Getting Sponsored - Part II

Choosing Wisely

Words by Dave Norona.
Date: 2008-11-13

When I started racing I decided that I wanted to work with certain companies. At the time I was 19 and I thought of myself as a ‘badass’. I often wore a Mohawk to races aka Glenn Plake and had skulls and crossbones on my ‘short short’ running shorts. Yeah, I know it sounds nerdy but back then I thought I was the bomb!

I decided that I wanted to be sponsored by badass companies. Oakley was one of them. They made the coolest glasses back then, they still do, and I remember writing my first letter to them. They did not respond.


 Dave's mohawk hiding safely under his lid.

After half a year of me sending in results and subsequent media coverage that I had received from either my results or my Mohawk madness, I received a call. It was Oakley and they were offering me cost on their product. I was so excited and of course I told everyone that I was sponsored…and that I was a top tier athlete! (I was a young brash athlete and I knew nothing)

Through this experience I started to learn what sponsors wanted. At my level, which was the bottom, they wanted to know where I was and what I was doing without them having to work to find this info out. Marketing people are busy trying to bring in money for the company, not just sitting there surfing the net to try and find out where their athletes are.


 Riding Pipeline and proudly repping his sponsors.

I started a newsletter in 1992 to deal with this. I taught myself in Microsoft Word and used Word Art for the title and added photos of me at all the events. Every month I would mail it to all my sponsors – yes snail mail - as e-mail had not yet arrived. Damn, I’m old!

A funny thing happened, I would get calls back from sponsors or when I called them for product they actually would ask me questions about my trips and events. These were things they would have only known if they had read my newsletter. I was more stoked that they were reading it than I was about getting sponsored in the first place.

The best feeling was when one of my sponsors from Oakley and Giro at the time said, “It is so awesome that I know where you are and what you are doing throughout the year.” He then said to me that most of his athletes never send him anything and he only hears from them again before the next season when they need more stuff.

I have to ask you, what kind of athlete do you want to be?

Because I was racing mountain biking, running, paddling, cross-country skiing and in-line skating, I also was able to give my sponsors a lot of exposure year round. All this led to acquiring more sponsors. These were companies that I wanted to work with because I was already using and buying their products. I did not blanket companies and take the best deal. I sought after the ones that I liked and worked hard at getting on board with them.

When these companies sponsored me they were easy to represent, as I loved them already. In fact this is the reason I am still sponsored by these same companies today. Yes things happen and we have to move on to different companies but one thing that I instilled in myself from the very beginning, and still hold in high regard today, was that I did not want to be with a bunch of different sponsors each year; I wanted to work with them forever. I have been with some of my sponsors for 15 years. Pretty cool.

So I ask you to choose your favourite companies wisely and let them know why you’re choosing them. Aspire to be like Ned Overend and other legends who have turned their sponsorships into full time jobs with the same companies. Very Cool!

In case you missed it, part one of Dave's getting sponsored series is here.

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