How to Be Sponsored #4
Nothing is Crap!
Date: 2009-01-28
To a Sponsored Athlete Nothing is Crap
A good friend of mine who owns a successful parts business here in North Vancouver told me that a pedal that he represents was getting bad press on the mountain bike forums. Many of the people who were dissing the pedal were also crediting another pedal, which was similar. The funny thing was that these two pedals were exactly the same. Same material, same bearings, in fact made by the same company. What is going on there?
I'm not sure I know anyone who has a better life style than Dave Norona (although Lee Lau isn't far off the mark). He always seems to be out doing something cool. Backcountry skiing in light, deep powder is cool. Photo ~ Brad Dean.
We all love our particular gear and feel it is the best. Instead of this being enough many resort to saying the competition is crap to justify their product choice.
I have been fortunate to try a wide variety of competing products in several sports. One thing I have found is that it is all, awesome. What I do find is that one brand may suit a different riding style better than another brand. Does this mean it is crap? Absolutely not.
It's a good day when your sleds get buried. Photo ~ Brad Dean.
I find this attitude mostly with new or younger riders and it is cool that they love the sport so much that they want to talk about every aspect of the sport until the cows come home. However if you do not like a specific product or it is not working for you then say it like it is and back it up with a real world comment. If the product actually did suck then no one would buy it or use it and it will not be around for very long so there is no use going there. The real fact is that we all have a particular brand that we love or dislike and this is what is great about being able to choose what you like.
There is nothing worse than slagging a company or its products. It makes you look bad and will definitely not ramp up your sponsorship aspirations.
Not too proud to shuttle. Dave shares the back of a pickup with (clockwise from Dave at lower right) Joe Schwartz, Arthur Gaillot and Steve Mitchell.
I know a rider who had a small sponsorship with a bike company. Some of the new frames were cracking and one day his did. He was telling everyone that he broke his frame like it meant that he was some sort of champ, like the bike could not handle his power or huge air. I said to him after he had mentioned his story to another group of people that maybe it would be better to talk to the company and let them know before sending this out to the world. He told me that what he was saying was all right as he was promoting how they are replacing the frame.
The fact is that the company knew they had a problem when a few came back and they stood by their warranty and replaced all frames. However this athlete did not even realize that by telling people his story he was actually damaging that company’s rep. There is no doubt a company can and will lose sales based on negative talk from a sponsored rider. Companies in the bike industry are pushing technology and developing product that provides more performance. This progression is bound to lead to some failures. Every company goes through this and if you work with them you get a lot more respect than if you don’t. Needless to say he did not get his sponsorship renewed.
I work with particular brands however it has never stopped me from checking other brands out and recognizing when they have come up with something new and exciting. One of my contacts at Shimano said it best, “ I would rather our components be compared to companies like SRAM and others great products instead of us beating a bunch of bad component companies. It is what pushes us each day to builder better stuff!”
The next time you diss a company, store or product just remember that everyone makes little mistakes, maybe even you, and don’t you love it when you do that and someone forgives you instead of taking that opportunity to make a fool of you? The company that sponsors you feels the same.
Dave Norona
Noronalife.com
This is bound to be controversial. What do you think about Dave's message and his advice? I can see this could like different from each perspective. It would be interesting to hear from a few consumers, some sponsored or aspiring athletes and some industry insiders from the product, PR and team/marketing depts - and from smaller companies as well.
Give us your take - you can even do it as an undregistered user on the DL on this part of the forum - but you'll go through the mod queue for approval. Let 'er rip...
Here's Dave and some buddies ( You'll see Brad Dean, Kim Duess, Simon Beller and Dave Norona in that order) enjoying some safe backountry skiing when the avalanche danger was high in late December.
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