Skateboarding has been good to Mitchie Brusco.
It has brought him nine endorsement deals so far. But it is still
unclear whether Brusco will be able to juggle the demands of being a
student-athlete and whether he will begin to believe his own press
clippings.
When, that is, he can read them all. Brusco, who started
kindergarten this fall in his hometown of Kirkland, Wash., turned 6
years old in February.
Marketers with tie-ins to Brusco, suggests his mother, Jennifer,
are getting much more than just the athlete-endorser with the least
chance of being arrested. During an appearance early this year for
sponsors at a skateboard gear trade show in California, Brusco was
asked to demonstrate a 15-foot vert drop. That, said his mom, "is
when you go straight down and your wheels aren't touching anything.
Mitchie didn't even wobble."
Such resolve helped him land sponsorships before turning 4. He
now has deals, largely for free merchandise, with makers of
skateboard shoes, pads and four companies making skateboard parts.
Among his other sponsors are Jones Soda, whose energy cola is big
with skateboarders, and Lego, for blocks to make little skate parks.
Peter Carlisle, who heads the division representing Olympic and
action-sport athletes at the sports marketing firm Octagon, has been
an unpaid adviser to the Bruscos since they contacted him two years
ago. While it's easy to become cynical about athlete endorsements,
Carlisle suggests Brusco's Lego deal is the real thing: "Mitchie
thinks Legos are cool."
So is Brusco's timing. A Sporting Goods Manufacturers Association
survey found that 12.5 million Americans skateboarded in 2001,
meaning the sport's total participants surpassed baseball. And the
number of participants has more than doubled since 1995.
Skateboard gear sales also have more than doubled since 1995, and
now surpass U.S. dollar sales of football gear.
"The beauty of so-called extreme sports is that there are no
rules in marketing," said the SGMA's Mike May. "A youngster can make
a living at an earlier age than in any other sport. There are no
parameters as to what's right or wrong."
Brusco has gotten lots of media exposure, including an NBC
"Today" show appearance. But unlike other sports prodigies who
popped up on TV as tots, such as golfer Tiger Woods and tennis
player Andre Agassi, Brusco and other extreme sport athletes don't
have to wait for their marketing opportunities.
Carlisle said that is largely because extreme sport athletes need
not worry about financial deals costing them any future NCAA
eligibility - at least until colleges start handing out
skateboarding scholarships.
Beyond that, Carlisle said, "Gen Y, as a demographic phenomenon
for marketers, wasn't in existence" when Woods wowed viewers of "The
Mike Douglas Show" with his golf skills as almost a toddler.
Brusco's talent, however, isn't as easy to explain as his
marketability. It all started, his mother said, when her son spotted
a $10 skateboard, emblazoned with the Tasmanian Devil, at a local
Target store. She said her initial suspicion that he was attracted
only to the cartoon character was quickly dispelled.
"He wouldn't get off it," she said. "He changed his clothes on
it."
Jennifer Brusco said her son, who has competed in more than 30
skateboard events since age 4, especially likes the sport "because
he gets to hang out with the bigger guys" well into elementary
school.
And the whole Brusco family gets a kick out of boxes of free
stuff from sponsors. That's about the only thing that really sinks
in about his endorsements, his mom said: "He just knows the boxes
show up."
Carlisle represents snowboarder Luke Mitrani, 12, who has deals
with Lego and Mountain Dew, but he called Brusco's marketing success
"unprecedented." Asked what he would advise the boy if he formally
represented him, Carlisle takes the long view.
"I'd say there's time," he said. "Let's walk before we run."
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