On October 30th, I presented “Is Sponsorship a Sin?” at the annual Night of Lies in Canmore. It’s a fun evening of heckling, mockery & ridicule. Given the nature of the event (& the typical amount of beer consumed), I thought examining professional climbing would be a good fit. I’ve included a video of my talk below.
I sent this video to a few friends that weren’t there, and my friend Dave Karl, a sales rep in the northeast US, raised a good point:
Good slide show but I disagree with the three-test rule. I have IFMGA & AMGA Mountain Guides that I sponsor that are totally worthy. Their personal (non-guided) climbing accomplishments may not be noteworthy among their elite peers, but they don’t bullshit either, and they do help sell product. These guides help the entire sport and climbing community by educating the public and introducing new participants to climbing. A good mountain guide can be a great sponsorship investment.
This is a good point, and one I wish I had made during my talk. I agree with Dave that there are folks out there worthy of support that may not be on the cutting edge of climbing. They are typically local, grassroots climbers or industry-folk like guides that are in front of the target market on a daily basis. I have no objections to these athletes being supported, either by sales reps or by brands, on an informal basis.
My beef is with climbers that are put on an official, publicized pedestal by the sponsoring brand (and with climbers that are striving to be put on that pedestal) — via blogs, websites, magazines, slideshows, etc — but who really haven’t done anything of note to warrant their elevated status.
This latter group seems to be growing in numbers, and that trend needs to be reversed.
Enjoy the show…
Sponsorship Slideshow from Scott Semple on Vimeo.
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