sponsorships

The 404 Podcast has interviewed professional athletes before, but few are as young, or as inspiring, as today's guest, professional snowboarder Kevin Pearce. At only 22 years old, Kevin is already very accomplished, winning back-to-back Arctic Challenge titles in 2007 and 2008, in addition to being the first man to earn two Air & Style rings in one season.

Kevin sits down with The 404 Podcast to talk about his snowboarding history and an accident earlier this year that left him with a traumatic brain injury. Narrowly escaping death with the support of his friends and family, Kevin also tells us that his miraculous recovery wouldn't have been possible without the help of his brother Adam, who also joins us as Kevin's unofficial photographer in the studio.

Kevin's also here to show off his new line of headphones named after his seven-deep crew of snowboarders called "Frends." The group consists of Keir Dillon, Mason Aguirre, Danny Davis, Scotty Lago, Kevin, and Jack and Luke Mitrani, and the current lineup includes five different headphones that range from earbuds to large DJ style cans. In fact, Kevin actually wears a pair with pride on today's episode.

Finally, Kevin and his brother David are in New York to participate in this weekend's 2010 New York City Buddy Walk, a one-mile walk to benefit the National Down Syndrome Society and Down Syndrome Awareness Month in October. Kevin's already well on his way to raising $10,000 but needs your help to reach his goal, so head over to his donation page and give what you can!

There's only one thing I know about students. There are too many of them.

The dominance of online practices over the traditional analog methods has meant that, truly, we need fewer people to make the commercial world spin around.

Machines can now do the work of thousands of interns. We therefore need fewer students to emerge from the college system, students who believe that they have talents given by God, when in fact they're not even all that good at beer pong.

These thoughts enter my head because of the existence of a site called SponsorMyDegree.com. This … Read more

One assumes it didn't happen by text.

But, according to The New York Times, AT&T has announced, in a very brief statement, that it will no longer associate its fine name with Tiger Woods.

Accenture, Tag Heuer, and Procter and Gamble have already distanced themselves from the world's greatest golfer after he crashed his car and became associated with as many alleged extra-marital affairs as there are clubs in his bag.

Yet it's interesting that AT&T should choose New Year's Eve as the time to announce its decision. It has been a … Read more

How often does a sponsoring company try and ban its own products? Perhaps not as often as it should.

I was persuaded on Saturday to visit the AT&T National Pro-Am golf tournament at Pebble Beach. It didn't take much. Just the offer of a free ticket and the company of the dissolute and deranged.

(For those of you not familiar with this tournament, professional golfers agree to tolerate amateur players like George Lopez, Andy Garcia and Bill Murray for days that seem to turn into weeks. Much of the money goes to charity.)

As I got out … Read more

Recently, the San Francisco Chronicle ran a story about how Yelp had empowered local restaurant-goers and helped them improve several local eating establishments with their constructive reviews. One thing that caught my eye was the mention of Yelp's sponsorship program, where local businesses can pay for premier placement in Yelp's search results and "sponsor" favorable user reviews so they appear at the top of the list.

The sponsorship program has been around since early 2006, and many businesses have participated in it as a way to enhance their identity on the service. The sponsorship package includes … Read more