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Eternal Contract Cycle

• November 2014
• Hi Steph

Dear Ms. Davis,
I am a journalism major at the University of New Hampshire and an avid climber. As a writing test for an internship I am applying for at Climbing Magazine, I am writing an article on Clif Bar’s recent decision to drop you and four other athletes from Team Clif Bar for participating in free-soloing, BASE jumping, and highlining.

I was wondering if you could answer a few question for me to add to the piece.

1) How will Clif Bar’s decision affect you? The climbing community?
2) Free-soloing, BASE jumping, and Sky-Diving are major parts of your lifestyle, how do you feel about Clif Bar no longer supporting them?
3) What are your thoughts on Clif Bar’s recently sponsoring “Valley Uprising,” which shows all of the activities that the company no longer supports to be the cutting edge of climbing today?
4) I noticed you have remained quiet about this issues, only removing Clif Bar from your “likes” on Facebook. Why have you remained quiet? Do you plan to make any further responses?
5) Do you have another favorite climbing snack?
6) Is there anything else you would like to add?

Many Thanks,
Liz

Hello Liz,
Good luck with your application!
I’ve been approached by a few other journalists about articles concerning this topic, which I find truly bizarre 🙂

From my perspective, this is an ordinary contract scenario and a simple business event and I haven’t had much to say about it because I have a hard time understanding why a contract change is a news story. Like any company, Clif is in a constant effort to define and communicate their brand, and athlete relationships are a direct reflection of branding decisions. The decision to continue or end a contract can happen for a multitude of reasons, on both sides, and is not particularly newsworthy, in my opinion. I’ve been a sponsored climber for 18 years and I don’t see any of my contracts as an eternal or lifetime contract cycle. I’m not sure I’d sign a contract with a term length of “until the end of time.” 😉

Though I always valued my relationship with Clif and was not actively looking to replace their category among my sponsor lineup, the opportunity to work with another company for 2015 is very exciting for me. So for me, it’s a great opportunity, and I have only good feelings about it.

My favorite food is real food–for climbing, usually nuts and things that are salty rather than sweet for electrolyte replacement–and my favorite snacks are my own, of course.

The thing that has been somewhat annoying to me around this experience is the feeling of being used by media outlets in twisting a simple business move into a news story and a reflection of whatever issues might stir up “controversy” and generate hits to their sites. However, as with everything, it will be exciting for a few days and then we will all continue doing what we do. It would be nice to see this amount of free publicity being given to an important issue such as child welfare or animal abuse.

Thank you for writing to me,
Steph