As Lew Buchanan adds Only Fans to his sponsor list, the jokes are easy to make. Probably known best for its home grown porn scene, Only Fans seems keen to shift its image (or maybe just expand its market) to be seen as another option for those looking to provide exclusive Members Only content to those willing to pay. This isn’t the first athlete to be sponsored by them, but to our knowledge it’s the first mountain bike athlete.
I am so stoked and proud to share my news that I have signed with OnlyFans for 2023. They are a HUGE part of my program and enabling me to level up in many different areas and it feels awesome to bring a company that is out of the industry and so large into our sport of Mountain Biking. We shot this short video to give you some context on the deal and showcase some sick riding in a cool location in the UK. Make sure you give this video a like to show support, comment below and subscribe to OnlyFans for BTS content, my new “how to” videos and bike set up tips along with connecting with me directly.
Lewis Buchanan
Paywalls are nothing new, and we’ll be hearing soon from our publisher, Mark, on what he thinks of this move and its potential significance for the content consumption vs content production world. But there does seem to be the unavoidable question of whether Only Fans is just another social media channel, or if this is the porn industry looking for a spot of sportswashing.
For now, what do you think? Vote in our poll, and head to the comments.
Yeah, obviously they’re trying to steer the company’s profile to one a bit less sordid. I can see why the UCI wouldn’t accept them as a sponsor for the foreseeable future, they’ve got a long way to go before they’ve cleaned up their act. The fact that they still have the over 18 paywall suggests that they aren’t yet willing to give up their primary revenue sources.
Well dropping the over 18 for an entire platform would be pretty much removing the income from many of those that helped build that platform – not exactly a moral thing to do???
..and ultimately an over 18’s (or having your own CC or something) seems a lot easier to actually implement than some under 13’s FB group for grooming kids… or any of the faux value signalling stuff FB and the like do?
But seriously a self appointed body that sort of inherited DH and who’s only interest in it as an organisation is as a revenue stream?
Without being anti-UCI there is a question of what have the Romans ever done for us?
I suspect the list will be a lot lot shorter than for road/track.. or to put it another way if by some historical freak FIFA had inherited world custodianship of Rugby… and there main reason they should be running the 5 Nations was “but it’s called Rugby football” I suspect we would be having the same discussion on a Rugby forum?
It does seem a bit silly to ban him for that but at the same time, he is just so dull. For someone who is very good at riding bikes he just seems like a complete charisma vacuum.
I came to Singletrack having decided there must be more to life than meetings. I like all bikes, but especially unusual ones.
More than bikes, I like what bikes do. I think that they link people and places; that cycling creates a connection between us and our environment; bikes create communities; deliver freedom; bring joy; and improve fitness. They're environmentally friendly and create friendly environments.
I try to write about all these things in the hope that others might discover the joy of bikes too.
