# @pvellner on Instagram

- **Type:** Image
- **Original URL:** https://www.instagram.com/p/DZQXAyMCYbO
- **Gondola URL:** https://gondola.cc/posts/66353146-pvellner-instagram
- **Thumbnail:** https://img.gondola.cc/tr:w-,h-,fo-auto/postThumbnails/c91abaafe9.jpg
- **Posted:** 2026-06-06T19:08:29.000+00:00
- **Account Owner:** Vellnerd (@PVellner) — https://gondola.cc/PVellner

## Caption

#SaturdayStorytime - New Heights
In 2021 I made a big career decision and switched my main apparel sponsor from Reebok to tyrsport after a long stint. I ruminated on it a lot before making the call and at the time I got hit with a lot of “TYR? Like the swim brand?”. The irony of that isn’t lost on me, but I trusted their vision expanding into training and history has been kind to my decision.
That said, in the early days the TYR training line was limited and they hadn’t developed their first shoe yet. Over that first year I started to realize that,if you were paying attention, sometimes members of their core team would wear around prototypes of shoes or apparel and In early 2022
I sniped the first pair of trainers on matt.dilorenzo feet. 
Now I happened to be doing an open announcement about a month after and we talked about how it would be a fun tease for the release since we were allowed to wear whatever shoes we wanted. Matt loved the idea, but the problem was he had the only pair and they were a full size too small for me. We shrugged and said “it’ll probably be fine” and he gave me the show’s ofd my feet and sent me on my way. 
22.1 was in Boulder Colorado with nohlsen . I squished into my shoes and hoped the movements were kind to my feet. Box jump overs and wall walks. Ouff. A lot of jumping and slamming my toes into the floor Coming off the wall made for a long workout. My saving grace is that we were also at altitude so my mind was also distracted by training to breather 😂.
Anyways even by open standards it was uncomfortable, but my toes went numb pretty quick. I was well advised to take a slow start given the altitude vs Noah who loves a fast start. My slower steady approach overtook him as he flamed out a little bit in the end and I got a W. I’m 2-1 against Noah in open announcements now 😂
It was a fun way to showcase a new product drop and create a little buzz, and who doesn’t wanna be part of a team where the owner will give you the shoes off his feet right?
#teamTYR #openannouncement #owmytoes

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## Tags

teamtyr, owmytoes, openannouncement, saturdaystorytime

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