Anyone who follows professional archery at all probably knows the incredible achievements of Tim Gillingham and Kyle Douglas. Pretty shocking news!
I personally buy bows fairly often (not every year) and kinda sorta keep up with companies offerings and “advancements”, and it makes absolutely no difference to me who their staff shooters are, zero, none. I’m kinda a Levi fan, but his shooting Mathew’s has absolutely no bearing on what I buy. Maybe it does for some guys.
To be quite honest I don’t know that I’ve ever heard of Kyle, and only vaguely know of Tim. I mean, if the contracts are a few thousand dollars I guess whatever, but I suspect for top name guys they are significantly more. How many bows they gotta sell to pay a guy say $100k a year? I think I heard once that Mathew’s paid Levi $1mill a year (I could be completely wrong). They obviously think it’s money well spent, I just wonder… can anyone enlighten me?
Edit: according to google Levi’s contract with Mathew’s was estimated to be $1mill over 10 years, so basically $100k a year. Make more sense to me I guess, but seems like gotta sell a bunch of bows to cover that…
—Jim
I think your question is one a lot of people ask. I am not sure how they measure their ROI, but when thinking about these target guys it is also important to think that a lot of people shoot target archery internationally. I am not sure how this makes sense to Bowtech as they have almost no target archery presence, but for someone like Hoyt I can see it. Hoyt dominates international sales and it would make sense to me that they would have large target archery marketing pushes. I, like you, still don't see the big picture because while Hoyt has this large international presence they still decided to dial their paid shooting staff way back a few years ago.
I do think that over time people like Chris Bee or the Hushin guy (it makes me puke to talk about the Hush guys) types are where the future is. The manufacturer sends a guy a few bows, maybe even some cash too, and those guys do a bunch of free advertising on their social media accounts with their huge followings.
I don’t even know who Chris Bee or the Hushn guy is either, I guess I live under a rock. But agree in general, dishing out some free bows and swag to “influencers” is probably the way of the future.
—Jim
—Jim
Bowhunting and Target archery are two different realms. Probably a small percentage of bowhunters that would recognize any of the pro archer names. Levi is well known by bowhunters because of his hunting show and due to him being the best of the best in 3D archery. Gillingham and Douglas aren't selling hunting bows.
That said, I feel for the two guys who were dropped. Sponsors in pro sports can be cutthroat and tough to get. Losing them, no matter how good you are or how quick another may come, is a hurdle. Hope those guys navigate it ok.
—jim
You’re not kidding. I saw one positive mention of a $100 item drive sales of 500 or 600 of them overnight. Normal volume was maybe 5-10 units in a week. I’m sure that’s why the tree-saddle fan-boys are apparently acting like recently converted religious zealots… they’ve gotta be on the payroll one way or another….
"Bowtech is in the heart of lib country as well." ? Lib as in liberal?
I don't know who the woman is they retained. So I checked out her fb page. She posted a giraffe video. Frontal shot. She got a lot of hate for that. Skimming the comments, it sounds like you want a frontal for a giraffe? I didn't know that.
Both of them shoot a release with an index finger trigger. Both are command shooters. No surprise release with them two.
Kyle us almost unstoppable in the the knownpro. If you made it to a shoot off with him you better be punching rings to have a chance at beating him.
The company decided there weren't getting much return on their investment and either they are pulling in their horns due to potentially less bow sales or they are going a different route in their marketing.
There are so many wannabe Pro Staff guys that will sing their praises for almost nothing, it might make sense to go that route.
I don’t follow any of these social media celebrities, but I do recall some gal making national headlines for having shot a giraffe and the impression I was left with was not good for hunting… I don’t usually pay any attention to celebrity spokespeople when making a buying decision— I’m usually 100% about quality and value — but with hunting under attack the way it is, we really need those public faces to keep their noses squeaky clean. And their sponsors are in a good position to demand it. So by extension, it may be necessary for the manufacturers to lose some sales…
