Aro you sponsored ??????

[Der_Echte]

I can pack a lot of stuff into a NEXY rucksack and bring a lot of the NEXY blades to my club and let lots of the clubmates try them out. Imagine Korean TT players at club level not quite knowing the Korean brand of the dominat TT online retailer. That is because in Korea, although you can order TT gear and get it delivered express to your apt the next day for free, the overwhelming majority of players at the club simply tell the club owner/manager what they want and it is done for them. They pay in cash real old-fashioned like.

My sponsorship is not structured like a conventional sponsorship that many are familiar with. My agreement with TAK9.com is personal between me and the president. He promised to help equip and furnish gear/uniforms for our KFTTC association, and I promised to test his gear, make reviews on Korean and international TT forums, and make frequent appearences at local and national tourneys. I help TAK9.com build brand recognition and awareness of their domestic brand in the Korean and international market and myself and our KFTTC members active in Korea get rubbers, uniforms, rucksacks, more uniforms, socks, shoes, accesories, discounts and get treated very well each time we visit the company HQ. I do writeups of gear and post pics of tourneys on hte Korean TT forum which pretty much every serious TT player in Korea sees. it is win - win for all of us. I get to meet players in Korea I would never meet in USA unless lucky.

What Richard says has a lot of relevence in USA for the intent of sponsorship. Part of the duty is to make oneself seen with the gear and get people to see the brand and talk about it. What Jack says about a contract in his area must be true and it shapes up that a number of people around him with sponsorships do not follow the letter and spirit of their sponsorship.

People in my club see me with new gear and it leads to talk and they talk to others. i also talk about the clubs where I have tourneys online and it is good for those clubs' image as well. A lot of positives in my situation. It is part of brand development and it is good with my sponsor. I can see Jack's point where too many are gloating or even selling their free gear or otherwise not following the spirit of their obligations. That would rub me the wrong way too.

 

[Der_Echte]

Well Decoy, you sure get around. that's good. All teh traveling/living I have done and exposure to diversity has done me good too. I really miss living in Europe, Germany specifically, which I consider a city there my hometown. All I have in USA is a birthplace where I would get shot on sight. The locals who live there would describe the event like "Hey, let's cap that homey" and it would done like a dog's dinner.

 

[decoy]

makes me wonder why that is DE. pity. i too havent been back at my birthplace for quite sometime. in fact i spent more time in other countries( esp Ireland) than home.

as for sponsors . bragging about what you get from your sponsor is not really cool and makes you look like a fool.

but on the other hand which is what DE is doing, which is simply putting it out there( different products and their characteristics).

simply put
Bragging = bad
Informing = good

 

[Mr. RicharD]

I don't believe I said anything about the company's contract between you and them. Simply that you should brag about your sponsor. I also meant that I don't agree that bragging about your own sponsorship is the way to go. It should be about the company and how good they are. In a sense, you should make other players want to be sponsored by the same company. This means they will buy the products and train harder to qualify being sponsored.

 

[Der_Echte]

Again, it depends on what teh sponsorship arrangements are and how the company wants or defines the advertizing. If it is to simply use their gear, wear thier uniforms, be seen with their stuff and be quiet about your deal, then that is what it is and jokers who go beyond that fit the bill of what Jack is describing. It must be particularly irritating to him for him to make a thread about it. If I felt that way and was in his environment, I would be quick to talk about like he does.

On another note, if the agreement with the sponsor gives the athlete a mission (in retrun for the free gear and discounts) to generally promote the company, almost like a marketing assistant, then the player finds ways to make the company more and more visable. Korean TT forums work well for that, so do going to tourneys with over 1000 players bringing gear, wearing accessories and sponsored jerseys, so does simply bringing stuff to the club for others to see or tryout, so does giving a clubmate a rubber at discounted cost (not the free ones I get). So does reviewing a blade and posting reviews on forums, so does helping the sponsor distribute some free blades for testing/review on the internet.

There is no way at my current playing level I would get a sponsorship deal in USA or Europe, or anywhere else in Asia for that matter. I would not win enough (or any) open division tourneys to make it worth the sponsor tossing free gear at me. In my current place and role, I work just as good or better than the top amatures as I have a local and international marketing/brand building value as a very visable dude here and on a lot of the forums.

 

[Jack.mmm]

I don't believe I said anything about the company's contract between you and them. Simply that you should brag about your sponsor. I also meant that I don't agree that bragging about your own sponsorship is the way to go. It should be about the company and how good they are. In a sense, you should make other players want to be sponsored by the same company. This means they will buy the products and train harder to qualify being sponsored.

Yes I agree that the player has to advertise the company but not boast about what they get that's what I'm saying that a player should not boast the offer from the company to the player is confidential and most players just go tell everyone that they get everything for free when they don't that's what I'm getting at do you see what I mean now