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Crag Q
Trad climber
Louisville, Colorado
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Oct 26, 2008 - 09:18pm PT
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Hey Inside Outer,
If you see a proctologist, they can probably get out whatever crawled up your *ss and died.
Brittany has been cranking hard for years and appears to be a cheerful and humorous lass. Check out the stobly clip on youtube to see a true adventure. Also, I believe she has been sponsored by Metolious for the last ten years or so.
I have met Majka a couple times and she's a class act as far as I can tell. She pulls down pretty hard and seems to have fun doing it. She's also willing to poke fun at herself in her writing.
You seem to imply there is some standard that athletes must meet in order to be sponsored. The litmus test for being sponsored is whether or not you can get sponsored and that depends solely on whether or not the company thinks your image represents the brand. So, where is the big controversy in that? Apparently they're good enough for patagonia and patagonia can choose between anyone they want.
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Trippel40
Social climber
CO
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Oct 26, 2008 - 09:36pm PT
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To me, the skewed marketing seems to be the pictures in the ads and product catalogs where at LEAST every other picture is a woman climbing hard stuff. While I think its cool, I think it doesn't accurately represent the climbing population. For better or worse there are a lot more guys out there leading hard stuff than girls contrary to the picture these folks paint.
Regardless of the subject, marketers painting a picture that doesn't jive with reality always annoys me. THAT is selling a false "lifestyle". Of course it is a free country and women are conditioned to be such better shoppers than men so it makes sense, unfortunately.
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hafilax
Trad climber
East Van
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Oct 26, 2008 - 10:26pm PT
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Could this be a viral marketing ploy? Reverse psychology to get people to say nice things in defense of Patagonia?
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Tarbuster
climber
right here, right now
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Oct 26, 2008 - 10:32pm PT
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good point halifax...
That's IT dammit!!!
I wanna be a sponsoredhotchictradster...
Golly, I wonder if that's within my grasp???
I need a gig too...next stop: extreme makeover.
tarBUSTer
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Ricky D
Trad climber
Sierra Westside
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Oct 26, 2008 - 10:33pm PT
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"Could this be a viral marketing ploy? Reverse psychology to get people to say nice things in defense of Patagonia? "
I'll counter that idea by saying that although I wear a lot of pataguccis stuff - I can never figure out how to get the stink out of the armpits of their damn Capilene!!!
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Mighty Hiker
Social climber
Vancouver, B.C.
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Oct 26, 2008 - 10:33pm PT
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Tarbuster: prancing with the stars. Hee hee.
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WBraun
climber
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Oct 26, 2008 - 10:46pm PT
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The very first line: "Patagonia’s marketing ploy is to sell a lifestyle."
Well WTF you think? They're a commercial business, that's what they do, they sell stuff.
Do you really believe that people are morons who believe everything that's put out by advertisement? I think you must?
Anyways ..... the Patagonia ambassadors are human walking advertising billboards. The get paid to promote.
Me .... I'd rather sit in a cornfield in Kansas and eat corn ...
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Scared Silly
Trad climber
UT
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Oct 26, 2008 - 10:52pm PT
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OII, I would be interested in hearing more, as in some thing substantial. So far it has been all hat and no horse.
As for what Patagonia is selling, I have been a dirt bag climber for 30 years. I was wearing their clothes well before it was Patguccui. The Patagonia marketing is a paradox. Yeah, they like to high light hard core folks living the dirt bag dream, but guess who is those buying the vast majority of their stuff? The granola want to be yuppies that couldn't pull their butt out of a garbage can if was turned upside down. If you do not believe me walk into one of their stores in San Francisco.
Now my only gripe is the term "athletes". Seemed that everybody is now an athlete. Athlete my azz. Seems they need that term to be respectable. Give me a break.
Oh yeah, seems like years ago Chouinard said something to affect - about wanting expeditions being paid for to get a job.
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Ricky D
Trad climber
Sierra Westside
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Oct 26, 2008 - 10:53pm PT
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Hey Werner - if you've ever spent time in Kansas - you might want to rethink that last plan of yours.
:)
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Mighty Hiker
Social climber
Vancouver, B.C.
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Oct 26, 2008 - 10:55pm PT
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OII = first time poster, at least under that name and e-mail = troll. Either that, or sour grapes.
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Karl Baba
Trad climber
Yosemite, Ca
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Oct 26, 2008 - 11:15pm PT
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Who knows how they figure to portray themselves? Potter used to be an ambassador but you'd only seem him wearing some ragged jeans around.
I don't know anybody who buys stuff like Patagonia based on who they pay to climb.
Peace
Karl
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TwistedCrank
climber
Ideeho-dee-do-dah-day
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Oct 26, 2008 - 11:23pm PT
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Patty is always used for a troll. Remember that fellow with an inside skinny that posted up when they fired all the Patch ambassadors? Twas worth a chuckle.
My 20 year old capilene speaks volumes of a lifestyle via its stench after it's been worn for a day of humping in the back country. Some good stinky sh!t, that capilene.
In Argentina they laugh at you when you wear clothes with the Patagonia label because Patagonia is mostly a wind-scoured sh!thole to the average porteño.
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apogee
climber
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Oct 26, 2008 - 11:31pm PT
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OII-
I just returned from working a weekend event that benefits a Joshua Tree NP climber advocacy group, the Friends of Joshua Tree- this yearly event (ClimbSmart) has been supported by several vendors over the years, including Patagonia, Black Diamond, Adventure 16, and guide services (volunteering their time and instruction) to benefit this worthy cause. For the past several years, Patagonia has sent one or more of their 'ambassadors' to help support & deliver the event, by doing a slideshow or multimedia presentation, and assisting with the instruction of many of the climber's clinics that are provided over the weekend.
Brittany was present for two of the last 3 events, and Majka was present this past weekend. Having personally spent time with both of them, I can attest to their clear commitment to the business principles that Patagonia strives towards. Majka's slideshow on her recent Ethiopia adventure juxtaposed climbing and adventure with important (and under-appreciated) social and geo-political issues that was well-received by all in attendance, in a highly engaging delivery from an obviously impassioned person.
It is understandable to be skeptical about a company's motives when it comes to their own promotion, and if one is so inclined, I'm sure you could find hypocrisies in Patagonia's strategies. In my experience, and for my money, I can easily accept some of the areas where Patagonia might not achieve these highest ideals, given what I know and have seen of Patagonia's efforts to walk their talk. I just wish there were far more companies that made similar efforts.
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stevep
Boulder climber
Salt Lake, UT
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Oct 26, 2008 - 11:41pm PT
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Nice troll. Normally I try not to feed them, but for Brittany, I first met her at Smith probably 13 or 14 years ago. She was already climbing pretty strongly at that point, so I don't think you'd find too many with knowledge of the US climbing scene that would question her experience or capability.
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east side underground
Trad climber
crowley ca
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Oct 26, 2008 - 11:50pm PT
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patagonia, one of the few companies in the surf industry creating green surf products (boards&wetsuits)in a very non-green industry. Also heard one of the malloy bros( sponsered patagonia surfer)climbed the NA -- nice lifestyle
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Spencer Adkisson
Trad climber
Reno, NV
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Oct 26, 2008 - 11:54pm PT
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Is there some unwritten rule that states that sponsored atheletes, specifically climbers, are required to publish an extensive biography that details all of their accomplishments and credentials in the climbing arena so that you will accept them as worthy of their position?
What's that all about?
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outdoor industry insider
climber
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Topic Author's Reply - Oct 26, 2008 - 11:55pm PT
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To name a few of my concerns:
1) In Burhardt’s presentation she said that she was a journalist with the motivation of going to Ethiopia (for 3 months) to research a rare coffee bean. Once she arrives in Ethiopia, she promptly changes her plans and decides to write a book about another topic—exposing the world to the real Ethiopia beyond famine, improving their image as a country, and also to tell about climbing some FAs (the two topics seemed slammed together). She never mentioned whom she worked for as a journalist, but I find it odd, that she could just switch focus, mid-stay, and start writing a climbing/political piece. Petzl states that they sponsored her book. Once there she was surprised by the vertical relief in Ethiopia, and just knew there would be some things to climb, so she decided to organize a team to climb some FA’s during the last 3 weeks of her stay. She called folks from the U.S. and Britain (I guess they just dropped their jobs), and hired a photographer (I guess he was just ready). Oh, and within the 3 months, before the climbing trip, she had shoulder surgery in the U.S. and then returned to continue writing the book about being in the country and getting ready to climb FAs. And, that during an FA, they were being robbed by kids, so she ended up at the jailhouse (for 10 days, I think) trying to work out the details, and help these kids out of jail. She did this while the team pressed on with the FAs. It’s a fanciful story, no doubt, the audience was captivated, impressed…yes, she is a very good speaker, and creative writer. My question is, which came first, the idea for climbing in Ethiopia, or true journalistic endeavor that switched to an impromptu adventure climbing piece.
2) Patagonia’s website states:
“She was a founding member of Climb Against the Odds (at age 21) a group of breast cancer survivors and women without cancer who climbed Denali to raise money and awareness for the disease.”
Princeton Weekly Bulletin reports:
“A member of this past June's Climb Against the Odds sponsored by the Breast Cancer Fund of San Francisco, Burhardt participated in an assault on Alaska's 20,320 ft. Mt. McKinley -- known to indigenous peoples as Denali, "the Great One." She climbed with four other Princeton women, now alumnae, as well as a number of breast cancer survivors. They made it to the final staging area at 16,500 feet, only to be turned back by bad weather.
Nonclimbers ask if she was disappointed by the "failure" to reach the summit. "If you're a mountaineer, it happens," Burhardt observes.”
Details, I know.
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jstan
climber
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Oct 27, 2008 - 12:20am PT
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Thirty years ago I learned of the Afar Triangle in Ethiopia. As I remember it there are apparently 5000 foot faces that run about 125F in the shade. I could not get any of the Carderock climbers interested even though the weather is quite similar to that found at Carderock. We knew that the first European to make it all the way across that region without losing his ears did it in 1936. But this, of course, is not the reason we failed to go there.
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Flashlight
climber
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Oct 27, 2008 - 12:23am PT
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Didn't this same guy start a similar thread a while back?
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apogee
climber
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Oct 27, 2008 - 12:44am PT
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OII-
You obviously have an axe to grind with Majka, Brittany, &/or Patagonia. Please have the integrity to be completely forthcoming about your motivations, or just drop it.
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