"I mean, he's a phenom, man. He's just a phenom. That's all I can say. He's scratching the surface of what he can do now....I mean, he's the real deal.”
--Zimbabwe's Brian Dzingai
It is evident that anything that has the name “Usain Bolt” on it will sell. He is undoubtedly one of the most recognized athletes throughout the world. If you are a runner, and you want to run fast, you will probably want shoes that say “Usain Bolt” on them.
Puma realized this and decided to capitalize on the young runner in 2002, signing him to a deal after he won the 200 meter title during the 2002 World Junior Championships in his hometown of Kingston, Jamaica. They went further in promoting the “Bolt Hype” prior to the 2008 Olympics in Beijing by releasing a series of videos featuring Bolt’s run in Icahn Stadium and his Olympic preparations. The nickname “Lighting Bolt” was coined by the press due to the lightening storm that occurred during Bolt’s World Record breaking run in New York City. Puma designed a track shoe specifically targeting this nickname. During the 2008 Olympic 100 meter final, Bolt laced up a pair of gold Puma Complete Theseus spikes that had “Beijing 100 Meter Gold” emblazoned upon them. PACE Sports Management, his athletic agent, was fully on board with the campaign that Puma had designed.
During an ad campaign for their high-speed broadband service, Virgin Media had Bolt impersonate Sir Richard Branson for a television commercial. Ever the funnyman, Bolt reveled in the opportunity to tap into his comedic genius. The video was directed by Seth Gordon and was part of a multi-million pound ad campaign. He has also starred in an ad for Visa and the 2012 Olympics that will be held in London, England. He has recently made an announcement via the social site Twitter that there will be a video game released by RockLive that features him.
The print media has not forgotten about Bolt. In 2010, he signed a deal with HarperCollins Publishing Company for an autobiography. The deal was negotiated by Chris Nathaniel of NVA Management and has been reported as being “very lucrative” for the Olympic sprinter. The book is scheduled to be released sometime in 2012 and during a press conference in Paris, Bolt was asked for a comment about what would be in the book He declined to comment, saying only, “you can’t really give away anything in your book… should be exciting, it’s my life, and I’m a cool and exciting guy.”