Finding a Sponsorship in a Socialist Economy

For the last 3 or 4 months I have been looking for a sponsorship for myself and for the U of A team. This is quite the challenge. Having absolutely no idea of how to go about this I figured the easiest way to do this would be to pick up the phone and call people and tell them who I am and what I want. Easier said then done.

Since I just bought a super expensive Browning Shotgun, I decided to call them first. After spending half my day on hold I reached the Marketing/Media department.

This was the first lesson, instantly call a company and ask for the Marketing/Media/Sponsorship Department.

After I go through my little dissertation of who I am and what I want, The lady on the other end of the phone informs me that the Browning Image only sponsors teams that already has a "small time sponsor" such as a local gun store or gun club.  At first i was quite shocked. I just paid 1/200th of a million dollars for a shotgun from your company and you won't even give me the time of day.

Next company I have in mind is Briley, they make the choke tubes that I also paid a large amount of money for. For as big as a company as they are, they have a extremely small staff. I contacted them and went through the same process only to end up with the same result. They also said I need to have a small time sponsorship in order to be considered by them.

Throughout the process of this phone call I had been looking on the Briley website and found another choke tube set that I REALLY liked. of course these were 60 bucks a tube, and there are 7 tubes.

After this somewhat depressing call I took to looking up every gun store in Tucson, which was fairly easy since I'm at each establishment once a week. being at each store once a week I am a well known customer and well known customers know the owners of the establishments.

Every place I called I got the same answer: They aren't making enough money to be able to give me or the U of A team anything. Thanks to Mr. Obama and our awesome economy I am now in debt up to my eyeballs paying for this stuff myself, spending easily 300 dollars in a weekend.

The last place I call is a local Police Supply Store way out on the complete other side of town. After many emails back and forth I finally get a meeting. Of course looking like a total badass, FBI black suit with a white shirt and tie, sporting a Kimber and my shotgun with my black portfolio. After we talked shotguns and shooting in general, he said he'll let me know what him and the company can do. I did have to pick his mouth up off the ground after I told him my personal cost for a weekend of shooting, totaling about 300-350 dollars in two days.

After a few more emails and phones calls I ended up getting another meeting. Which after the time that had elapsed between the last meeting, any news was good news. In the end the owner of the company ended up giving us everything he could, which straight money was not a lot, but the connection had been made and now I have a company that can back my habit and a person to turn to in the event I need anything. Especially the free hats for the entire team, a person can never have enough hats.

Immediately after I had the check in my possession I was back on the phone with Browning, Bretta, Fiocchi, Remington, BlackHawk! and 5.11 Tactical. it is alarming how fast I how to speak to different people in somewhat higher places. That very day I had two pages of names and contact information for companies to send my information to.

The next day I had sent out 3 faxes to 3 different brand name companies and a ton of emails to other companies. So far I have gotten one reply from 5.11 Tactical. Remington and Fiocchi have phone teleconferences with me on Friday and Monday respectively.

All in all not to bad for just under 4 months of work. Although the cost is still mounting as this weekend I am on the road to shoot at two different facilities in a different part of the state. Kind of depressing when you entire paycheck is gone within 6 hours of getting it.

Moral of this story here is That if anyone reading this has an excess of money I would like some. Also that getting someone to sponsor you is an incredibly fucking painful process. Will keep this updated as it goes.