ok, i am relatively new to the sport (2 years or so) and i was wondering–out of pure curiosity–if AG athletes can get “sponsorships.” i’ve heard of some companies offering the better AG athletes stuff at cost. with all of the talk about companies battling for the pros, i was just wondering if/how AG athletes got sponsored. if at all, i imagine they would have to be national-level calibur at the least. once again, i am just curious–I am a MOP’er (4:42 HIM)–i am asking because i just got smoked by some really fast guys at a local race and was wondering about sponsorships. for now i’m happy to be “racing for the hell of it.”
Absolutley. high ranking AG’s get sponsorships…
Personally I know of 1 AG who has the following sponsors.
GU
Computrainer
CAT
Aegis
Syntace
sweet… is this a triathlete? did they seek out the sponsor? i.e. did the call up AEGIS and say “ehy, i’m ridin’ your bike and i’m kickin’ ass, so what can you do for me?”
I have to chime in here becasue I’m a loud mouth know it all, but I am not Gerard or Herbert.
There are sponsorships and there are contributions.
Sponsorships are a business arrangement between an agency, athlete, team and a company with aproduct to sell. The bottom line is: Sales. When a company enters into a sponsorship arrangement with someone they have one question: How can you sell more goods for me? How can we quantify it?
A contribution, often done locally under the guise of “sponsorship” is when certain athletes, individuals or organizations are given product/cash/consideration/discounts as protection money, favors, support for charitable events, good will, etc.
When an athlete appraoches a company with a sponsorship proposal I suggest the first thing out of your mouth and on your resume should be something to the affect of, “I will increase your sales of XXXX by XXX amount by doing this, that and the other thing.”
That is a compelling pitch (provided you fill in the “XXXX” parts with something tangible.)
Sponsorship is sales.
see www.javelintriathlonteam.com for info on AG sponsorships
.
Sponsorship is a relatively vague term as there are really various levels of sponsorship. Even among pros you find that there are varied levels of sponsorship, from getting free product and bonuses, to “just getting products”, to having use of a bike for the season, to buying bike at a discount. Yes, that is even true for pros.
Regarding agregroupers there are various discount levels which are typically handled through local bike shops (as the sponsored athlete is supposed to drive business to that shop). Usually what happens, in the late fall of each year athletes send in their resumes and proposals for the season ahead and by late december we make decisions on who we support at which level and of course it also depends also on the budget availability. Because even a discount of a bike goes against the marketing budget.
I hope this helps.
Herbert
Litespeed/QR
-I am a MOP’er (4:42 HIM)–
What part of the country is 4:42 MOP? I want to know so I can stay away from those races and at least try and fool myself into thinking I am a MOP. 
Thanks Herbert–and to everyone else–i’ve always been curious how that side of the business worked. Herbert–is the process you mention below pretty standard for all bike companies? do you look solely at the athlete’s credentials? or do you also take into account the area in which the athlete will be training/racing in (for an AGer)?
depends what you have to offer the company and who you know. I am no hugely talented athlete, but because I have a coaching business and am well known in the sport (14 years), I have more sponsors that give me free stuff than a lot of pro’s out there. The difference is that a lot of pro’s out there think that they should just be offered free stuff without giving anything back to the company…some age groupers can offer a lot more than some pro’s…now don’t get me wrong my wife was a high level pro, so I’m not bashing pro’s, just some of them.
–I am a MOP’er (4:42 HIM)–
Dude, even on a fast course, 4:42 isn’t MOP.
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in the local races i don’t do so bad, but any regional race i enter i usually get spanked. the 4:42 was at the muncie endurathon, which is a pretty fast course if you don’t mind heat. my category isn’t that huge (25-29male), but it’s full of those ex-college swimmers!! they put way too much time into me before i can make up for it on the run. so yeah, i think i’m about MOP when it all comes out. just wanted to stress that i’m asking out of curiousity and that this is not a veiled attempt at getting a sponsor.
I still say you are being too modest.
http://www.buffalospringslaketriathlon.com/bslt/results/2004/BSLT%20OVERALL%20WITH%20SPLITS.txt
or
http://www.sportstats.ca/res2004/croixh.htm
stop it–you’re making me blush. i’m really sorry i mentioned the time–it wasn’t to brag, i really just wanted to stress that this was a harmless little inquiry. didn’t want you guys to think i was too chickenshit to approach herbert/gerard in person if i was THAT good. anyway, i’m too new at this thing to know where i stand. hell, i just learned how to ride a bike (literally) 3 years ago–learned to swim soon after that. the running is the thing i suck at the least. anyway, i know there are plenty of fast guys on this board and i was curious if any of them went thru the sponsorship thing. i don’t mind living vicariously thru their DAMN FAST exploits!! this all came about after joining a local bike shop team and getting some pretty sweet deals–i was curious how an AGer would do it if they liked a particular bike/brand. modest or not, compared to most on this board i’m MOP for sure, which is fine by me. i’ll let francois and Mr. A (among many others) wow us with their times.
Having been and continue to be on both sides of “sponsorship”, the underlying questions is … “can the sponsoree help with marketing sponsor product(s), help the sponsor sell product, and drive traffic to local (or other) retail outlets?” Understanding the side of being a sponsor/retailer in the past has helped we acquire sponsors, develop relationships AND most importantly nurture these relationships. Too many athletes ask for sponsorships/gear just because they are good/fast, that only works for a select group of individuals.
whineyass i’d suggest going through your local bike shop, running store etc … work with them on a tie in between shop/company/product/you
Best of Luck!
dude, when I raced at Muncie a couple years ago 4:42 was better than top 5% OVERALL and even last year it was better than top 10%. that is way the hell better than MOP’r. It’s called All-American!
that’s a good point–i have always been really big on loyalty (get that from ma). if someone helps you out, you return the favor. showing appreciation and reciprocating should be the norm, but today it seems people are surprised when you do those things. hell, i couldn’t tell you all the things i’d be willing to do, but i ain’t at that level, so i don’t have to worry about it. i’ll stick to supporting my LBS, who has graciously allowed me to be on the newly formed “multisport” team and offered huge discounts. with all the recent threads on pros and their sponsors (and all the recent swapping among the two) i was just curious how this played out at a smaller level.
how did you like the muncie course? like i said, it was pretty flat and the wind wasn’t bad at all. the run was pretty warm and mile markers on the run were all screwed up–good thing i had a HR monitor to keep me in check. i had a good day out there and consider myself lucky. i’m not even close to being all-american though–i’d have to learn how to swim just to make all-county!! i actually have 3 training partners who have won world championships in various categories for both tri and du, so i know what that level for AG looks like. i’m headed to powerman AL in 2 weeks–that will surely be a humbling experience. last year, for example, i was 15th/21 in my AG. and i still ran 31min and 33min for the 2 8k runs!! that’s why i’m goin’ with the MOP designation.
You are doing EXACTLY the right thing … good for you! BTW - you are no MOP’er
I think it is very easy to identify Whineyass as being MOP, you just get to define “MOP” as “everybody between the first place guy and the last place guy.”
Good for you for having some good genes and good training.
i got two friends who did eagleman last year and they both missed kona by 1 spot in their AG’s. now THAT is freakin’ awesome. i guess it all depends who you compare yourself to. anyway, i think the thread has gotten a little off-topic. do any of you guys (other than ones who have spoken up) know someone getting a sponsorship/donation-type deal? don’t need to name names/companies, but how did they do it?