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EddieBauer Bye Bye Pro-Team
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Social media influence............Hmmmmmm.. https://www.climbing.com/news/why-did-eddie-bauer-lay-off-its-whole-team-of-professional-athletes-its-complicated/ |
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"Why did outdoor company fire all their pro climbers?", asks media conglomerate that bought then just closed all the publications pro climbers were once featured in. |
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You can be angry at the decision from an ethics standpoint, but you can’t be angry from a business standpoint. The sales they may lose from us far dwindles in comparison to the sales they will gain from the Instagram yuppies. |
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Just out of curiosity, what products do Eddie Bauer make that climbers buy anyways? Always thought that was an odd brand to sponsor some cutting edge climbers |
John Clark wrote: I always thought the same thing. |
John Clark wrote: I believe their climbing products were under the company “First Ascent”. Had one of their softshells over a decade ago and it was on par with any other outdoor climbing brand. |
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The EB Guide pants are the best pair of climbing bottoms I own. Blows Zions out of the water. My perspective is that all pro teams and/or influencers are performative marketing bs. Either the clothing is functional or not. Kinco doesn’t have a pro team, but 90% of the ice climbers in NE rock ‘em. |
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At the end of the day for a company like Eddie Bauer the revenue of clothing sold to climbers is squat, diddly squat. Especially in the US. Eddie Bauer is shedding dead weight. Those who were employed by them were just that, employees. Harsh lesson but businesses care about their bottomline, employees are secondary. It is not complicated. Far from it. On the other hand, the whole social influencer is crap. Most influencers don't know their head from their asshole. All-in-all such influencers are sad commentary on society. |
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they will gain from the Instagram yuppies. Or lose from climbing yuppies. Buying, buying, and then buying more gear - a big activity for most MPers. Or whining about poor customer service. But true, it's a shame that those climbers benefitted and then lost from their stake in capitalism. |
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Sponsorship is the mark of the devil. |
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More specifically, Money is the bait used by the devil to drive social evolution. The professional athletes are now freed. The “influencers” and the company are continuing to sell their souls for idolatry and to chase “false profits”. (Ha ha) “Self sponsorship” is the path of the righteous. Do what you wanna do, when you wanna do it on your own terms without outside pressures and more importantly, not trying to pressure others. Pure, simple, and honest. Just a lot poorer unfortunately. |
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It makes sense to diversify the influencers you’re working with; all the brands are doing that. But it’s probably a mistake to cut all the top athletes. There’s more to marketing than reach. The foundation of a premium outdoor brand is showing that talented people choose to put their lives in the hands of your products. (Even if most of your actual sales go to pedestrians.) That’s how brands like TNF, Patagonia, Arcteryx, Black Diamond, etc have stayed strong even as they expanded. It’s also how Eddie Bauer came back from bankruptcy. Without that authenticity, eventually you’re just competing on price. Can Eddie Bauer beat LL Bean and REI? I doubt it; they didn’t the last time they tried. |
Allen Sanderson wrote: The estimated market cap for all climbing gear is around 1-2 billion dollars a year. It is tiny. |
bear jew wrote: That depends entirely on how cute you are and how shamelessly you are willing to promote yourself and your “lifestyle”. |
bear jew wrote: I would say a Jewish bear as yourself would do well for yourself in today’s woke culture. Just make sure to tag native land. |
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My sister in law got me the salmon colored Eddie Bauer outdoor adventure t shirt, and I used to think it was cool that me and AB wear the same t shirt (seen in one of his videos) but now I think Eddie Bauer sucks |
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What is a pro climber besides an influencer that pulls real hard? They fulfill the same role for outdoor companies, to try to convince people to buy their gear. Unless we're talking about competition climbing (which unless I'm mistaken isn't what is in question here), it's not like they're participating in organized competition anyway. This is a business decision by their marketing team, and they decided the people dedicated to influencing in fact, do influence people better than the people focused on climbing hard. Pro climbers have always been trying to thread the needle and find a strange niche. They don't participate on teams and get paid for the actual climbing they do (again, unless you count comp climbing or exceedingly rare bounties on climbs or boulders). As we can see from the outrage from them here, they wouldn't classify themselves as influencers either. I'd say that often, people are trying to hold onto the image of climbing as a counter cultural activity, while finding a way to get paid from it. I don't blame them, who wouldn't want to get paid to climb. But I also don't think it's surprising that companies would move to someone whose focus is more in line with the companies, reach users and sell more product. The image of a dirtbag climber, always being frugal and buying as little as possible doesn't exactly push people to sell more product does it ... I'd say this mirrors a lot of the struggle with the 'soul' of climbing people feel, wanting it to both grow bigger, but feeling like it's straying away from it's roots. For the most part, the days are gone where there are no rules and you and your buddies can roll up, be the only ones at the cliff, not worry about any access issues, erosion, etc. As it reaches a wider audience, it's getting more rules and regulations, and becoming more like any other activity people do on the weekend. I think as we move more into the future, we'll see more of our top level climbers needing to participate in competitions like any other sport, wheras in the past you could be at the top end and still have a 'normal' job. No judgement, just what it seems to me is happening as the sport gets professionalized. |
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Like Greg said, pro climbers ARE influencers. EB is just trading one kind for another. Still seems strange though, you would think John Q Public would buy stuff pimped by real climbers over a Tik Tok personality. Whatever. |
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my guess is every single one of the pro athletes who lost their sponsorship still have other sponsors and other ways to generate income (as the article stated). its not like these athletes god laid off from the single job they had. don't get me wrong, it still sucks, but it sucks waaaay less than a normal person being laid off from their job. |
curt86iroc wrote: Not sure that was the point of this thread.... |
