Topic: parkour sponsorship?

[.5gibbon]

hey guys! ive been practicing parkour for two and a half years and i train almost full time. i have been looking into the possibility of a sponsorship to allow me to keep training instead of a full time job.   do you know of any companies that offer parkour sponsorships  or even what the benefits of a sponsorship would be?   

i know a lot of traceurs are against the idea of sponsorship, but i assure you im not trying to sell out, i just need a little help with the bills if im going to keep training on a regular basis. besides id rather it be me representing parkour than some extremest.    -chris

[shadow1234]

K-Swiss? Lol. Sponsorships to me seem like they are usually given to individuals who could make money for the company. Since there don't seem to be any parkour competitions that would bring in money, you would have to be one of the best and start doing commercials or something I guess.

[James Bazil Bianco]

Urban Freeflow 

But really your best bet is to introduce your self to companies that are interested in using Parkour for advertisements, or maybe will be once they learn about it (from you?).

[.5gibbon]

thanks!  are there any traceurs sponsored by k-swiss other than sebastien?

[Jus7in]

The whole Tribe is, there is an ad on the home page under the nav bar.

[.5gibbon]

haha i feel rather silly for not seeing that .     just out of curiosity, what are the benefits of being on the tribe?  other than being able to spread the positive nature of parkour all over freakin America like never before!!!   

[shadow1234]

I think just the fact that you would be getting paid to do parkour and hang out with elite practitioners would be enough.

[JeCours]

just be a stuntman

[Casey Kandel]

I agree with going to companies. You'd have to make a really good demo and set up scenarios they could use for their specific product. Its kind of like how people write jingles for companies. Just go to a bunch of places and show what you can do, how you can do it, what they can do with you, and what they could do for a commercial.

Even if it is being a stuntman for their own actors.

[.5gibbon]

ya that does sound pretty good. but does anyone know the average salary?  or would i just be getting shoes and stuff?      im sorry if i sound like a pk whore. my deal is i have to choose between a full time job and parkour and im really hoping for parkour     i know i couldn't have a job job and keep the training schedule i have now.

[.5gibbon]

ya im going to start working on an up to date demo pretty soon, i just hate filming!!!!  who wants to be my camera man?!  hehe jk.     i think companies would love the fact that im training in heavily populated areas almost every day while wearing their clothing, but im not sure if label reps make money or if they just get clothes and stuff... which i guess is better than what i have now  

[Poet (Jesse) Clark]

If this is your first sponsorship then you won't be getting any money. (Unless you do a commercial or something of that sort for them.)
What they usually do is send clothes and shoes for you to drool over and sometimes "test."

It's a good way to cut down on shoe costs however.

[operation_jetpack]

yeah dont expect it is a full time job. that's silly 

[Msd483]

I'm with chris.  I think that if you email some of ur stuff to nike or someone, they'd atleast give u free stuff to wear.  Your basically a really cool, moving billboard.

[NickMc]

You could contact movie producers and try to be a "parkour coordinator." Or even be a parkour-man(equivelant of a stuntman, but just for parkour).

[.5gibbon]

ya me and my bro since pre-k are going to a stunt accademy in the future to hopefully become stuntmen, but a logo rep will have to do untill then   thanks for all the ideas guys!

[p_parkour]

there are a couple ways you could make a living training. one, you could teach parkour. find someone who has a facility for exercise or something, and see if you can sell them on the idea of parkour as a legit for of exercise. teaching takes a lot of patience and the skill to properly demonstrate and explain techniques.
second, you could try and form a performance team. teams like this can be hired for big dollar events, and potentially get sponsored. i know a team that does performances, teaches classes at a gymnastics gym, and at a stuntman school(or something like that.) i dont think any of them are making enough money from that to be singularly supported by it, but they have some cool sponsors.
third, you could be a stuntman. this is probably the hardest option but the most likely to be able to pay all the bills. to be a stuntman you will have to get to know some stunt coordinators, prove that you can perform what they want on a superior level(and what they want may not always be parkour related), and possibly bring something innovative to the table every once in a while.
there are options and ive been trying to figure it out for myself aswell. good luck.

[Alec Furtado]

Old thread is old.

[Chris [.5gibbon] Stevenson!]

wow this is years old!  update: im still not sponsored... i don't think i am at least

[MThomasfreerun]

Resurrected posts are awesome 

My two cents for the others who are going to read this now:

Sponsorship doesn't (and likely won't) mean enough money to live on, at least not at this level in this discipline (yet?). I don't think any of the Tribe members make enough from their K-Swiss sponsorship to live off of (maybe I'm wrong but I'm pretty confident). There IS a lot of money in stuntwork - almost to the point of obscenity (Think $900/8hr day + time and half overtime). But breaking into stunts is a long process and you have to get connected to the right people which is an uphill battle.

Non-monetary sponsorships can be a great benefit.  Our team is sponsored by the gymnastics gym I work at. This gives us free access to the gym and equipment and closed-session training times. The monetary benefit is pretty significant, even though it's not cash in hand. Many product sponsorships will also provide gear, clothing, food/drink, and so on. The way I see it, I have to (sadly) wear clothes and eat/drink, so I'm perfectly happy to get some of those things taken care of.

Most importantly, I think if a person's sole goal with parkour is to get sponsored it's going to be a less rewarding experience. Practicing only to impress others belies intrinsic motivation, which I feel curtails proper/safe/progressive learning/training.