.
Isn’t the purpose of having team sponsors to promote their brands? What incentive does a company have to sponsor a team if the members are using competitors brands? Talk to many of the non-pros who have sponsorships, I would assume 80% of the products are paid for at a discount rate. Until you can provide large marketing exposure and influence for a company, do not expect them to hand you things. (From a company aspect, I can see how dealing with sponsorship applications becomes challenging with people mostly concerned about what they are getting and not as much about what they are providing.)
I would assume you can still say “No” and walk away without any negative impact.
If you want a free bike, you should check out the post that was up a few days ago with the company taking riders to blog/post about the bike and they get to ride it for a year.
It seems that you signed up for something you should not have. If you did not think that you would be willing to follow their guidelines or do what they want you to do you should have not applied and let someone else in.
The way I see it is an opportunity to try something new and see the sport from a different point of view.
So, in a nutshell, I have to pay in order to promote their technology. That just doesn’t seem quite right.
That’s essentially what consumer products are all about. Does the Nike swoosh serve any structural or performance functions? No - it’s further promotion of the brand. You basically pay for the shoes and the promotion of those shoes. In this particular case, you’re just one small piece in a much larger marketing puzzle. It appears as though the ROI for putting units in the field isn’t conducive to giving them away. That’s the case with most sponsorship deals.
This was out last year too… Same kind of deal. If you are active in the community and support local shops, owners and events you can generally work up your own deal better than any “sponsorship” deal someone is offering. The only thing is that you don’t have some national brand on your jersey.