Who’s your target audience?
What image do you want the company to portray?

If money was no object, then I’d go grass roots, or something off the wall.
Unless you are going to do a huge Team Sky thing, and through buckets at it, then you can get a super dooper team up and running.

Saying that, after reading about SP, sounds like he has a good thing going with his sponsored rider thingy as well

me

DH Gwinn, Hart, Athertons, Brosnan, Nicole
Freeride Semenuk, Zinc, Sonderstrom, Granieri, Messere

Anne caro, Voulloz, Macaskill

Personality wise, I find gee and Danny hart difficult to like.
Peaty has only a couple of seasons left (surely).
Surprised nobody has mentioned josh bryceland, seems like a good egg and could start winning things. If you catch home before he does, you’ll get good value too. Perhaps steve smith, Brook MacDonald, Manon carpenter?
Everyone likes young exciting talent, eyes will be on them when they’re coming through and you’ll get max exposure without huge outlays. Also the feel good factor of helping a young rider achieve.
Minaar and hill would cost the earth.

Has nobody mentioned Team McCoy yet? I think you should sponsor that chap – he had a positive attitude.

Those ‘sweary northerners/thicko northern morons’ is where your sponsorship should go – that’s the future that is!
If you do send them something be sure to label it clearly –
‘these are trousers’, ‘this goes on your head’, you can eat this’ etc

Ok, still depends on products and even more so on what the “sponsorship” entails but for the UK I’d have to go with local guys I’ve actually met rather than one’s I’ve just seen or heard of and I’d choose the 5 from fairly different mtb disciplines but I would def err away from the traditional old skool roadie XC/CX image of mtb.. and have gone for riders who are not already at a full time Elite/supported level there are way more riders I could have chosen but just to give you an idea of where I’m coming from

Duane Walker – non-racer, Pinkbike PR whore, great guy and stylish wee bugger.
Dan Darwood – very tallented all-round/enduro rider/racer, race organiser and all round good guy.
Fraser McGlone – hugely tallented young DH rider with years ahead of him, refreshingly down to earth and friendly
Alister McLennan (Vet) – amazingly accomplished/experienced DH and dH enduro rider, riding coach/instructor and thoroughly pleasant guy.
Andy Barlow – great all round rider/XC racer, skills coach with bags of style on any bike, great guy and always smiling.

I’m not saying you should sponsor any of my choices, especially seeing as your question regarding sponsorship is so vague, I’m just giving an idea of what kind of riders I reckon deserve a little help (and in return may not actually generate huge sales of any product) I’d expect you to have a completely different list of riders.

inversly for world class riders it’s gotta be all about sales/image/marketting so I’d just to go with the biggest profile most popular riders who’ll whore themselves out for the least money, they don’t even have to be decent people, look at Lopes 😉

Personality wise, I find gee and Danny hart‘s difficult to like find.

FTFY 😉
they sell shit loads of product tho.

Me? I’d sponsor holiday companies.

You’ve then got a captive audience who can be fed concentrated kool-aid a week at a time, and if the guides are happy with the kit they’re using they always seem to do a damn good job of promoting it. (you’d have to make sure your stuff is up to scratch though, as it gets a beasting)

Other than that – people who I enjoy watching ride. Danny Mac, Chris Akrigg, Joe Barnes, Rowan Sorrell. That kinda rider.

One angle might be to sponsor the current trend of ‘mates races’. Make sure it’s the ones who know how to make a good video, take great photos, appealing blog, etc.

Black Canon Collective
This Is Sheffield

Are two that spring to mind, but there must be others just bubbling under the radar currently who could be persuaded to up their video/blog/photography game for some gear/money.

Otherwise I would sponsor racers as much as riders (or if racers, make it DH enduro racers like Mark Weir)
Joe Barnes
Chris Akrigg

(or even less known riders like coaches/trail centre operators like Neil Donoghue, ).

As others have mentioned “The Coastal Crew” and even younger guys is where I’d put my money.

People who are going to be able to work with you to develop your product and work harder just for you (as opposed to someone who rides for a factory team and has big responsibilities there).

If i were to make a choice id say internationally id look at the likes of, gully, the coastal crew, wade simmons and anyone else who rides for the sake of riding – companies like dakine and oakley are very good at spotting these riders.
Domestically is slightly more difficult i think, its far too easy to say Hart, Athertons, fairclough etc. But these are the obvious ways for companies to get coverage, why not go for something completely different, i’d go and sponsor Jedi to be honest, you’d get loads of coverage easily and with what he rides you’d definitely know if a product is up to scratch.

SRP

nice thought srphoto 🙂

At last, someone’s mentioned the obvious. Get the coaches sponsored. Chris Ball, Jedi, Richard (All Biked Up), Clive Forth etc. Not only do they get excellent media coverage but they have a steady procession of bikers passing through their courses all of whom will, subliminally, be influenced by what they ride, wear etc.

Sponsoring ‘mates races’ isn’t the way to go. As soon as you do that then it becomes a little more serious.

Like I said before, people who have fun on bikes where that fun is transferred to viewers/bystanders etc.

Coastal Crew / Northern Thickos / Joe Barnes etc etc etc

Personally, I base my purchases on reviews or whether I just like it. Just because rider x uses it wouldn’t sway me in the slightest.

I was going to say holiday companies too, but you might have to get them to keep schtum about the fact that they were getting freebies.

With pro riders, is it not about fitting the right product to the right rider?

eg. Urge stuff suits Fabien Barel really well because he’s all smooth and stylish, Fox suits Danny Hart becuase he’s all lairy and moto.

I think that clashy O’Neal stuff actually suits Brayton because he’s so loud and rough around the edges. Not that I’d buy it myself.

Who’d I sponsor? Mark Weir because he’s hardcore, Bryceland because he’s got a big profile and could start winning, Maybe Brendan for same reason, Barel because everybody loves him, Troy Brosnan because everyone notices him being so tiny, Floriane Pugin so she wouldn’t have to wear that yellow suit any more.

(sorry for thread resurrection, found this while searching for something else)

Steve Peat, Rowan Sorrell, Akrigg, Danny Mac, Manon Carpenter

Mark Weir, Fab Barel, Nico Vouilloz, Anne Caro Chausson, Brain Lopes

But to narrow again – Sorrell, Weir, Carpenter, ACC. They fit markets that are less saturated than the others – WMNS and AM; AM is something more folks can feel they could do (albeit much, much slower) and Wmn? well you really see a full page spread of a female rider, so being consistent with it would be a winner straight off the bat.

Having said that… as pointed out, kit has to work. public are far more knowledgable these days about marketing/branding etc

oops, too quick!

But for real market stuff – UK = Ed O, Jedi, etc; their equivs in territories you sell to. In a mag almost every month, but are ‘real’ people.

In this day and age, online presence is incredibly important. Everyone and everybody is bringing out web-edits and photo-shoots, they are
great to watch/look at, quick turn around, and IMO, can do a great deal for a brand.

So you want someone who is involved with that- has ties to good and popular (later part very important) photographers to simply get your product and your rider seen, and not necessarily someone who is winning all the races but has no “community” presence.

Facebook is big btw, just incase you didn’t know 🙂

We really wanted to get a brand or two on board for this photo project I did with Laurence Crossman-Emms, but we didn’t have time/it didn’t work out. We do have a 2nd photo-project planned for this Winter though if you happen to want to get in on it 😛

http://laurence-ce.pinkbike.com/blog/Reunion–In-search-of-bangers.html

(3 of these pics got POD on Pinkbike btw 🙂 )

Duane Walker – non-racer, Pinkbike PR whore, great guy and stylish wee bugger.

*blushes* 😛

international grassroots team.like some youth symphony orchestras.
but faster.unless they’re playing something like this.
[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rujvOtTR8II&feature=related[/video]
ritchey’s project ruanda,or bikes for africa.or something like that.
basically,I’d take kids from shitholes.plenty of those around.
Or maybe juvenile detention centers,or orphanages.
give them a bike.cx,road,dh,xc doesn’t matter.bike,kit.support. if they don’t turn out to be great cyclists,so be it.
the important thing is to show them someone’s giving them a chance.

seems something like my great grandfather’s anarchist bar.but that’s another story.