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Published: Friday, August 29,
2003 A
skateboarder with a contract
Local 9-year-old already has many endorsements
By Janice Podsada
For the Enterprise
BOTHELL --
Nine-year-old Skyler can't drink a Pepsi in public
because it would violate his contract.
The terms
of his corporate sponsorship specify that he quench his
thirst in public with a Jones Soda.
Similar
terms apply to the five other companies Skyler Siljeg
represents: Savier Shoes, Predator Helmets,
Lib-Technologies skateboards, Randoms Hardware and
Quiksilver clothing.
An amateur skateboard
champion who regularly places first in age 10-and-under
contests, Skyler acquired his first corporate
sponsorship "before he could read," said his mother, Pam
Miller, 42, of Bothell. A year later, at age 6, he
negotiated a sponsorship, "all by himself," she said.
But Skyler's role is not unique.
The
fourth-grader is one of many skateboarders nationwide
who receive free shoes, helmets, skateboards and
clothing in exchange for donning a "name-drop" T-shirt,
or handing out stickers or soda at skate parks and
competitions.
Many companies, whose products are
geared toward pre-teens, tap the nation's youngest
athletes to tout their products.
At 9, Skyler is
an old hand at sponsorship. His skateboarding buddy,
champion rider Mitch Brusco, 6, of Kirkland, has 11
corporate sponsors. Recently, Mitch's parents, Jennifer
and Mick Brusco, hired an agent to negotiate a Lego
Sport sponsorship.
A frequent visitor at
Skyler's Bothell home, Mitch appeared in the Aug. 11
edition of People Magazine. This fall, he starts
kindergarten.
Because skateboarding isn't an
Olympic sport, young athletes don't run the risk of
forfeiting their amateur status if they accept money or
products from a corporate sponsor.
Typically,
the kids don't receive money, but they do receive
monthly or quarterly shipments of products.
For
small companies on a tight budget, it's a low-cost
marketing technique with the potential to win big.
"You send the helmet to 10 kids, and you hope
one of them sticks with it and becomes a high-profile
skater," said Matt Kelly, whose Vancouver, British
Columbia, company, Predator Helmets, is one of Skyler's
sponsors.
"Seeing Skyler in one of our helmets
..." Kelly said, "That's the sort of exposure we need,
it's better than taking out a magazine ad."
Skateboarding is the fastest- growing sport in
America. More than 12 million Americans -- the majority
of them 18 or younger -- went skateboarding at least
once in 2002. Sales of skateboards have jumped 70
percent the last two years, according to the Sporting
Goods Agents Association.
Acquiring the basics
-- a skateboard, helmet, kneepads and wrist guards --
costs about $200, said Jeremy Hanson, a clerk at
Lynnwood's Lost Boys Skate Shop. Another $60 will buy a
pair of athletic shoes specially designed to "stick to
the board," he said.
Four years ago, 5-year-old
Skyler caught Jones' attention. Jones Soda is a brand
that appeals to kids ages 8 to 24, said Jennifer Cue,
Jones' CEO.
The Seattle company sponsors about
20 young athletes. Skyler and Mitch are featured on its
Web site. By Christmas, Jones plans to manufacture and
distribute a quarter-million bottles with Skyler's
photograph on the label. Another run will feature Mitch
"catching air" on his skateboard.
"These guys
are our little ambassadors for the brand," Cue said.
Skyler, a sandy-haired, freckle-faced, 65-pound
athlete, takes his role as a company representative
seriously, said Carlos Ojeda, production manager for
Killerpaint.com, a Snohomish custom airbrush company.
"He's very involved. He markets all the
companies," said Ojeda, who's watched Skyler hand out
samples and freebies at skateboard contests.
"It's called guerrilla marketing," said Mark
Forehand, marketing professor at the University of
Washington. "It gets the product exposed without it
being a blatant ad."
Guerrilla marketing isn't
new, Forehand said. "But it's new to see it on a
9-year-old."
Even Skyler's mother is awed by his
chutzpah.
After surveying the soft drinks at a
local store, Skyler summoned the manager. "You carry
Jones Soda. Why don't you carry WhoopAss, their energy
drink?'" recalled Miller.
But using very young
children as corporate ambassadors has some experts
concerned.
"The long-term effect it may have on
these children is unknown," said Ted Beauchaine, UW
child psychology professor.
"We don't have any
hard data on this issue because we haven't seen it
before," Beauchaine said. "I'm not worried about them
now. But it worries me about what their expectations
will be later in life."
But company
representatives defend the practice of sponsoring little
ones.
"It's not like we're out there recruiting,
it's like we're living the life," said Kerri Johnson,
retail marketing manager of QuikSilver, a
California-based sports clothing company.
"We go
to the local skate parks. We have relationships with the
managers of local skate parks. We hold a lot of skate
camps," Johnson said.
Girls are almost
guaranteed a sponsorship if they show up for skateboard
competitions, said Patty Seder, 44, founder of the
2-year-old Pacific Northwest Amateur Skateboard League.
And the kids seek the corporate reps.
"When I ran a skate park, I met a ton of kids
who wanted to be sponsored," said Killerpaint.com's
Ojeda, whose company plans to airbrush Skyler's helmet
with all his corporate logos.
Skyler typically
doesn't seek out sponsorships. But there's one company
on his wish-list -- Dr. Scholl's.
"I go through
a lot of Odoreaters," Skyler said.
"He really
has sweaty feet," Miller explained.
Skyler
receives no money from his sponsors, but UPS is a
regular visitor.
"It can be like Christmas over
here," said Miller, a single mother.
Each month,
Jones ships Skyler 120 bottles of soda. Others regularly
send boxes of T-shirts, skateboard decks and helmets.
It's enough to clothe Skyler's mother, his older
brother, Chad, 15, and the neighborhood kids, Miller
said.
The same goes for Mitch. Samples provide
the family of seven with shoes, sweatshirts and
backpacks.
"We wouldn't be able to afford the
$200 board he rides," said Mitch's mother, Jennifer
Brusco, 36. A former high school tennis player, Brusco
said she turned down a Nike sponsorship at 15 because
she would have lost her amateur status.
Other
kids benefit from Mitch's sponsors, she said.
One, Triple Eight Protective Equipment,
regularly ships safety equipment, more than he needs.
"We give it away," Brusco said. "If I see a kid
at a skate park without pads or a helmet, I'll say here,
you keep these."
Mitch, however, is old enough
to realize the source of his bounty, Brusco said. "He
understands that if he stops skating all this would stop
too."
While sponsors offer perks, they're a poor
substitute for mom's or dad's attention, Brusco said.
At the skate park, she said, kids often ask her
to look on. "These are just kids who want parents to
watch."
Brusco said parents should go to the
skate park, especially if their child is a hotshot
skateboarder.
They're the ones being scoped out
by corporate representatives wanting to sign the next
Tony Hawk, skateboard's equivalent of golf's Tiger
Woods.
Both mothers said they want their
children to enjoy the sport without feeling pressured.
But it was Skyler who gently scolded his mother
after she bought him a Pepsi at a recent skateboard
contest. She said he told her:
"Mom, I can't
drink that in public."
Janice Podsada
writes for The Herald in
Everett.
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