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Athlete Branding

zdubyadubya

Turbo Monkey
Apr 13, 2008
1,273
96
Ellicott City, MD
Something occurred to me when I was reading over the factory team roundup at that pink site

https://www.pinkbike.com/news/the-complete-guide-to-the-2019-world-cup-teams.html

There are two additional factory teams in addition to Intense which are using Gwin's G-Spec branded components. Whether its the "G mountian" on the TRP stuff or the Eagle logo on the ODI stuff, his personal brand is showing up on bikes in several other team pits. You may think whatever you want about the guy, but putting his personal logo and using his personal branding as the "top of the line" spec of TRPs components (TRPs G-Spec is Shimano's XTR) was friggin genius. One can only imagine that he is getting compensated for this which goes far beyond a normal sponsorship agreement. This brings up two questions for me... can anyone think of a time this has ever been done to this extent before? Secondly, if you were another top 10 rider who competes with Gwin, would you be miffed about running gear with his logo on it? Seems like a strange position to be in... thanking your sponsors... one of whom is your competitor...
 

englertracing

you owe me a sandwich
Mar 5, 2012
1,573
1,069
La Verne
Almost every mx handle bar bend has an athletes name attached to it, carmichael bend, reed/henry bend, pistrana bend, and so on, im sure there are guys running a reed bend bar racing against him. There are Emig odi mx grips, not sure why as he isnt relevant.
 

toodles

ridiculously corgi proportioned
Aug 24, 2004
5,479
4,719
Australia
There's lots of Hill edition Nukeproof stuff doing the rounds, as well as the FiveTen Kovarik, Hill, Macaskill, etc models. Brian Lopes had his own signature Bling Bling tyres for awhile as well.

I'd be curious to see the input levels the athletes actually have on this stuff. In Gwin's downtime podcast he was saying ODI made a mistake with the original AG-1 grips (i tried them and they were waaaay too hard), and as a result they released the AG-2. He maintains that he won't put his name on anything if he doesn't think it is the best product out there and only when he's contributed to the development. Would be interesting to see his design input on the brakes etc. Wonder whether its just ergonomics or more in-depth stuff like "must not randomly go to the bar like my Saints did"
 

mykel

closer to Periwinkle
Apr 19, 2013
5,071
3,779
sw ontario canada
It would be nice if they did contribute more than...

"Oooohh - that's a pretty colour; and it goes so well with that typeface font"

...but how do you really know?
 

Bikael Molton

goofy for life
Jun 9, 2003
4,010
1,146
El Lay
Hill and Gwin are two racers who I imagine most of the DH field wouldn't mind having their name on parts, particularly the younger riders.

It is an interesting marketing move in some ways... but on the other hand TRP's market penetration is tiny.
 

Mo(n)arch

Turbo Monkey
Dec 27, 2010
4,441
1,422
Italy/south Tyrol
Pro models and signature series are kind of a accolade for the athlete. it is actually pretty common in all kind of board and action sports.
Usually these are part of contracts and gives the athlete incentives on the sold products.
 

zdubyadubya

Turbo Monkey
Apr 13, 2008
1,273
96
Ellicott City, MD
I didn't realize to the extent that there were so many "signature" items out there, but now that I think about it... yeah there is a ton... but at the same time, i can buy non-branded nukeproof cockpit items, non branded sensus grips, not Brendog signature Deity Blacklabel bars, alternative tires, etc etc... if you want top shelf TRP, its gonna be G-Spec... is that a first for our industry?
 

iRider

Turbo Monkey
Apr 5, 2008
5,648
3,089
I didn't realize to the extent that there were so many "signature" items out there, but now that I think about it... yeah there is a ton... but at the same time, i can buy non-branded nukeproof cockpit items, non branded sensus grips, not Brendog signature Deity Blacklabel bars, alternative tires, etc etc... if you want top shelf TRP, its gonna be G-Spec... is that a first for our industry?
What about Kenda Tomac Nevegals? Many people forget it was a signature tire. And not many people besides OE speccers want it, so my example might be irrelevant. ;)