Responsibilities of Being a sponsored athlete
Altra Running founder Brian Beckstead and I on the Chicago Architecture Boat tour put on by Altra at the Chicago Running and Fitness Event
This past weekend, I had the pleasure of serving one of my sponsors, Altra Zero Drop shoes, at the Chicago Running and Fitness Event for Women. During event, I was interviewed by Expedition News about what I thought was going to be an article about my Chicago Urban Thru-hike, which was sponsored by Altra. Much to my surprise, the article was actually about the responsibilities of being a sponsored outdoor athlete.
I’ve run into quite a few hikers who know that I am sponsored, and wonder what it takes to be sponsored. I would say there are two things
Genuine enthusiasm for the product and the company: I run into a lot of hikers who want a sponsorship—any sponsorship from any company and they don’t care if they’ve never used the product before. I get it. Hikers love free stuff. But too often, I hear stories about sponsored athletes bagging on gear to other hikers—even offering other hikers cash to trade one of their sponsored pieces of gear for another piece of gear that works better. It does you as a hiker no good to carry garbage gear. And it does the company a lot of harm when you openly complain about your sponsored gear. I would say always drop a couple Benjamins paying retail prices for gear, take it for a couple thru-hikes, and know that you love it before you even consider trying to get a sponsorship from the company.
Giving back: Sponsorship is a two way street. From a company’s perspective, by investing in you as an athlete, they want to know their money is well spent. By “well spent,” I mean that they are getting more bang for their buck than if they did traditional marketing. Andrew Skurka wrote an article about sponsorships back in 2011 that covers the topic well and writes about the different tiers of sponsorship, an important distinction. I always try to mention my sponsors whenever I talk to media folks and provide photos of me using the gear (that isn’t really hard to do…what with me actually using the gear all the time)
Be a role model: What goes around comes around. I know a few hikers who are really accomplished, but have the wisdom, foresight, responsibility, and class to realize that there is more to being a sponsored athlete than just getting free stuff. One friend specifically said that being sponsored isn’t it worth it to him because he would feel like he couldn’t party in town as much as he would like to if he we representing a company. I have the utmost respect for him for having the kind of honesty and authenticity to come to that conclusion. Additionally, I try to be a role model within the community by volunteering with several outdoor related non-profits.
For more info on this topic, check out the article from Expedition News about Jeff Blumenthal (who also wrote a book about sponsorships) and his take on giving back to sponsors.
