It was a normal day at school for Christian Liriano. He had his favorite Loaded brand long board beneath him as he skated through the Dowling College campus. After 10 years of skating, the sport came easily to him and seeing him glide across the pavement was a common occurrence, but on this day, Liriano’s skating caught the eyes of someone else.
Zico, a company that makes coconut water sports drinks, was on campus promoting its product. Liriano asked the Zico representative for a sample of the drink and immediately, she asked to take Liriano’s picture.
“I joked around with her,” says Liriano. “I said ‘How about a sponsorship?’ And she said, ‘Actually, we were gonna ask you about that’”.
A few days later, Liriano became one of the first skaters in New York to receive a sponsorship from Zico. He is an example of an increasing trend of street skaters receiving unpaid, product sponsorships. A product sponsorship means that a skater receives products in return for promoting a company.
While it is expensive for companies to sponsor major athletes, more companies are finding it cheaper to sponsor aspiring skaters who are looking for recognition for themselves. They have more time to promote the product than major athletes and put more effort into promoting, because it gets them noticed. In Liriano’s case, he receives boxes of Zico drinks, as well as T-shirts, bottles and ChapStick, all containing the Zico logo. His job is to promote the product at races and events.
“I let my sponsor know about all of the skating events that come up,” says Liriano. “They send me some of the product and a team shirt to wear to the race and I have to make sure everyone sees me. It’s kind of a ‘Hey look at me, I’m drinking this and that’s why I win’ kind of thing”.
Sponsorship works in different levels, with a product sponsorship being the first level. After skaters receive a product sponsorship, they have the opportunity to reach a higher level of sponsorship, the professional level. These professional skaters not only receive products and equipment from their sponsors, but money as well.
Solomon Lang, Bustin Boards Team Rider, is an example of a skater that is paid by his sponsor. Lang, who started out with a product sponsorship from Bustin, says that being unpaid did not bother him. “The sponsorship was they gave me a board and T-shirt and I had the company cards and I would pass out the cards. That was me getting sponsored, but I was stoked about it. It was 5 years ago and I was like 23 or 24, so I didn’t care. I got to say I was sponsored.”
According to Lang, most skaters do not receive more than a product sponsorship. While he is in a special circumstance and is able to sustain himself financially through skating, not all skaters are given that opportunity and many people are unable to make an income from skating alone.
“There’s very select few people that actually get paid to skate,” says Lang. “It’s not happening for a lot of people. There are incentives for placing at events and stuff but some people, and it doesn’t even happen a lot, they get hardware and pieces. That’s still what it is for a lot of people and help with travel.”
Although the sport continues to grow, many of the most popular sponsored skaters are still forced to work in skate shops in order to make a substantial income. While the facts may be discouraging to aspiring skaters, there are other ways for people to make money in the skating industry, without having to skate for a living.
“Ownership is the way,” advises Lang. “Building yourself a brand, building yourself a name, whether you’re doing hardware, trucks or apparel. You have to use it to platform into something else. And you also have some people that are branding their name, which is something I’m working on now.”