Earlier this morning Mat Fraser announced that he signed a sponsorship deal with shoe and apparel giant Nike.

The 24-year-old from Colchester, Vt. began as a competitive weightlifter and trained at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs after high school before his Olympic dreams were derailed by injury.

After recovering from back surgery and getting back into the game, Fraser hit a milestone goal of a 300kg total and decided to leave the sport. Upon enrolling in college the following year, he stumbled onto CrossFit and has been unstoppable since. He placed 5th at his first Regionals in 2013, and then last year won Regionals and finished runner-up at the CrossFit Games.

Signing a high profile athlete like Fraser, the second fittest man on Earth, is the latest sign that Nike is serious about making inroads into the elite fitness space and challenging the industry’s top endorser, Reebok.

The company has already inked Josh Bridges, Jeff Evans, Lauren Fisher, Nate Schrader, Khan Porter, Brandon Swan, Kenny Leverich, Jacob Heppner, and Alexandra LaChance to it stable of athletes and also has a deal with the CrossFit Invictus team.

Jacob Heppner recently shared a photo of a Nike prototype which rivals the functionality and comfort of the Reebok Nanos after receiving his pair a few days ago:

 

Early Christmas gift from #Nike - bet they look better on my feet than in our tree. Thanks so much guys! February is right around the corner. #NikeProTraining

A photo posted by Jacob Heppner (@jheppner66) on Dec 12, 2014 at 11:42am PST

Nike has informed consumers that they are to release this shoe sometime this February. While it is clear that the athletes competing in the 2015 CrossFit Games will be outfitted in Reebok, one must begin to wonder how long it will be before that logo is replaced by the
Nike Swoosh.

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