Clayton Young joins the CITIUS MAG Podcast with some major news ahead of the spring marathon season: after seven years with ASICS, Clayton is entering a new chapter as a Brooks athlete, and will officially make his racing debut for the brand at next month’s Boston Marathon.

“Big change, 2026, new chapter in the book,” Young says. “I am proud to be a Brooks athlete at the Boston Marathon.”

This wasn’t a quick or easy switch for Young. The decision—one of the biggest of Young’s career—came after months of conversations, lab testing, and contract negotiations. He did it all representing himself, while coming back from a serious ankle injury, and trying to get ready for Boston on a compressed build.

Listeners and fans know that Young is no stranger to betting on himself in every possible way—as an athlete, as his own agent, as a creator, and as someone still chasing the biggest goals of his career. During our discussion, we discuss why Brooks felt right, what he learned through the self-representation process, and how performance remains at the center of every decision he makes.

We also get into the injury that derailed nearly five months of training, the breakthrough that got him running pain-free again, and how he’s approaching Boston.

The following interview transcript has been lightly edited for clarity and length. You can listen to the full conversation on The CITIUS MAG Podcast, which is available to stream and download on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your shows.

CITIUS MAG: You are your own agent and that was a big change for you. So this must have been pretty intensive, taking on your own footwear, apparel, and sponsorship negotiations. What was the biggest challenge?

Clayton Young: This has kind of been in the works for a long, long time. To be honest, I knew my contract with ASICS was going to be ending at the end of 2025. Early in 2024, when I decided to represent myself, I knew that this would be a big one. It's been tough. There's a reason we're doing this announcement in the middle of March—it's not perfect, it's not pretty. That's part of the sport; it's business at the end of the day.

At the same time, it's been a really cool process to get to know so many brands and people in the sport. I was able to reach out to a lot of different directors of sports marketing, go on different trips, get to know different shoes and people, and develop relationships—relationships that I know will be valuable for me as an athlete for the rest of my career, and also after this career. I'm really grateful for all the great conversations I was able to have.

It was tough, I won't lie. I'll always be grateful for ASICS and the first seven years of my pro career, and their support. But I'm really excited for this new chapter with Brooks.

CITIUS MAG: Why Brooks?

Clayton Young: When I first hopped on the phone with Brooks, I was dealing with Garrett Heath. If anybody knows Garrett, he's been in the sport for a long time. He's an athlete himself and ran for Brooks for a long time. It was great to get to know him because he was an athlete and understood me to a very deep degree. He's also really good friends with Jared Ward, and I have a great deal of respect for Jared, who always spoke highly of Garrett.

Garrett listened to me and understood me not only as an athlete, but as a dad, an engineer, and a creator. I had to be really patient, but then he put a contract in front of me that was very personal and very Clayton-specific. I really appreciated that. As part of the negotiation process, he took me and my wife Ashley out to Seattle. Anyone who knows me knows that Ashley is a big part of who I am and my decision-making process, and Brooks was great to bring us both out.

My biggest concern from the start was footwear. Performance is my purpose as an athlete. I'd been in ASICS for seven years but had no idea what performance would look like with any other brand. So one of the first things I did was get my hands on a pair of prototype Hyperion Elite 6s. I did some testing in their lab in Seattle, and with Stryd… kind of blind study: how good are these shoes? Can they compete at the highest level I'm used to? Can they perform even better? The data came back really positive, and I was excited about that.

The other cool thing was that I was coming off an injury—I'd been hurt for 18 weeks. Even testing in super shoes was precarious at that point. What I found with the Hyperion Elite 6 was how stable the shoe was for my ankle. That was a big signal.

We flew out to Seattle, and the very first meeting of the day was with their executive leadership team. It's not every day you get to meet a big company's executive team and understand why they value you and why you could value them. The next meeting was with the performance footwear team—they knew that was my focus. I walked into their lab and on the table there was just a pile of shoes. They were handing me one after the other.

They presented the Hyperion Elite 6, what's in the pipeline, what they're developing—not just from a footwear standpoint, but how they support athletes on a performance level, how they're doubling down on R&D budgets, and essentially painting a picture all the way to LA 2028. Right then, I was like, " Wow, this is a brand that really listens to its athletes.”

After the performance footwear team, I met with the marketing team. Because they knew I love to represent myself as an agent, as an athlete, and as a creator, they showed me how they could support me in all those roles and how they would help build my brand. That was really special.