Pro Athletes & Sponsors

ironhajee

Hello esteemed MFP community!

As I waste away on YouTube watching endless races, triathlons, marathons, Cycling, Track events, I notice a common theme. Brand names like Nike, Trek, PowerBar, Gatorade and many other sporting brands plastered across racing kits and apparell.

It brings me to ask the question, how do these top athletes acquire sponsors?

I've read that some athletes may even get "paid" by sponsors. So I started to wonder...How does a top athlete receive money from their sponsors?

I am looking forward as always to your insight!

Cheers

queenliz99

By winning races or contests.

ironhajee

Yes I've been reading that some athletes don't have the results to back it up yet companies fall in love with his/her character/personality and their ability to market a brand to a wide demographic.... blah blah blah ..... But my question is how?

So if they win races or contests.... does a company like Nike say boom here's a paycheck?

usmcmp

Doing well in their sport or marketing themselves well.

Most of the time a sponsorship doesn't mean a paycheck. It is gear or supplements or whatever the product is. There are perks like paid trips as a spokesperson and cash if someone appears in advertisements. I get paid and get free supplements for working a boot at a fitness expo because I marketed myself and connected with their main spokesmen. The people working the Muscle Pharm booths at Costco are paid to do that and you can find ads for it online.

Sometimes it isn't about winning, but connecting to fans and personality. Sometimes it's having a unique look or overcoming an obstacle that the company can use in promotional material.

ironhajee

@usmcmp Yes this makes sense, I've been reading that a company would much rather sponsor an individual who is good with people, able to connect etc...

The reason I am so curious is because alot of these sports do not allow the athlete to make much of a living and I have read numerous articles that confirm this... elite marathon runners scrape up a living...

Now I'm not talking sports like NBA or NHL where a guaranteed paycheck can be 500, 000 I am referring more to endurance sports, Olympic Events etc etc...

However yes if you look at some of the most established athletes in the world they have a "romantic" image about it. You just fall in love with their personality!

litsy3

For running and athletics, sports companies want people who are going to get enough media coverage that the public is actually going to see pictures of them wearing the kit. In the UK where I live, that would mean you'd need to be good enough to be on the front cover of Athletics Weekly from time to time, and then you might get some free kit and equipment. No-one would care about your personality until you were the kind of top athlete - in a popular enough sport that the general public cares about - to be interviewed on TV.

At the other end of the spectrum where personality might matter more is something low-key like ultra running, which is a small community where specialist manufacturers are marketing to quite a small group of athletes. There you can be a good brand ambassador just by being someone who completes a enough events and blogs about them, for example.