mill once and for all, here’s Crowie’s response in his own words:

“For a while now I have been aware of a rumor circulating that I in some way alter my Newton Running Shoes.

To be brutally honest, this is insulting to me on every level. What is being suggested is that I would promote a product to my fellow athletes and then not actually use it myself. I feel this is a massive attack on my integrity. The truth of the matter is, I ran in Newton running shoes by choice for three months before I signed on as a sponsored athlete with the company.

And in fact, when I placed second on debut in Kona last year, I was not under contract to Newton Running. I have not trained or raced in anything else since the end of July last year.

The great thing about being a consumer is you get to try products and choose what you like. So anyone considering buying running shoes, I urge you to do exactly what I did, and that is to try everything that is available and then choose the best.

If you look at the post- race photos of me at the finish line last Saturday (click photo above to enlarge), you will notice that my shoes are in no way altered from their intended state. Also, the photos of my little post-race celebration, which I heard has also been misinterpreted, will show on close inspection that nothing has been done to the shoes.

Just to clarify, I took my shoes off at the finish line to beat out the flames because they were ” smokin’ hot” after having just run a 2:45 marathon.

If in the future, anyone out there feels the need to make an ill-informed opinion about any of my sponsorships, please feel free to contact me before you make a total and utter fool out of yourself. All you are actually doing is bringing myself and a great product and company into disrepute. Have some backbone and question my integrity in person rather than through an anonymous chat site.

The people starting these rumors need to pull their heads in. You are out there intentionally spreading lies and mis-truths. I’m not sure what your agenda is, but you should have a good look at your own motives and integrity.”

Craig Alexander is the 2008 Ironman World Champion.

Now, to be clear, Newton’s head designers mad scientists have and will continue to work with our pro athletes to experiment with Newton’s shoes, ‘tuning’ the technology to test new innovations. This is a critical component of Newton’s design process; real world tests with the world’s best athletes to continue to push the envelope of shoe technology.

Stay tuned here for an upcoming preview of Newton’s spring ’09 shoes, featuring some really cool new innovations!