Athlos CMO Kayla Green discusses brand wins from Athlos NYC 2025

The GIST: On Saturday, the aforementioned Ohanian’s Athlos held Athlos NYC, its second annual track tournament in the iconic culture capital. The event welcomed several key wins that helped build the case for sustainable growth ahead of its 2026 expansion, from viewership increases to creative partner activations.

• We chatted with Athlos CMO Kayla Green yesterday about how and why brands are activating around the league in year two: After Toyota and Tiffany & Co. joined last year, the event had a total of 16 brand partners in 2025. Signed, sealed, delivered.

The viewership: This year’s NYC event drew 3.75M viewers across new broadcast partner ION, X, YouTube, and ESPN+, marking a 25% YoY viewership boost. Green said the event garnered over 19M social impressions as of yesterday morning, with that number continuing to climb.

The audience: Green told us Athlos focuses on three categories of people: The athlete, the core track fan, and the more casual fan that falls in love with track. The festival-like atmosphere Athlos cultivates is geared to attract the latter type of fan, something that has worked for similar niche sport competitions like the X Games.

• It’s working for Athlos, too. Like the US Open, this October NYC event is becoming a big celebrity draw, and it goes beyond musical headliners like Megan Thee Stallion and Ciara — Queen Latifah, Issa Rae, and women’s sports patron Flavor Flav were all spotted at the event.

The brand play: In addition to its two returning brands, Athlos brought in 14 new partners this year across beauty, wellness, and delivery services. While these companies wanted a presence in front of this dedicated track audience, Green emphasized partners opted for athlete-forward campaigns — they hoped to win over the stars and, in turn, their devoted fans.

• Green also said brands like Cash App wanted to go beyond logo slaps and activate in meaningful ways, so the payment platform delivered over $200K to event winners instantly. Plus, after offering athlete glam photo shoots in 2024, the Athlos team was thrilled to see Tower 28 step up as the official beauty sponsor and take care of this year’s glam shoot.

Zooming out: Athlos is doing all the right things to win over all three types of viewers, from putting athletes front and center while also converting new fans with gimmicks like its Times Square long jump event. Its marketing is working and so are its brand partnerships, which all go beyond a traditional logo presence.

• Green said all Athlos sponsors have reached out and effused about the success of their campaigns at this year’s event, which makes sense: The data tends to side with brands that roll out authentic, athlete-focused partnerships, especially in women’s sports. On your marks...