Burroughs' Training Shoe May be Huge Deal for Wrestling

Jordan Burroughs has been the best wrestler on the planet for the last five years. It is really hard to dispute that until he somehow comes up on the short end this year. By all measures of his latest progress from his injury that held him to "only" winning a bronze in 2014, he will pull all doubt away from that statement in Las Vegas this September at the World Championships. 

With this much deserved fame the JB Elites were released to much fan fare. Asics has always been my favorite wrestling shoe manufacturer so the success of them with the name of the best wrestler on the planet was a no brainer. There was worldwide success too. How cool was it to see Tsargush lose in the Russian nationals to a guy wearing bright, shiny gold JB Elite's?

Now Asics is getting close to not only releasing the 2nd generation of the JB Elite's (looked badass when he wore them at Beat the Streets a couple weeks ago), but also a cross-training shoe. This is absolutely huge. 

Burroughs is the biggest wrestling star in the USA right now, and that comes with some draw if you are a company looking to sponsor somebody far more than being able to say he is an Olympic Gold medalist. Every year the NCAA Championships fill an arena while youth & high school numbers are on the rise. If there's that many people, companies are going to pay attention. Asics appears to be doing so, and that is great as more companies may see the financial benefit to doing so. Nike is expanding their reach in to wrestling (still waiting for Oregon's program to come back before I'm anywhere near happy), and Under Armour is rumored to be doing the same. Seeing success (read: money) means there will be more corporate money flowing in to wrestling and that is a very good thing. 

Of course, the cross training shoe could be an even larger indicator. The Olympics are only a year away and maybe Asics recognizes the star power of Burroughs. He is likable, intelligent, hard working, successful, good looking, stays out of trouble, and has a beautiful family. If there is more Olympic success for JB in 2016, it may mean Burroughs won't be "just" a Wrestling star anymore. I may be optimistic, but that could be what Asics is doing with the cross-training shoe with him. After all if Jordan Burroughs isn't a star, than I don't know what one is.