How To Get Free Product
There’s no denying it, snowboarding is expensive. Between all
the equipment, clothing and lift tickets, you barely have enough left over to buy a
hamburger in the lodge. This can all be rectified though if you know how to work it, that
is, convince people you’re worthy of getting their product for free. Think of how
much money you would save if you could have dope gear without dropping hundreds of dollars
at the beginning of each season.
 Check out all these sweet spring gloves I got while reviewing product for Bluetorch! Photo: Mike Arzt |
There are a few ways to go about this. Try doing “gear reviews.”
If by giving you product a company will be getting free publicity in return, they are
usually willing to send you goodies. Call up companies and tell them you work for (insert
media company here), and that you are doing a review. It helps to pick one item at a time,
because the chances of the company sending you one of each item in their line are slim.
Get an official sounding address and have them Fed-ex it right away, because you’re
under a deadline. Then enjoy your new stash of whatever product you might have needed.
Stay away from the companies that expect you to send stuff back, this sort of defeats the
purpose. Of course, this method is only really effective if you actually do (and publish)
the gear review, and since you might not work for (insert media company here), this one
might not work for you.
Another way to score good hook-ups is to befriend people who work for
the companies. This one might require you to relocate, try Southern California. There are
so many industry types here that you should have no problem finding at least one that
thinks you are all right. Don’t ask for product right away, first gain their trust
and friendship. Then, slowly begin complaining about how much whatever item you think they
can provide you with is bothering you, i.e. “these sunglasses always fog up!” Or
“these boots really hurt my feet!” If you work it right, your “friend”
will probably take pity and hook you with the latest gear.
Chad Perrin gets tons of free stuff. Take notes from him. Photo: Tim Zimmerman |
There’s one more way to get free stuff, and this one may seem a
little far-fetched, but give it a try. Get good at snowboarding. Learn new tricks and go
all the time. It might be hard to make it is a professional snowboarder these days as
budgets are tightening up, but there are still a million companies that are just dying to
give out free stuff to kids who can do backside rodeos. If your goal is only to get free
product and not be a pro, try living somewhere like West Virginia. It’s incredibly
hard for companies to find people that ride to rock their product in these areas, and they’ll
be stoked to hook you up. You should be able to milk this for years without actually
taking snowboarding seriously.
Maybe all this sounds crazy to you. Maybe you don’t want to move or whore yourself out for free product. There are other ways to make snowboarding more economical, but you’ll have to come up with those on your own, because I have to go hang out with a team manager now, and then later I’m going to go snowboarding a learn a new trick. Good luck, and I’ll see you on the hill. I’ll be the one in all the dope gear I’m “reviewing.”
-Brooke Geery
p.s. This content is "repurposed." I wrote it for Bluetorch and found it when I was cleaning out my closet. SWEET!
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