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by Chuck Gleason - April 2010
  Being
the owner of BarefootCentral.com and Eagle Sports, I get at least 3
requests each week from skiers asking to be on our sponsored team,
whether that be Team BFC or Team Eagle. BarefootCentral is focused
on barefooting only, but at Eagle Sports we're marketing to a much wider
audience including slalom skiing, wakeboard, hydrofoil, waterski racing,
jump, triathlon, surf etc..., so I get a lot of requests.
Unfortunately, though we'd like to, we
can't sponsor every skier that requests sponsorship. We have a
fixed budget going into each season for athlete sponsorship and the way
we run our program prevents us from sponsoring more than a hand full of
key athletes. When an athlete is offered a spot on our promo team,
what that means is from that point on, they are not having to pay for
the equipment we provide them for their training. Each year, each
one of our sponsored athletes is given new suits, heater tops, ropes,
handles, shorts, apparel (t-shirts & board shorts), stickers, travel
expenses paid, promotional banners and access to new products before
they hit the market. We figure we spend an average of $1500
per year on each athlete. The athletes on our team that have the
most success and interact with you (the audience) the most, can earn
monthly salaries of anywhere from $150/mo up to $2500/mo. The most
Barefoot Central has ever paid a sponsored athlete was around $2500/mo +
free equipment, while at the same time, Eagle was forking out $500/mo
for that same athlete. Grand total of about $36,000 per year. Not
bad pocket change.
We've re-organized our payout and sponsorship programs over the last few
years to make sure we don't overpay any one single athlete ever again.
Today, most every athlete on our sponsored team is getting free
equipment (custom suits, ropes, handles, drysuits, etc...), plenty of
promotion, some travel expenses covered, and the ability to make extra
cash participating in our sponsored events such as the BFC Freestyle
Challenge, Masters Challenge, Showski Challenge, etc..., and ability to
make extra cash hosting clinics on our private lakes here in Texas.
 Many
skiers want to be involved with BFC or Eagle, but don't want the
limelight. For those skiers, we've developed the "Get Involved and
Get Rewarded" program. It's a great way to earn credit towards new
gear from BFC or Eagle Sports. This program is only offered by
BarefootCentral.com. Skiers such as Clint Veivers from Australia
and Daniel Laraviere from Canada, have each earned nearly $1000 worth of
FREE equipment. If you have questions about this program, please
feel free to contact them directly for feedback.
That's a quick summary of the Team BFC
and Team Eagle sponsorship programs. We don't have many spots on
the team, so we select the skiers that we feel will represent us the
best and more importantly appeal to and interact with you, the audience,
the best. Just because you're a National or World Champion has
very little relevance. It's more about that athletes desire, drive,
willingness to help others, and willingness to share themselves with the
rest of us. Athletes that are consumed with their own self
interests don't do well on our teams.
 For
the thousands of skiers that aren't on our promo team, we developed a
Team BFC pricing discount program to help offset costs of new gear each
year. It's a program that saves you 15% on every purchase you make
on BarefootCentral.com each year. Membership is $50 for the first
year and $30 for every year after. New members receive a hat,
visor, & Team BFC sticker. This program has saved shoppers tens of
thousands over the last 10 years. Most recently, Team BFC members
can now get 15% off at Ron Scarpa Watersports.
Total Cost to be a sponsored skier
on Team BFC or Team Eagle: $0.00
Expectations: write articles, take pictures, make videos
and share them with the world on BFC
Benefits: $1500 free equipment from a variety of
manufacturers, travel expenses paid, promotion, free instruction from
other team members such as ADV, invites to participate in events such as
Pro Tour stops, Freestyle stops, opportunity to work directly with
factory to develop and test new gear, tons of promotion on the worlds #1
barefoot website. 
Now that we've looked at BFC's and
Eagle's sponsorship programs, let's take a look at some of the other
programs offered by companies such as Ron Scarpa Watersports, Barefoot
International, and the new World Barefoot Center.
 I
would bet that Ron Scarpa Watersports has been sponsoring barefooters
longer than any other, but when you visit their website, you find no
mention of any type of Team Scarpa program. When we asked them
about why this was, the answer we got was, "We never really thought
about promoting it. We hand pick a few skiers each year to sponsor
their training. If we see a kid with the talent and desire to train to
become a world class footer, but maybe not the funds to train as much
with us as they need to, we work with the family to assure the skier
gets the time and instruction they need.
Ron has always run the biggest, and
most successful barefoot training school. Running 3 boats requires
a lot of help. So each season, he offers a hand-full of young
up-and-coming skiers the chance to work at Ron Scarpa Watersports in
return for room and board and all the skiing they can get. As an
employee of RSWS, you don't make much money, but you get the basic needs
(food & lodging) covered. As a member of the RSWS team, you get
immersed in barefoot waterskiing 24/7. You get training and
instruction from Ron, Paul, and the other footers that work along side
you. You also get to meet footers from all over the world as they
come in to train each season. World Class footers such as Brett
Sands, David Small, Lane Bowers, Paul Macdonald, Keith St. Onge and many
many others have all come into the elite levels of the sport through Ron
Scarpa's instructor development program. RSWS Team instructors are
kitted out with RSWS suits and apparel.
Though Ron Scarpa doesn't require
his athletes to participate in local and national barefoot tournaments,
they highly recommend it to them. They've never made it a
requirement because the skiers that they sponsor are typically of the
competitive nature and have the desire to compete. But if a team
member can't make a tournament for any reason, they aren't kicked off
the team because of it.
Total Cost to be a skier sponsored by RSWS:
varies by family - $0.00 to 50% off regular fees
Expectations: train hard, compete and excel
Benefits: free training
Total Cost to be a instructor at RSWS: $0.00
(or should we say, ability to live on a little bit of nothing. Many
instructors have part time jobs while working at RSWS)
Expectations: train hard, work you ass off, do whatever
RSWS asks of you
Benefits: free training, food & lodging, free equipment
necessary for training, 25% off all other equipment, networking with
other footers. Frequent encounters to Team Eagle and Team BFC skiers.
The two teams compete with each other but have a lot of fun doing it.
Mike Seipel has been around the sport
for as many years as Ron Scarpa. He used to run a ski school in
Florida where he'd employ instructors in the same way Ron does, but he
shut that business down, relocated to Wisconsin, and now concentrates
his efforts on helping the rest of his family run Barefoot
International, a manufacturer of booms, towers, fat sac systems, dry
suits and barefoot wetsuits.
Barefoot Central does a lot of business with Barefoot
International. They make a good quality product here in the US and
we love supporting US based businesses. But when it comes to
sponsorship, it's hard to find any real details or set plan for how and
who Mike sponsors. I don't think he sponsors anyone outright,
meaning he doesn't offer any skier equipment at no charge. Most
every encounter we've had with Mike over the years has come down to Mike
offering sizable discounts on equipment as sponsorship, but never
anything completely free. He doesn't seem to have a set target
athlete. He looks more at the exposure his company may get.
For instance, if you're a promo boat owner looking for an super fly
high, you may be able to convince Mike to sell you a SFH at wholesale
cost if he knows you'll be pulling Nationals. Or if you own a ski
school, he'll sell you a SFH or tower boom at a deep discount to assure
BI has the exposure.
There are skiers, such as the Hellers located in Wisconsin, that have
skied in BI for years. "Mike has always been good to us" quotes
Blake Heller, father of the two girls. When asked what Mike does
for the girls, it's hard to get a straight answer. As for skiers
on BarefootCentral.com's promo team that elect to ride or use BI gear,
we usually work deals with BI that split the cost of the equipment 50/50
between BI and BFC. This has always worked out. Mike has
never turned down an opportunity to co-sponsor a skier due to the
promotional factor.
BI doesn't have a member, or
frequent purchaser program for the general skier. But if you ever
attend an event such as ThinkTank or Footstock, you'll find that Mike is
always there offering deep deep discounts on equipment. He has a
reputation for really pissing off his retailers by selling equipment at
prices lower than what he charges them for it. He gets around the
argument by calling everything factory seconds. One of my favorite
quotes about Mike came from Ron Scarpa. When asked what Ron thinks
of Mike's selling tactics, he thought a bit, then answered, "Mike has
never let a little thing like ethics ever get in the way of making a
sale". From a retailer's standpoint, we deal with Mike's selling
antics because his family runs a business that makes one hell of a good
product, has inventory in stock 90% of the time, and rarely mess up on
invoicing, shipping, etc....
Total Cost to be a skier
sponsored by BI: varies by family - typically 25-50% off
retail pricing.
Expectations: a lot of exposure in pictures in magazines
and videos
Benefits: one-time discounts on higher priced equipment
such as booms, towers, etc...
The last program we'll discuss
is one set out by the new WBC, which is a partnership between
Keith St. Onge, his Uncle Swampy and David Small. Their
sponsorship program is found on their website, but it's a bit
harder to understand the details of it, so we've done our best
to help you out. What is shown in italics is copied directly
from their website:
WBC Customer Loyalty Program:
WBC is now opening a new policy
to our school called the WBC Customer Loyalty Program. This is a
way for us to recognize and reward our loyal customers and
supporters. Join the crew for a small membership fee to receive
a 15% discount on all pro shop items AND SKIING. This is now the
only place in the world where a membership can earn you deals on
the cost of training.
The discount
program is a copy of BFC's discount program. The
difference in the programs is the WBC annual membership is $60
compared to BFC's $50 initial, then $30 every year after.
You can buy a BFC membership on-line and see your discount
prices live as you shop. The WBC on-line shopping doesn't
allow this, which kind of defeats the purpose of on-line
shopping. We're unsure if the WBC ships anything such as
hats, shirts, or stickers as part of a membership package.
There's nothing on their site stating as such, so we're fairly
certain they don't.
As for the
statement that the WBC loyalty program is the only place in the
world where membership can earn you deals on the cost of
training is no true. BFC members enjoy 15% off at Ron
Scarpa Watersports and enjoy the same type of savings at BFC
sponsored clinics with skiers such as Andre De Villiers, Paul
Macdonald, etc...
WBC Sponsored Athletes:
In order to reach our goals, we need to be sure that we have
members who want to go all the way and are completely committed
to improving and doing things the right way. The WBC Sponsored
Athlete qualifications include:
-attending all major tournaments
-willingness to help in all aspects of Barefooting (such as
helping out during tournaments, taking pictures/videos, and
writing articles)
-commitment to the school and spending time there
-courtesy
-openness to teamwork
-professionalism/class both on and off the water
-ability to represent the school and sport in an exceptional way
-and most importantly a burning desire to be among the best.
There will be no set qualification scores. All athletes will be
expected to spend at least 10 skiing days per year at the
school, and must be dedicated to learning and progressing in the
sport. If chosen, the skier is a part of The WBC Sponsored
Athletes Program, and will be expected to honor all above
statements. All WBC Sponsored Athletes will receive a 25%
discount on all equipment, pro shop items, and lessons, as well
as a deep discount on room/board and a new KSO suit.
At the time
of this article, the WBC was showing 14 sponsored athletes.
They're categorizing their team into two distinct classes
(Athlete vs Elite). The Athlete section is by far the
largest, whereas the Elite section only has three (Keith, David
and A.J. Porreca). Since David and Keith own the business,
they can't count themselves as sponsored, so in reality, they
only have one Elite skier (AJ).
Back to the
Athlete class. This class is made up of all 3-Event
barefooters. Reading the benefits, the major benefit is
25% off gear and training. But to get it, each skier has
to commit to 10 skiing days per year at the ski school, attend
ALL major tournaments (we'll assume Regionals and Nationals),
and be willing to help out during tournaments taking
pictures/videos/&writing articles.
This sounds
great on the front end, but we put the math to it and see what
all this is going to cost us before we sign on.
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Overall costs of being a
Sponsored Athlete at WBC |
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10 days at KSO - 25% |
$ 1,185.00 |
790 per week x 2 weeks
minus discount |
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$ 2,000.00 |
Average cost of 10 days in
hotel (125/night), food ($20/day) and 2 round trip
airline tickets each season ($350) |
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Major tournaments required
to attend |
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$ 125.00 |
Regionals entry fee |
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$ 650.00 |
Hotel (2 days x $125), food
(2 x $100), & travel ($200) to Regionals |
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$ 175.00 |
Nationals entry fee |
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$ 1,425.00 |
Hotel (5 days x $125), food
(5 x $100), & travel ($300) to Regionals |
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Yearly Equipment needs |
$ 586.00 |
1 suit ($309), 1 heater
shirt ($77), padded shorts ($70), trick handle ($130) |
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Discount
(25%) |
$ (146.50) |
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Cost to meet minimum
requirements |
$ 5,999.50 |
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At the end
of the day, this doesn't read much like a sponsorship program.
Though getting 25% off seems enticing, you need to be aware that
you're buying into much more. WBC school rates are the
highest of all schools and if at anytime you find yourself in a
position not to be able to attend the school for the 10 days,
you might find yourself on the phone with Uncle Swampy
explaining that you'd better shape up or ship out. When
you look at the fact that Keith is manufacturing equipment in
China but still selling it at full retail rates similar to Eagle
and BI, his margins on that equipment are at a minimum 60%.
So though giving his athletes a 25% discount looks good, Keith &
David are still making 35% margin on that equipment. 25%
off their personal time is yet again still very profitable to
the school.
At the end
of the day, this sponsorship program has little to do with
giving back. It's a very creative marketing strategy to
convince 3-event skiers to join and buy equipment and training
from WBC.
Elite
Team WBC:
The Elite Team will also be expected to have all of the same qualities
and ambitions as the WBC Sponsored Athletes but, on top of this, the
Elite Team is meant to be made of truly Elite skiers. We want skiers who
are well rounded and who stand out in ALL 3 events. To qualify, the
applicant must meet at least one of the following scores. Boys: 17.2 in
slalom, 7,000 in tricks, and a 24-meter jump. Girls: 14 in slalom, 2,500
in tricks, and a 14-meter jump. The remaining two events must meet the
following. Boys: A 14 in slalom, 5,000 in tricks, and a 20.5-meter jump.
Girls: A 10.2 in slalom, 2,100 in tricks, and an 11-meter jump. Again,
any interested must provide a bio including
current PB’s and accomplishments (see worldbarefootcenter.com for
examples) your future goals/ambitions both short and long-term, and a
small description of what you believe you can bring to the table and
what you will be willing to do for the team. If chosen, the skier is a
part of the Elite Team WBC, and will be expected to honor all above
statements.
Though the
description above doesn't state that the WBC elite athletes get FREE
equipment, we're going to assume they do. I'd hope someone like
A.J.Porreca isn't naive enough to accept a sponsorship without free
equipment having worked that hard. This is truly the real gauge of
what the WBC is willing to invest back into their sponsored skiers.
It's always a lot harder to sign the checks to cover the cost of free
equipment you're giving away than it is to sell equipment at a discount.
Having so many
skiers on their sponsored team, the WBC should be looking at new and
creative ways to showcase those skiers and even run WBC cash prize
tournaments to allow them to earn back some of those training dollars
spent at the WBC. I'd like to see the WBC budget money spent at
their school by their sponsored athletes (14 x $1,185 = $16,590) for
more creative things that the sport could truly benefit from. If
you want to be the biggest and best, you'll need to start investing much
bigger dollars back into the sport.
Total Cost to be a skier
sponsored by WBC: $5,999.50
Expectations: ski 10 days a year at WBC, buy equipment from
WBC, attend all major 3-event tournaments, write articles, take
pictures, make videos for WBC website.
Benefits: bio page, 25% discount on gear and training at
KSO Ski School |
