What’s your experience working with any sponsor(s) you have?

Drew Petersen:

[C]ontractually I have to do x number of social media posts and stuff like that, but I don’t think we all just work straight off our contracts. Because what I’m doing, what I’m sharing and what I’m pushing out there from Salomon is what I’d just be doing organically. So there’ll be times when I’m like, Did I actually fulfill my contractual obligations? And I’ll look back at my contract and be like, Yeah, I totally did. I didn’t even have to think about that though. I think it’s really important to be well aligned with the brand for it to be a fruitful partnership down the line.

Everything that I do at Salomon is already what I would be doing and they have that faith in me that I’m going to keep doing what made them like me in the first place.  Salomon’s very supportive and very loyal to me and the rest of the athlete team and that doesn’t go unappreciated, so I make sure that I come through for them.

Robin Munro:

I think about the fourth year RiNo Art District came along and asked to get involved and help sponsor the event and support what we are doing. So they’ve been a huge proponent of the evolution of it in the last four years, providing a much larger scope of work and budget and helping in many different avenues to grow the event.

Todd Ligare:

My first sponsor in my freeriding career was Dynastar. The team manager at the time was someone I knew through ski racing. It’s a little bit in line with what I was mentioning earlier as far as just approaching those people and being like, Hey, this is my intention, I’m going to do this now, is this something you guys want to support or get onboard with? I wasn’t getting paid right away or anything. It’s not like, Yeah, sweet, here’s a contract and some money. It’s like, Here is some gear, get us some photos.

Everyone basically goes through the same process, but being sponsored, even if it’s not a paid deal, still has the give and take of you hoping that person is going to put you on a cool trip, use the photos you’re getting or help springboard you out there too, make you visible.

You’re also getting the respect of being a sponsored skier and obviously, there are some benefits to that. You’re getting gear from a flow sponsorship and that’s definitely an important piece of the puzzle.

I was with Dynastar in the beginning of working with TGR when what I was doing was actually turning into a career.

View all Guides