How I went from too broke to play Paintball to getting paid to be on the field.

I started playing paintball at a very young age, 12 years old to be exact. Almost every time I played paintball when I was young was because my parents were thankfully able to pay for my expensive habit. This wasn’t a problem as I rarely played and only recreational paintball with friends for birthdays and the occasional family get together. The problem with paintball is that it is highly addictive and extremely expensive to play. After I began showing an increasing interest in playing more than a couple times per year, my parents cut me off. How could they! I needed to play!

I found out that my local paintball field was looking for referees on weekends and so I did what every poor paintballer does and I took the job. Being only 15 at the time of my first job was exciting and the best part was that even if I didn’t play I was still at the field. I used this time wisely and studied players and took note of who would get shot out and who would hang the flag. Most local fields have great benefits if you are a paintballer with free admission, free air, and discounted paint. This was absolutely key in order for me to continue my success as a paintballer.

For months I would work weekends, learn from other people mistakes, and make connections everywhere possible. After a while a few referees and close friends of mine formed a small 5 man team and began practicing on days we didn’t work. Whenever we could we practiced and we practiced and we practiced. This was very helpful having access to a field and to so many people in paintball. It wasn’t enough for us to just practice all the time. We had challanged other high profile teams and were winning. It was time we took it to the big leagues and played a small local tournament.

I’m not going to lie, our first tournament was very expensive. A couple hundred dollars in entry, more in paint, and more in equipment. All of our practice paid off and we had won the tournament. This was when things began to change. We took the initiative to practice hard, pay our own way, and then win. Our first sponsor was the local field itself. What do you know! They love sponsoring their own employees and local teams.

This just wasn’t enough for us to sustain the lifestyle of playing every weekend though so we took the next big steps. We paid for a sponsorship, yup I know that sounds weird but their are a lot of paintball sponsorship packages and “contests” that you can be a part of. JT at the time had a special equipment sponsorship package that cost a couple hundred dollars and if you played in a big tournament with their equipment on you would get a real sponsorship with them.

Once again we practiced, saved, and bought the package. We planned to play in an NPPL tournament wearing the JT gear and by the end of the tournament we had our first REAL sponsorship. RPS quickly offered us another sponsorship, an online store offered another, and so did a few other local shops.

We took them and ran with them. We worked hard and showed the businesses out there that we had what it takes to represent their companies. We talked to a lot of reps, owners, and players to get where we got. There is no easy way to get a paintball sponsorship and it took a long time and a lot of hard work to eventually get what we did. At our peak we were being paid to play, paid travel, and even a limo ride or two along the way. So play like you mean it and practice as much as you can. Exposure is key and meeting new friends always helps.

Who needs a paintball sponsorship?

Most paintballers would absolutely to be sponsored by a major company like DYE, JT, and WDP. However the chances of you and your team of getting this kind of sponsorship may prove to be difficult. Unless you practice at a well known field multiple times per week you most likely don’t need a large amount of money or equipment to support your team.

Paintball tournaments can be pricey especially if you shoot a lot of paint. In one tournament my team went through nearly $10,000 in paintballs. This did not include our equipment, entry, and travel. If this number looks scary to you, don’t worry- it is! Most paintball teams do not need this kind of support and may only need a couple hundred dollars for small tournaments.

The good news is there are tons of great opportunities for paintball sponsorships all around you! If you have never played and won in a tournament before it will be harder to convince people to hand you money. Companies want to see a return on their investment and you will have to prove that your team can help their business make money. This can be anything from making your local paintball shop look good or even wearing t-shirts from the pizza place down the street. So who really needs a paintball sponsorship? Any skilled team that needs help with practice, tournaments, and paint! Competition can be tough so it is best to practice and practice and practice! Pay your own way through a tournament first and place well. This will prove that your team is capable of looking good to others. Good luck!

What does being sponsored mean?

Everyone knows that playing paintball is a lot of fun and playing for free is even better. Paintball sponsorships are great for a tournament level team wanting to advance their game and fund their activities. Very often though do I see teams treating sponsorships like a luxury that they’ve earned a right to and forget about the company and their intentions behind the sponsorship.

Being sponsored means you are now a representative and endorser of the companies products and their image. If you go out on the field and play with bad sportsmanship then you not only make you and your team look bad, but you make your sponsors look bad. This also applies to off the field as well. Just because you aren’t wearing your paintball gear does not mean that you are no longer representing your sponsors. Your image is supposed to represent their image all the time, and for that you are given perks such as tournament entry, paintballs, gear, cash, etc.

When you start to look for paintball sponsorships for your team, make sure that it is with a company that you would put your name behind. If you don’t trust the company, or agree  with their ethics then don’t go with them. A sponsorship is a professional partnership between a company and a team for mutual benefit. So when your out there, remember to play nice, have great sportsmanship, and even help out the new kids.

How to get sponsored

Paintball is an expensive sport and incredibly addicting, so finding a way to pay for your paintball habit can be difficult. One of the best options to advance your paintball career and play for less cost or free is to get a sponsor. Sponsors typically pay for the cost of paint, field entry, air, tournament fees, etc. Now one sponsor will not be paying for all of it, and the real key is to get many sponsors in different non-competiting areas. For example you will want a sponsor for paint, one for entry, one for gloves, one for guns, and so on.

Before I get ahead of myself, I want to mention that I have been and maintained sponsorships from many big name companies in paintball. I have played for JT teams, Dye teams, local fields, rps, pmi, as well as local companies. To get started the first thing you’ll want to do is either get on a team or make one with friends.

You will not be getting good sponsorships anytime soon if you are a beginner to paintball, so just get that out of your head now. If you are a complete beginner some companies offer sponsorship packages in where you agree to buy their equipment and if you win a tournament or two they will put you on an actual sponsorship. Local companies may want to support their community so it doesn’t hurt to ask local restaurants and organizations.

To get sponsored you have to first get noticed. There are a couple ways to get noticed, one of them being you have a kick ass team that mops the floor with everyone at a tournament. The other is to have something unique about your team, be it religious beliefs, funny jerseys, or anything that you can be creative with. The most surefire way to get sponsored is to practice every weekend at big fields where known players are. Have a team that is committed and practices every weekend against teams that are better than yours. When you go to tournaments play with everything you have and if you lose, lose like a winner not like  a brat.

Another way of getting sponsored is by working at your local field as a referee. I received two decent sponsorships in the past this way when I was first starting out in the tournament paintball world. Working as a referee surrounds you in the world of paintball and allow you to talk to not only big time paintballers but to companies and vendors.

Getting a sponsorship often times takes a lot of work and  time. I recommend writing letters, emails, sending in videos, posting on websites, and going everywhere you can think to look for a sponsorship. Try and you will succeed. If you do it right and set yourself up with some great paintball sponsorships, you will not only be able to play for free you might even get paid for it.

If you are looking to sponsor paintball teams and want your offer posted here, send an email to paintballads@yahoo.com with your details.