[Doylo]

I heard some story about him not being sponsored because he couldn't be arsed to fill out the form or something like that...

That was Pete i think, Berghaus headhunted him a few years ago but he couldn't be arsed getting back to them. Plonker!

[cofe]

Has he got a pilot's licence?

and he's a rock star...

[cofe]

I agree with you on this but I think it is at the mercy of what sponsors deem worth sponsoring.  They're always going to put profits before physical standards.

i agree with Mr T. you're hardly likely to want to sponsor someone, be that with t-shirts of some kind of financial incentive (trip funds, wall entry, lancia delta turbo 16v etc etc) if it is not going to benefit your brand/business. it's all about the green and influence, which also usually comes round to the green. $$$$$$$

i'm not convinced this debate is really about the ins and outs of sponsorship though.

[AndiT]

i'm not convinced this debate is really about the ins and outs of sponsorship though.

Me neither.

Oh, and thanks for agreeing with me!

[Somebody's Fool]

He was agreeing with me fool.

[Ru]

I bet the truth of the matter is that Ryan's anti-orthodox attitude to hard climbing is just the sort of apathy-chic image that some outdoor brands would like to benefit by association with.

Kind of true, but he would still have to climb things that everyone finds out about so that his anti-orthodox apathy-chic image would be noticed. Which gets you back to square one.

[SA Chris]

It worked for the Arctic Monkeys?

[BenF]

It worked for the Arctic Monkeys?

Yeah, I noticed they'd got deals from Prana and 5.10.

[SA Chris]

It worked for the Arctic Monkeys?

Yeah, I noticed they'd got deals from Prana and 5.10.

You know what  mean.

[AndiT]

He was agreeing with me fool.

And you agree with me, hence, he agrees with me. I taught you your ethical standpoint, remember.. And why don't you answer your texts any more, hm?

[Somebody's Fool]

Because you smell of fetid leeks.

[BenF]

It worked for the Arctic Monkeys?

Yeah, I noticed they'd got deals from Prana and 5.10.

You know what  mean.

Yeah, I know.  I'm just a tw*t.

[SA Chris]

It worked for the Arctic Monkeys?

Yeah, I noticed they'd got deals from Prana and 5.10.

You know what  mean.

Yeah, I know.  I'm just a tw*t.

I know, albeit an amusing one

[erm, sam]

Seems to me that the funding for good climbers is about two issues, Sponsorship by commercial companies and funding by sporting bodies.
Only one of which has really been covered so far.
To sum up my view of the commercial sponsorship side of things. Clearly a company will sponsor an individual if they believe that the association will benefit their brand. Brands have many different messages that they wish to communicate to the consumer so a brand like adidas may sponsor both Tracy McGrady (Basketball legend) and Robbie Williams, in order to communicate different messages to different people. Wether Brand a. will benefit from associating with top climber b. or top climber c. can depend on a great deal more than simply  who is the better climber.
I think that big money in sponorship is normally involved in communicating with a more mainstream consumer, rather than to a niche consumer, so climbers will only make big (or even enough to allow then to invest in a pension) money when they are sponsored by Brands who want to talk to a consumer outside of climbing. An example of this might be eg over-caffeinated sugary drink company sponsoring climbers as part of creating an envelope pushing brand message. Here the amount of money a individual will get will depend on how strongly they resonate with the consumer, and this depends on a lot more than simply how hard they climb.
The second are is that of sporting bodies giving money to high level practitioners in order that they can dedicate themselves to a given sport.
An example of this would be Sport Britain (or what ever they are called) giving money to atheletes with a good liklihood of attaining Olympic standards so they can train full time.
This comes down to the priority that a funding body eg the Government will give to a given sport. This means that not all sports are deemed to be equal. More sprinters get funding than do Clay Pigeon shooters even though both are Olympic sports. Thus, climbers need to offer Sprot Britain a thrilling and exciting benefit to funding them, agian something that will communicate to a wider audience will be more attractive than something that is only interesting to a niche group.

So then we get on to niche group governing bodies giving money to individuals. Eg the BMC. This body does not have enough money to sponsor climbers as such, but does offer one off payments for projects they deem to be worth supporting. This might be a necky alpine style expedition to a major mountain or what have you. This is an area where a change could potentially be made. Should the BMC recognise eg bouldering as a discipline worth supporting with funding. Eg a leading boulder might get funding to have a month off work to pioneer  super hard problem in europe..  This is something that could occur, if enough climbers thought it was worth doing and persuaded the BMC to do so.

The bottom line is: Nothing is going to happen just because you are good. It depends on how marketable your are, how prestigious your field is, or how hard working and politically active you are. 

[dave]

I don't think walls should be giving free entry to people who've climbed "extremely hard" outdoors at all. It could be argued that those people are the ones who need it the least, as they are already strong, instead they should be letting the shit climbers in for free cos they need it the most!

If you were going to give free entry a wall would have to set the criteria at a realistically high level - afterall you don't want all and sundy cashing in by just finding a problem that suits them, seiging it and then cashing in. afterall anyone can tick 8a if you've got the dodgy topo. bearing in mind current grade ceilings at the moment. 8a is old hat, people these days are eating pieces of shit like 8b for breakfast, so you'd be looking at 8b+/8c really. sport 9a, and trad E10. or maybe let in 8b punters if they've got a volume of them, say 6 in a year, or 30 8as in a year. and no, schoolroom ticks don't count.

[BenF]

Yeah, I know.  I'm just a tw*t.

I know, albeit an amusing one

You say the kindest things.

[SA Chris]

Hey, I'm a caring sharing kinda guy.

[Houdini]

Why should anyone get free anything? 

Get off your knees, withdraw your hand, and stop acting like a beggar - you beggar.



Got any spare change?  No.  Fuck off!