Nike Sponsorship/Demo

shredzilla · Post by **shredzilla** » 25 May 2006 08:18

Jeremy wrote:Just do it

sidekick · Post by **sidekick** » 25 May 2006 09:09

Jeremy wrote: Nick, Tom has no authority over the promotion of footbag. Your attempted promotion isn't going to effect his promotion at all. I really don't understand why he thinks that at all. Nike is a huge organisation. It's very unlikely that anybody who sees you playing footbag or reads these emails will ever have anything to do with Tom. Just do it

I've thought about this a lot, and I realize that I can't do this on my own. Or even with a bunch of shredders in the area. Which is why I have a new plan..

The US opens are being held here, and instead of getting Nike to come to the event, we'll bring it to them. I figure with that many shredders from around the US we have more of a chance to get media coverage, and more of a chance to get Nike's attention. I'm gonna run this buy a whole lotta people first, and see about some laws and policies first, but I figure this will be a better idea.

Think about it, we realy only have one chance at this. If Nike sees the sport and decides they don't like it, we'll have another ADIDAS on our hands (where they don't even recognize us as a sport and pretty much laugh at us, and any attempt to get noticed). So, that's why I want Tom to come to the US opens, and maybe we can get his idea to them, get them to notice it as well as the sport.

Moxie · Post by **Moxie** » 25 May 2006 09:30

So you'd do it on Friday or Monday probably? Probably too early to ask you that question.

omnibus · Post by **omnibus** » 25 May 2006 09:43

That's a very good idea. I suggest getting there to shred at 7am. That's the latest that any bigwigs would usually get to a corporate office. I checked "no" because I know I'll forget.

sniper4life · Post by **sniper4life** » 26 May 2006 12:17

I like that idea. Good luck with it.

ptaku · Post by **ptaku** » 26 May 2006 13:22

Nick, I see you are a "dreaming soul". Ty to thing a litle bit realistic. It's like... I don't think that there is any footbag event in the world, which is big enough to ge Nike's attention and get them thinking: "This sport is big enough to invest money into it".
First we have to make the sport big and recognized, and comapanies like Adidas and Nike will come then, But it will take a lot of time, and I don't think any if currently playing players will play on competitive level then.

Just understand.. Big comporations like Nike aren't desired o make a sport big. They haven't made any sport recognized, nor big, and they won't becauswe they don't want and aren't going to.

shredzilla · Post by **shredzilla** » 26 May 2006 17:20

Adidas sponsors ping pong

ptaku · Post by **ptaku** » 27 May 2006 02:44

Bu it's actually an Olympic Sport, it's recognized, in China there is more than 100x more people playing ping pong than people playing footbag in the world. And this sport, called actually table tenis is big, has big governing structures and etc., and Adidas haven't bring it where it's actually.

BalinorNZ · Post by **BalinorNZ** » 27 May 2006 04:27

Pawel is right, Nike and Adidas are NOT going to just go out and sponsor footbag players willy nilly and make footbag shoes and decent bags (i'm surprised they even make the crap 8panels they sell!).

BUT they are always looking for new and exiting ways to sell the products they ALREADY have. So are lots of companies!

Look at these 2 videos I just found:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d6kQtQmF ... ak%20dance
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LquPWi2k ... ak%20dance

They are of the same guy who does some wierd form of break dancing (poping?) but which is absolutly amazing to watch! These companies didn't make these adds because they want to sell product to popers, lockers or any other kind of break dancer, they did it because you will remember the ad because it's amazing.

FOOTBAG IS JUST AS AMAZING AS THAT!

If you show up at Nike with signs saying "make a footbag shoe!" they will ignore you, if you show up wearing nike shorts and tshirts saying "we got this good at footbag using Nike gear, and get into their exec office and give a demo to an advertising manager and have someone who is GOOD perform (I mean like Vasek good), THEN you have a chance at getting footbag recognised.

Media coverage is all footbag needs to get big, it worked with skating, they had good skaters in adds, then they appeared in movies, people released skating DVDs which got sold in popular stores, before you know it big companies are making skate gear and skating is all over the media!

Media is the secret to things going boom.

RawSko · Post by **RawSko** » 28 May 2006 18:02

Umm... I already sent them my e-mail

I thought you meant "Just do it" so I did it. I guess I'll just do it again on the specific date?

I think this promo would be really fun to do and it can only help. I like to try to be an optimist. There IS always a chance!! Always. Isn't that the reason that alot of us wear our lavers around town 24/7? Because of that slight chance that there might be another Footbag player who will recognise your footwear? Isn't that the reason that we explain all about footbag and give online-links to anybody who even aknowlages us when we're shredding? Because of the slight chance that they might start playing, or at least influence somebody they know to start playing? I'll bet that alot of people who play now wouldn't play if something very little had been different. It was because of chance. At this point, more then half of what happens with Footbag's advancement is by chance. This plan has a good chance.

Do it,
& Keep it real

shredzilla · Post by **shredzilla** » 30 May 2006 08:17

BalinorNZ wrote:If you show up at Nike with signs saying "make a footbag shoe!" they will ignore you, if you show up wearing nike shorts and tshirts saying "we got this good at footbag using Nike gear, and get into their exec office and give a demo to an advertising manager and have someone who is GOOD perform (I mean like Vasek good), THEN you have a chance at getting footbag recognised.

Awesome points Nic. Also, if we could get one of the advert execs to come to the US Championships, that would bring even further exposure. The exec may really grasp the sport and realize how cool/exiting and the potentiality for fanbase.

BalinorNZ wrote:Media coverage is all footbag needs to get big, it worked with skating, they had good skaters in adds, then they appeared in movies, people released skating DVDs which got sold in popular stores, before you know it big companies are making skate gear and skating is all over the media!

Media is the secret to things going boom.

DVDs DVDs DVDs. If we can get some great DVDs made, we can get them into alternative sports stores. Big Add's coming out with one, and arguably the sickest player in the world Jorden Moir is coming out with a Monster DVD. If we can get these and some other, sort of raw-footage style DVDs that could sell for 10 bucks in stores, this is a great way in my opinion to promote the sport. Shops will even take them and play them once in a while between skate/snow vids as more advertising for their own store! THIS is what worked with skating, and this is what will work for footbag IMO.

Iron Clad Ben · Post by **Iron Clad Ben** » 30 May 2006 09:16

Guys I don't mean to burst anyone's bubble. But we need to bring a sense of reality to the situation. Let me speak as someone with experience in product design, development and business experience.

Nike, Adidas, Duncan... these are all for-profit companies. They are not charities. Unless they see a SUBSTANTIAL profit to be made they're not going to invest time or money into footbag.

The work that Mosher is doing is probably equivalent to hundreds of thousands of R&D dollars that they would have to invest. As a fellow mechanical engineer, mucho props brother. I'm sure there are plenty of execs at Nike or Adidas who wouldn't think twice about slitting his throat, leaving him in the gutter to die and going forward with a footbag shoe if they thought they could make some decent cash.

Guys, these companies only care about athletics because there is money to be made. The only "passion for sport" they have is passion for the f*&%ing dollar signs. Don't let their ads fool you. If there wasn't money to be made from athletics, they wouldn't be in business.

So we send them a bunch of emails and do a demonstration DEMANDING a footbag shoe. I applaud your efforts, but they are going to be thinking "BIG WHOOP, show me the money". Their marketing guys are going to size up the potential market and realize it's a losing proposition.

Let's do some simple mathematical calculations. I'm going to err on the side of bigger numbers. For the sake of argument let's assume the following

There are 10,000 active freestyle footbaggers in the world.

Each one buys one new pair of $50 shoes per year.

That's a potential market of $500K per year, practically chump change to multi-billion dollar companies. That is just revenue, we are not considering costs! There are costs associated with designing, marketing and manufacturing the shoe! Even if they s*&%mize Mosher and don't pay him one red cent for his design. They still need to come up with a logo, market it to distributors, etc. etc. That costs money. They need to pay kids in Malaysia $0.15/hr no bathroom breaks to manufacture the shoes. They need to buy the raw materials. They need to ship them out of their factory. When it all is said and done, they make break even on the shoes, chances are they will lose money.

A potential volume of 10,000 per year? That's practically noise on the radar screen to them. And of those 10,000 most of us are too broke to go to the frickin' competitions, let alone buy snazzy new shoes? We'd have to be about 10 times as big for them to see profit to be made (aka "care").

Footbag will have to become a bigger sport for the athletic apparel companies to care. Do you want it super popular like skateboarding has become? Do you want it uber competitive where dads are yelling at their 10 year old kid who's osis's are sloppy? I don't.

These are all noble efforts guys. But bottom line the dollar signs just aren't there for the big shoe companies. Unless we can show them that they are, they won't be listening. My cost benefit analysis made a lot of assumptions, if you want to your own, go ahead. If you can show profit at the end of it all, great! Until then, we might as well be screaming into a black hole.

Keep shredding. Footbag is about sticking it to the man. Not kissing his ass and selling out to him.

slapdash21 · Post by **slapdash21** » 30 May 2006 16:19

shut up, i want to get paid to play footbag, who are you to tell me what footbag is and what its all about

HG · Post by HG » 30 May 2006 17:02

Hey Anti Tony Robbins

There arent 10,000 freestylers.

We go through shoes faster than that

pwned

smokefree · Post by **smokefree** » 30 May 2006 17:19

shredzilla wrote:Adidas sponsors ping pong

AHEM if you don't like Footbag being called Hacky Sack please call it Table Tennis

And Table Tennis is a huge sport, besides being totally kick ass, not as good as Footbag of course

Iron Clad Ben · Post by **Iron Clad Ben** » 30 May 2006 17:32

I'm not telling anyone what to do, I'm just explaining why demonstrating in front of Nike isn't going to do anything if they don't see a potential market. You guys are floating in pipe dream with only one foot in reality

If there's more than 10,000 freestylers, how many are there? There are 1,971 members on modified. How many of them are active freestylers?

Like I said, present some real figures instead of saying childish stuff like "pwned". I know people who've had the same pair of lavers for years. If there really is a potential market out there Nike doesn't see it. Sorry, but I don't see it either.

Put some real numbers together that show a potential market and show profitability. Until, then Nike or any other shoe company is not listening now matter how loud we scream.

HG · Post by HG » 30 May 2006 17:34

Iron Clad Ben wrote:I'm not telling anyone what to do, I'm just explaining why demonstrating in front of Nike isn't going to do anything if they don't see a potential market. You guys are floating in pipe dream with only one foot in reality

If there's more than 10,000 freestylers, how many are there? There are 1,971 members on modified. How many of them are active freestylers?

Like I said, present some real figures instead of saying childish stuff like "pwned". I know people who've had the same pair of lavers for years. If there really is a potential market out there Nike doesn't see it. Sorry, but I don't see it either.

Put some real numbers together that show a potential market and show profitability. Until, then Nike or any other shoe company is not listening now matter how loud we scream.

I said there AREN'T 10000 freestylers. There are probably.... about 800-900 real freestylers.

smokefree · Post by **smokefree** » 30 May 2006 17:37

Iron Clad Ben wrote:I'm not telling anyone what to do, I'm just explaining why demonstrating in front of Nike isn't going to do anything if they don't see a potential market. You guys are floating in pipe dream with only one foot in reality

If there's more than 10,000 freestylers, how many are there? There are 1,971 members on modified. How many of them are active freestylers?

Like I said, present some real figures instead of saying childish stuff like "pwned". I know people who've had the same pair of lavers for years. If there really is a potential market out there Nike doesn't see it. Sorry, but I don't see it either.

Put some real numbers together that show a potential market and show profitability. Until, then Nike or any other shoe company is not listening now matter how loud we scream.

No, but the point is not giving a damn, try anyway, shred everywhere go, dont give a fuck if there isnt a point, just DO it, like Nike says but doesn't believe in. Fuck Nike, do it anyway. In fact do it to every damn shoe place, shred in front of every place because you love it and maybe one day it will add up.

Iron Clad Ben · Post by **Iron Clad Ben** » 30 May 2006 17:38

HenryG wrote:I said there AREN'T 10000 freestylers. There are probably.... about 800-900 real freestylers.

That makes us look worse. Even if each of them bought 5 new pairs of shoes per year, 1,000 of them would be $250,000/year. Multi-billion dollar companies piss on that much money on a daily basis. They have no incentive to bother. It will be a very tough sell.

sampotter · Post by **sampotter** » 30 May 2006 18:26

Thanks for doing what this sport needs, Nick. It won't work (for all of Ben's reasons), but your enthusiasm is what a lot of players in this sport lack. Despite my lack of conviction, I'll be right there with you when I'm down this summer at your place for US Open. Much luck, man!

Nike Sponsorship/Demo

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