As ALWAY, injoy your arlicles, GREAT job

Great job on the blog Mr. Payne. Finally perhaps now a few of the boat ramp rumors about sponsorships can be put to rest. For years and years I thought "sponsorships" came to folks who consistently won...somewhat wrong. I thought it took a Hollywood face to be marketable...way wrong. I thought it took lots of your own $ to "buy in" ...very wrong. I never thought of the after hours time, off the water networking, or the general passion of the sport. I will ashamedly admit that I was perplexed on some of the Pro-staffers I have met. I left the conversations thinking: how can he be "sponsored" or even worse "if he can get sponsored why cant I" lol...well thanks to Mr. Payne et al I see now that my day ends when the boat is loaded, their day is just getting started...reports, blogs, articles to be written, emails, photo editing, etc...Brings in a new perspective. Thanks again Mr. Payne

Chris and Chad great work!!!!!

Happy belated birthday Chris. Again, good job on the blog.

I have went back and read Chris's post on his blog site three times now. I seem to catch something new each time I go back. There are a few articles each year that really ring through as being so "spot on" that I know I'll remember for a long time. My friends this one is one I will remember!

If you are not passionate about kayak fishing to promote it without expecting "FREE stuff" you are not going to be a happy for very long.

I took this from his blog and wanted to post it here again:

5. Stop trying to get free stuff. Get in the game, pay your dues, keep your nose clean, be accessible, open and honest and your time will come. People are attracted to others with passion. If you are passionate about pneumatic snowball throwers and blog about it twice a week, shoot videos and hold seminars on how to build your own, people who share that interest will seek you out. It may take some time but once they find you, if you are the real deal, they will tell their friends. Building a following takes time.

That one little paragraph speeds so much volume!!!!
It's not about how many tournaments you win, it's not about how much you can GET.

It's about how much you can GIVE BACK to such a awesome sport! My dad use to tell me something that too stuck in my heart. He said " Shaun, If you never expect, you will never be disappointed.

Mr. Payne....you have my respect!

If one is truly wanting sponsors and you went about it the way you guys are talking, it would take a lifetime or years. Sure, you say it's about giving back and I agree but if truly wanting sponsors that would be a very slow way to go about it. I am no longer in the game but if you truly want sponsors and quick! It would be easiest, assuming you are a great fisherman, to get out and fish your tail off and win some tournaments. If u fished 5 Tournament in a few months and placed 1st or second in almost all of them, I can almost guarantee you will make a name for yourself and quickly. You will also get your sponsors quickly and if you can maintain, you will continue to grow.
You could give back to the community the whole time you are building a name for yourself.
There's many ways to do it and not one is better than the other if sponsors are what you are truly looking for. If you want the big sponsors and want to get there quickly, I would contact them. I had forgotten but I was also on the Maui Jim pro staff and Bill Lewis pro team. All lures were free from RatLTrap and I got I believe 50% off Maui Jim's. (Wish they were free but I still get 50% off today for myself)
If you want something, go for it. Don't sit back and wait and hope. If you want free stuff, you will have to work for it.
I agree w Shaun, you can't go into it looking for handouts but I also believe there is a quicker way to get the sponsors if you are good at tournament fishing. If you are not a tournament fisherman, paynes article and Shaun's points should be taken. If you are stuck in a kayak and not a power boat, maybe paynes method/idea is the way to go about it but.......
I'm not trying to stir the pot but want people to know that putting in tons of hours helping the community is not the only way to make a name for yourself and just waiting around and hoping will not always get the job done. At that point, you are just hoping and praying.
I understand he says do what you are passionate about and for me, I am fisherman first kayaker second. I put in my hours....Actually, I guess the reality of it is, I didn't build a name over night and didn't get anything for free. I put in 25 years of work and like Payne said,"he couldn't pick up a football today and play for the 49'rs tomorrow".
There is a ton of truth in the article but if you want something, go after it. Don't sit back and expect it to happen

Maybe. Maybe not. The information in the article is heavily influenced and slanted toward kayak fishing. It is also information from a major sponsor manager for two of the major players in the kayak world. It is not my intent to keep people from pursuing sponsorships. It is however my intent to make sure they know the levels, have realistic expectations and are prepared to hear no. You have to have a plan, an audience and a return on investment to reach the higher levels. Just winning tournaments usually isn't enough to get higher level sponsors in kayak fishing, especially in freshwater. There are only 40 or 50 kayaks at most tournaments if that many. So over a year you might be around 300 people. Guys who fish tournaments AND have a social media presence AND speak at events AND conduct themselves as discussed in the article have a much better chance. 5 years ago this wasn't the case but with public presence and audience the new commodity in advertising, those who are anti Facebook, anti You Tube and anti public speaking will struggle to find partners. At least with the major sponsors they will. I will say that every one of the guys who are cashing checks with major boat sponsors, those guys at the pinnacle of our sport, all of them have Facebook page(s), websites and do more shows than tournaments. That says a lot to me about the road map for kayak fishing. In my opinion, more than tournaments is a must.

After it's all said and done, I think we are very close on what we are thinking. Initiative is for sure needed. Sometimes a phone call or letter. When you do that, make sure you have a plan as to how you can help THEM. Tournament wins only move so much product.

Hit the nail on the head. I get a lot of sponsorship offers simply because I have a facebook page, I fish frequently with reports, and I tournament fish. One thing that should stand out at tournaments is how you act. You should be going to the captains meeting to hang out and meet new people not standing in the corner with your sponsor jersey on and leaving when its over. Its all about connections and how many people you can reach in the fishing world.

True!

The bottom line is these companies want to sell product. Yes it helps that you can fish and win some tournaments. It helps that anglers can write and if you can do both then that is a bonus.

I also believe that its way harder to get hooked up with a good company that really takes care of you. Once you get them you better do what it takes to keep them.

Like Chris said kayak fishing is very different from boats. We are still a small market. At this point it is all about helping companies first because a lot of companies are still small. Maybe you will get a small discount, maybe nothing, maybe something free. But the most important thing is promoting them and the sport because you want to.
I see a lot of companies "sponsoring" tournament anglers who do nothing to promote them or only preach to the choir. Lots of "use company A for all your zippity do da's" when everyone they tell this to already does just that. I would expect a smart company to pull those type of people from their staff and replace them. So even if you get a deal with someone you need to put in even more effort to keep them, as stated already. Kayak tournament fishing is still a tiny market with little to no ROI for companies.
Great write up as always Chris.

Thanks for reading Marcus and everyone else. This has definitely been an interesting discussion the last few days.

Yeah, the old dynamic of winning tournaments = a good sponsor deal just isn't really translating into the world of kayaks. There's no elite level, no national series and as a result there's no certifiable 'fishing superstars' in kayaks. It's a shame, because I think most would agree that the best fishermen should be the ones getting these types of deals, but I don't think that's how it's gonna play out in kayaks. In its place its gonna be gifted promoters, savvy social media types and the like that end up with the marketing power. There's nothing wrong with this, and it might even be better than the old model, but it's different than what most people think about when they think about what it means to be sponsored in the fishing industry.

Like Marcus said, these companies don't have that much money to throw around. And since no KVD exists, why not save the money you might spend on a contract with him and let a more organic, grass roots style of marketing be the norm? There's lots of guys who want to be attached to the brands and get name recognition, even if they don't tourney fish. Let the most aggressive and enthusiastic of these be the sponsored guys. They'll certainly be a lot cheaper than a KVD type. Heck, some might even be free.

Just look at the Austin guys. There are several of them who have been competing for years in the largest and most competitive kayak bass tourney in the country. KATS has been around a lot longer than any other trail I know of. Many of these guys have tournament records that dwarf the fishing accomplishments of others around the country. And yet, unless I'm mistaken, seems like there's very few who have any kind of sponsor or promotional deals. This might be their own choice, of course. But doesn't it kinda make you scratch your head?

There's nothing wrong with developing a new model, but inevitably there's that moment when the guy who's fallen head over heels with yak fishing after buying one a year ago realizes that several of the sponsored guys don't really fish nearly half as much as he does... Fishing a lot doesn't necessarily mean you're good of course. Thankfully there are only a few sponsored guys out there ( from states far far away) who clearly don't actually fish very often or even know that much about it. But a few do exist. Spend enough time on some other forums and you'll come across them.. The end result of all this? Sponsorship in general starts to mean less and less... Whether that's a shame or not depends on where you're sitting I guess...

I think the new model will be more of the old model for the forseeable future...don't give up your day jobs! And if you're young enough to retrain, you might want to check out that trick skateboarding stuff...that's where the real money is!

The new model is giving Pros a % percentage of a company or a line of product with there name on it...All about percentages More work more money...This is the model i will be using for our new lure company and one that i think will work very well...JMO