Have any of you been able to get a sponsor for yourself? I would just love a sponsor, ahhh, someone who will pay me for how cool I am, and then I can spend my hard earned money on something other than unicycling, that would be the day!!! thanks for letting me be informed!!!
Here is a dose of reality from Norco.
<http://www.norco.com/profile/sponsorship.htm>
A company isn’t going to sponsor you just because you’re cool.
David Maxfield managed to win some sponsorship (a grant actually) from Balance Bar for the North Bend Panther Pride club so the kids could train for MUni events at UNICON. He got a couple thousand dollars for equipment for the club and a whole lot of Balance bars.
See <http://www.balance.com/grants/Recipients_May02.asp>
There are a few of us that have sponsors in the Uk, we dont get paid or nought we just get free unicycleand stuff like hoodys,helmets the usual,
A company wont sponser someone that cant do what they want you to do, It would be nice but it doesnt happen! 
Trev
John,
We enjoyed those Balance Bars many times at UNICON. I wondered where they came from.
Bruce
Once I get better and start riding again hardcore, I’m going to drive up to Profiles Office/Factory and show them what’s up.
and they’ll say “HEY where’s your other wheel???”
Yeah, kinda. Carried over my bike shop sponsorship from when I was a mountainbike racer. Mostly just get cheap parts and free service though (it’s just a small shop). I think if you build up a good relationship with a bike shop that sponsors local riders you should be able to get sponsorship. After all, if you’re on a unicycle you’re going to get attention, which is great for them.
By the way, if you make it to Wellington, NZ, and you want your unicycle serviced, J’ville (Johnsonville) Cycles are the best cycle shop in town. (and note the generic name ‘cycles’ not ‘bicycles’) 
That’s a good link, thanks for posting it. I’ve been thinking about approaching someone about
sponsorship, but I don’t really know how to go about it. My problem is that I honestly don’t
know how much good I would do for my Sponsor from there point of view. I could help
boost there unicycle sales (assuming they sell any), but if people where serious about it, they
would be better off buying from unicycle.com in my opinion.
Ben
Re: sponsors
bagpiperboy <bagpiperboy.asapn@timelimit.unicyclist.com> wrote:
> Have any of you been able to get a sponsor for yourself? I would just
> love a sponsor, ahhh, someone who will pay me for how cool I am, and
> then I can spend my hard earned money on something other than
> unicycling, that would be the day!!! thanks for letting me be
> informed!!!
I am not a sponsered rider, BUT I did recieve a grant for equipment before
Unicon from a local sports charity. I had to apply to the trustees of the
fund setting out on paper what my plans were for competeing at
international level, what equipment would improve my preformance, how much
it would cost, what training I would be doing, how much it would cost,
what travel cost would be to get to the competition, and how much my
accomadation would cost… A long form. Also what my aims were in the
competition, and what my previous form had been.
I was granted a sum suffient to buy a good quality hockey stick and spare
head and pair of knee pads. NOT a huge ammount of money but usefull. Its
worth looking for this type of local charity. The one I was helped by only
helps residents of our town.
In return for the grant I have to write a thank you letter explaining what
I spent the money on and telling the trustees how I have done in the
competition. I trust they will be happy with two gold and two silver
awards from Unicon.
Sarah
–
2nd Darmstadt International Unicycle Hockey Tournament
Nov 30th - Dec. 1st 2002
http://www.dieschaubs.de/einrad/ieht/english/Da2002.htm
Re: sponsors
Good Info from Norco John,
“The Athelete’s Guide to Sponsorship” by Jennifer Drury and Cheri Elliot has a lot of practical info as well.
Here’s the Amazon link…
http://tinyurl.com/1fib
Good Luck!
Through almost 30 years of competitive bicycle racing I have had a great realtionship with a local bike shop that sponsord me and/or a team that I was on since I was 15! When I approached the owners of the Peddler Bike Shop, here in Memphis, about our new unicycle club they were very eager to get involved and now give us a “group discount” as a form of sponsorship. This comes in really handy when I’m trying to find deals on helmets for our new club riders (who are often too poor to buy one themselves). They often throw-in freebies like tubes and tires, pumps, patch kits and tire levers and the like when we need. They also promote the club at the shop. Several shops in Memphis have refused to even post our club notices because they don’t want folks to get off their bike for a unicycle! MUni is often seen as a threat for their mountian bike customers. Our sponsor even refers potential unicycle customers to us for coaching as to what unicycle is best for them and the bike shop owners are more about people than uni-profits. They would rather send the business to Unicycle.Com than sell a 265 lb. a 24" Savage. The bottom line is good will and not trying to break into a market that they know little about.
Having digressed too much here, I suggest that it is more important to promote sponsorship for groups and then, as the sport continues to develop, seek induvidual support. If you are awesome enough to get an indiviual sponsorship - great!
Update:
Huge BMX race in my town this weekened. Stopped by there today and got a good deal on a helmet (pics later) and talked to a few people… those people? Yep, talked it up with all the guys from Profile. Going in for the kill slowly. Muahaha!
Man, could I use a spare head!
Re: sponsors
Check this out.These grants are for 4 months. Amateurs only. You just
have to write a short essay on how the money will help you plus send a
couple of pictures of yourself. You have to tell them what you plan on
spending it on, equipment, training, food etc…
www.balancebar.com/grants
Re: sponsors
The folks at Balance Bar are very unicycle-friendly. I got one of their grants
this last spring. They are seriously considering sponsoring the Panther Pride
Demo Team. Keep your fingers crossed!
David Maxfield
Bainbridge Island, WA
>the bike shop owners are more about people than uni-profits
more power to them
Re: sponsors
On 11 Oct 2002 15:05:52 GMT, maxfieldd@aol.com (Maxfield D) wrote:
>The folks at Balance Bar are very unicycle-friendly. I got one of their grants
>this last spring. They are seriously considering sponsoring the Panther Pride
>Demo Team. Keep your fingers crossed!
I’d like to add that David did not “just write a short essay” on how
the money would help. He wrote an extremely well-worded and powerful
plea on how a grant would buy 5 mountain unicycles to help children
achieve balance in more than one sense of the word. It sent chivers
down my spine when I read it, and imho Balance Bar could not possibly
turn this down - which they didn’t.
Klaas Bil
I posted only a single copy of this message.