True to what it is about. Great writing. This is real great for a fingerboarder looking into sponsorship for the wrong reasons.

Pretty Inspiring to me I gotta say. REally good Writing!!!!

I ask the permition to Thom to translate this wonderfull article.

Everyone found it really inspiring, change a lot of younger opinion about sponsorship.
Again thank you thom to clarify so many minds

i agree with the post where you wher comenting on oak wheels! i think there the best for sure!

Tamara wrote:

I hate when some "homemade" companies ask me to be on their team.
I got like 20 sponsorship request where they were planning to send me paper fingerboards and other useless stuff.

I'm not looking for a sponsor, it'll come if I deserve it, but if I had one I wanna it to be legit as possible.

Same here.Although a few months back I used to be sponsor whore

So who wants to sponsor me!... sorry had to do it...

dude thank you for the post

I get offered sponsors all the time, but its youtube sponsors who have China products. I turn all of them down.... I wake up hoping there is a message from Flatface, and then I get back to reality. I used to ALWAYS want to get a sponsor, sending endless messages to companies with videos of me, and now, I fingerboard for fun! But, please enjoy my videos hahahahaha

www.youtube.com/morrowbernard

-Morrow

great post!

i dont even care about getting free shit out of a sponsorship. im not sponsored but i just want to be able rep something when i fingerboard. i wanna be apart of a fb family

Start up a fingerboard team with some of your friends. You don't need a product for that. Make montages together and shit. I assure you that this will be closer to a Fingerboard family than most sponsorships will offer.

I take fingerboarding only as a hobby and not means of getting sponsored or getting "free gifts" from fingerboard companies as all in all, you gotta do what you love but not what gets you paid.

lol all these 12 year olds are obsessed with wanting a sponsor

good article.
theres also a difference between a big company like blackriver or a skateshop and a small homemade company.

i had a few sponsors already which included a real skateshop (boardshop in freiburg, germany), a homemade fingerboard brand (rainbowdecks from switzerland) and a brand that produces concrete obstacles.
the skateshop sponsor i met through their local fingerboard contest. i talked to the owner and a few weeks later i sent in a video asking if they wanted to sponsor me. that was like 4 years ago and by that time i really enjoyed fingerboarding but i somehow, i always wanted to represent something. so they hooked me up, i got free stuff from them and got to hold a fingerboard demo at a primary school.
years passed by and the contact just got lost. i tried to get back to them but it was really hard and i couldnt keep the contact.
with the deck company it was basically the same. the guy making these decks was a friend of a friend and he sponsored me and my 2 friends. contact got lost, he dissappeared. few years later i catch him on another fingerboard forum and ask him, if he still makes fingerboard decks. he was like yes ima send u one. never got it.
the curb company couldnt keep up with making obstacles because the guy had to do other stuff aswell.
so basically u gotta keep contact with ur sponsors unless its ur best friend or someone ull see everyday/week.

if u have a sponsor like blackriver or flatface, u probably have to do more for them but the contact will stay and the company itself will try to keep the contact up not only u.

im not sponsored at the time and im not sending sponsor messages or tapes out (cmon, we all tried it) but i see a sponsor as something, i stand for, something i represent. thats, atleast for me, more important than getting free stuff.

just wanted to share my experiences

This was the most eloquently stated message!! Real Talk rip a fingerboard for fun post your vids cause you like to do it and nothing else!! I mean who wants to be on a team with a bunch of people you don't know or even know that you would get along with!!  Have fun, go to events, post in the forums, and the sponsors will see you if your attitude and ambition shine through!!!  I will be blessed one day when the time is right that is what I believe!!

GIllybear wrote:

So who wants to sponsor me!... sorry had to do it...

I'll sponser u dood, i sell high kwality pivit cupz n my cumpiny r awsum, i snd u ur sponser pk 2moro.

That sounds about right dude

are there different levels of sponsorship?

collin_fb wrote:

are there different levels of sponsorship?

well i'm not sure if anyone does this but in skating theres am and pro teams. flatface has a flow team which they aren't technically on the team but mike "flow's" them product.

Hopefully this will make people think before they ask companies for sponsorship

the whole fingerboard scene regarding sponsorship is weird. I really do like this thread and think more kids should be on messageboards to see this. Fingerboard for yourself and for fun, not for anyone else.