Words by Gabriel Shin

Now that I have your attention, I should tell you the real purpose of this article; not to tell you how to get sponsored, but to fully understand why and how it even happens. Maybe you think you’re a young gun with hidden talent or someone who simply deserves to be put on a team because you can hit toesides at 35mph+, I’m going to cover both of those and more.

“I’m <age> years old and have been riding for <time>, can I be sponsored by you guys?”

As someone who is entering the longboarding scene (specifically the freeride department), you typically got into it by seeing those Motion boardshop review videos of Sam and Jackson busting huge slides and you thought to yourself “I want to get sponsored by them!”. You then made it your mission to learn how to stand up slide, frontside and backside, and then got your friend to film you for a “sponsor-me” video. That’s how it generally goes.

The word “sponsor”, and “sponsorship” is tossed around way too lightly in my opinion in the longboard community. Look at a major sports, like golf or basketball, a sponsorship from Nike or Gatorade is a huge deal, the athlete signs a contract with the company that approached them and this keeps them in the partnership with that company. Why am I mentioning this? Ask yourself, what do huge companies have to gain from sponsoring an athlete?

When it comes down to it, a sponsored athlete is a marketing tool. They are the top of their team, their name is well-known among those who don’t even follow the sport that closely. For a brand, having their name associated with a top-dog athlete is huge in a marketing standpoint. Everyone aspires to be like that athlete, so what ever product they recommend, of course those who follow will concede. Think how riders like Max Ballesteros and Adam Persson have their own pro model wheels. Are they fast? Apparently Max wins races on his wheels, so yes.

In longboarding, the word “sponsored” I believe is appropriate when referring to a racer, such as Patrick Switzer, Jimmy Riha, or Rachel Bruskoff, their sponsors support their racing career and in return, the riders tag their sponsors in their instagram posts, wear their patches on their leathers, and hold their boards high on the podium. Advertising is a huge part of a company’s success, and riders are a very large part of it.





“So how do I get sponsored?”



Did you really start longboarding to get famous like that? Or maybe it was for the free gear that you couldn’t afford otherwise. The point here is that if you skate to get “sponsored”, don’t. Stop swearing out companies in instagram DMs because they refused you. Stop trying to get free gear like this, it’s not going to work, and makes you look really kooky.

The truth with trying to get someone to acknowledge you, is that there are so many variables that all have to fall into place that while I wouldn’t say it isn’t worth trying, it definitely isn’t worth anyone’s time if you skate just to get sponsored. If you quit skating after hearing “no” from your favorite board company, alright, that means skating isn’t for you.

On the other hand, maybe you’re really persistent, or want to help grow the community. You don’t have to be sponsored to do that. Hosting a small slidejam on your local hill can be as simple as getting a few friends on a hill with some used gear to give away for things like longest slide, or steeziest trick. If you can pull your community together, you make yourself that much more of someone who is truly doing good in the scene.

In the end, it’s not about how badly you want it, how long your slides are, or how fast you can go, it’s how big of an impact you can have on the scene at large. I think a lot of people who ask don’t realize that it’s a two-way street, you don’t just get to walk away with free wheels or a board and say “yeah I’ll rep hard”, it’s a relationship that companies (and riders) have to think hard about and “choose” wisely. For companies, it’s an investment in the rider to have them ride for the brand. How selfish is it for someone to just expect free stuff from someone with little in return?

If you’re approaching your twenties and choose to pursue your longboarding career over school, that’s a huge gamble you’re making on something you may have just gotten into. Longboarding as a sport isn’t big enough to support even a top racer’s living expenses, and will likely not grow to that size in the next 15-ish years. Winning races won’t even cover the expense to travel for them.

Why am I even writing about this? Why tell you this information? I personally feel that there are way too many people doing things in our scene for all the wrong reasons, and not skating for the original purpose of skating- to have fun. I don’t want this writeup to be discouraging or mean, that’s the last thing I want, but I want people to understand how this bit of our community works.

The biggest point I’m trying to push with this writeup is that a “sponsorship” is NOT the end goal, the “dream”, or the result. Skate for fun, promote and support the community, don’t bring it down. That’s how we’ll all win. ❖