It’s becoming increasingly common for brands in the outdoor industry to sponsor “athletes” based on their notoriety rather than by their accomplishments. It’s a sad state that puts brand integrity at risk.

In many cases, lots of media play has become sufficient for supporting athletes, despite a glaring lack of legitimate achievement. This has had a dumbing-down effect on what it means to be sponsored, and it quickly erodes brand credibility in the eyes of its supporters.

To make matters worse, wanna-be-sponsored climbers have clued into this, and more and more of them are pursuing sponsorship based on the shallow criteria of “exposure”. Instead of striving for authentic achievement, their unjustified self-promotion becomes their sole focus.

The combination of brands using media coverage as the dominant criteria, and athletes of questionable integrity using it to their advantage, leads to a downward spiral for both the team’s and the brand’s credibility in the marketplace.

It ends up becoming a highschool popularity contest. Taken to it’s sad conclusion, once-strong brands end up becoming department store commodities. And the only athletes that wear their clothing are the ones that are paid to.

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