I was ask a question while at cyclegear, question was by a new racer, he wanted to know if there were "real" sponsor out there, hmmm I pondered , what do you consider "real" sponsors, so he goes on to say all he can find are companies willing to give him discounts, and that he considered them "vendors" he was looking to get money to either use, or endorse a part or product, that is a sponsor. I told him maybe if you can ride like maladin or if you got friends with extra cash that like you a whole, whole lot. but are his definitions correct?
Here's a quote from a recent article, published in an internet magazine which shall go unnamed. It pretty much answers your question.
"You have no hope of earning sponsorship. Sorry! You absolutely don't want to hear this but it's true. No matter how fast you may be, sponsorship is not in your future. Yes, you might manage to find a company willing to give you a paint job, a free helmet or a discount on parts or labor but no one is going to write a check for you to go club racing. If you doubt this, ask the five most successful competitors in your region who is paying for their program. The answer is that they are. In the rare event that you run across a really well financed club level team, some digging will reveal that the company paying for the show belongs to one of the team's riders, a very close friend or a relative. Aside from such a golden spoon scenario, there simply isn't any sponsorship money available to the club racer, regardless of how good he might be. The reason is simple. At a club race, there is no TV, no press coverage and no crowd of spectators. Whatever exposure a potential sponsor might get is basically limited to the competitors in attendance, their families and any other warm bodies who have decided to tag along. Worse, these "potential customers" are all racer-broke! Any company considering sponsorship would need to be selling competition parts or gear to stand any chance of making a buck from them. Such companies do exist but their owners (or the owner's kids) are almost always the sponsored racers. The bottom line is that if you want to go racing, you'll either need to burn through your parents' retirement fund or pay for it yourself."
I tend to agree, my advice to him is make good use of your discounts!
We offer 'sponsorship' to some riders. The reason? Our customer base is mostly racers, so if we offered a 'racer discount' to every racer, we may as well just lower our prices or go into another line of business.
We really want to support the sport, as do many other companies in the industry. It is industry standard that you offer your sponsor something in return. It can be as little as a patch on the leathers, a sticker or two on the bike/trailer and handing out business cards. As you climb the endorsement ladder, you may be required to have printed materials featuring your team and sponsors to hand out to fans at the track, along with team shirts, specific team colors, and eventually appearances at events promoting you & your sponsors and accompanying press releases. .
If you want money at the 'club level', then you had better be winning, like Robert Jenson. That's the kind of program that takes full time commitment and savvy. Robbie works the system like no other. He's had years to develop networking, along with the skill to back his record up year in and year out. And still, every season, he has to make sure his sponsors are happy and well represented.
So, if you are a new racer and expecting someone to write a check, however large or small, you can get in line with everyone else. Once you make all the skillful passes to catch someone like Robert, then you still need the business acumen to press the proper flesh and impress the right people. Get all that going for you, and you might get someone to scratch a few digits onto a check with your team name on it. Maybe.
I work part time in a small job shop. They used to sponsor me. They wrote me a check each year, as much as $3000.
if you look around this site i did a ton of asking about sponsorship. everyone i have asked it from has given me a different reason. some people want someone who wins races right out of the box, some want someone who will make a good name for the sport, the sponsor, and them selves, even if they dont win a thing. put together a nice resume and a website.they both help. make sure you speak well about yourself and what you can do but dont tell them your the next rossi.be ready to get a crap load of no's. eventually you will find that one person who will give you a little extra support. even if you get 5 people that offer you 10% off then that adds up. the more sponsors you get the more will want to help you. Be nice, not ungrateful. Canyon Dancer sent me a bar harness, some key chains, and some stickers. I sent people the stickers, posted one on my truck, posted 2 on my bike, and wrote a huge thank you letter. I also put his link on my site . good luck.
The sponsorship threads always kill me...
It's out there, you CAN get it, you can get quite a bit of it... You don't even need to be that good! You just have to have something to return on their investment and you'd better under-promise and over-deliver. A sticker on a bike doesn't cut it... Increase their bottom line and they'll sponsor you...
(unless of course you end up in the freak scenario where someone just throws money at you 'because')