COOL SPONSER

[Athleticgirl389]

Originally Posted by Jeremytice

Haha thats awsome man. I would love to be sponsored by the Yankees!

DITTO!! They could sponsor all FIRST teams haha... they have the money lol.

[Adam Richards]

Originally Posted by chris31

Bawls is great. But they sponsor so many LAN parties that i dont know if they could do a FIRST team.

Technically, you could claim every day of build is a lan party. 50 crates of Bawls anyone?

[N7UJJ]

We really had no sponsors our first year, but we had a NASA grant for $5,000. For the second years, NASA would grant $6,000 as a MATCHING grant, so we had a year to line up sponsors for $6,000. We spoke we wrote, we begged, we did everything we could think of and all we had was $50 and 20 coupons for free slurpies. We were all discouraged and were brainstorming trying to think of who to ask. We had been turned down by all the tech companies and local businesses.

One kid said, "You know, there is a group in the valley that likes to fiddle with machines and they get together a lot and many are professional people who may want to back a 'hard luck' robotics club." He had our attention.

"Who?"

"Well, the Hell's Angels"

We all laughed at his joke, but the more we thought about it... It would surly make the news and pointing out that only the Hell's Angles supported extracurricular academic activities at a public high school might embarrass legislators and CEOs to support us.

After a few more weeks of no sponsors, we had a serious discussion about approaching the motorcycle group. We finally decided that it really was not the way to go, but somehow the sight of the H. A. riding into the Arizona Regional and walking through the pits... The public image that robot competitions are for the nerd kids would never survive. Would an Orange County custom robot be far behind? Big Paulie with a "842" tatoo?

Eventually we did interest a few companies to help us out and have since thrived and we now aim for the Chairman's Award. But I still fantasize what might have been

[SuperJake]

Originally Posted by N7UJJ

We really had no sponsors our first year, but we had a NASA grant for $5,000. For the second years, NASA would grant $6,000 as a MATCHING grant, so we had a year to line up sponsors for $6,000. We spoke we wrote, we begged, we did everything we could think of and all we had was $50 and 20 coupons for free slurpies. We were all discouraged and were brainstorming trying to think of who to ask. We had been turned down by all the tech companies and local businesses.

One kid said, "You know, there is a group in the valley that likes to fiddle with machines and they get together a lot and many are professional people who may want to back a 'hard luck' robotics club." He had our attention.

"Who?"

"Well, the Hell's Angels"

We all laughed at his joke, but the more we thought about it... It would surly make the news and pointing out that only the Hell's Angles supported extracurricular academic activities at a public high school might embarrass legislators and CEOs to support us.

After a few more weeks of no sponsors, we had a serious discussion about approaching the motorcycle group. We finally decided that it really was not the way to go, but somehow the sight of the H. A. riding into the Arizona Regional and walking through the pits... The public image that robot competitions are for the nerd kids would never survive. Would an Orange County custom robot be far behind? Big Paulie with a "842" tatoo?

Eventually we did interest a few companies to help us out and have since thrived and we now aim for the Chairman's Award. But I still fantasize what might have been

I think bikers would be great sponsors - especially the ones that like to tinker with their bikes. I'll bet they are all big and bad on the outside, but inside they are all just looking to be loved... Just like FIRST robots everywhere!

Seriously, if they were really into customizing their bikes, then they probably have access to and knowledge about machining equipment that would come in handy during the build. Additionally, they would have some good ideas on how to "chop out" the look of your robot. Though you might have to do some sort of background check for the more sketchy characters...

[Taylor]

I know that Harley Davidson sponsors some teams, and I've heard that Harley engineers make the best mentors (as long as you don't mind flames & skulls on your bot)

[Scott Ritchie]

A couple of years ago the Jacksonville Jaguars sponsored some Florida teams. I also remember a Campbell's Soup team that used to have great looking robots using their logo. There was also a team sponsored by Lego. The Kodak team used to hand out cases of disposable cameras and was used in their commercial.

[sporno]

i think some Car custom shop would support first .. like a PIMP MY BOT kinda thing... yalll know what im talking about

[Pavan Dave]

I don't think our team is as RedBull crazy as we are with Starbucks Double Shots, and Mountain Dew and Cheese it/nips (cant remember). That would be one heck of a year though with a load of mountain dew or doubleshot at our finger tips.

Originally Posted by Sgraff_SRHS06

Speaking of oddities. American Eagle Co. is sponsoring a rookie team in Arizona this year. (First young persons' clothing company to sponsor a FIRST team?)

What's next? Championship or Regional Events on MTV? (That would be the epitome of FIRST!)

Also if MTV or anyone invaded FIRST I would be disappointed. I hate MTV with a passion because they don't play music videos anymore and show idiots 23/7 (for one hour they play music videos at like 5 AM). I think that it is great that we are being looked at by more people and hopefully American Eagle Co. will raise awareness about FIRST and Robotics Education but honestly, we don't need too much. MTV and commercials like Truth for FIRST would kill this organization in my opinion.
Pavan

[KTorak]

It's interesting that American Eagle is sponsoring a team. I'm not trying to start a clothing war, but they do offer moderately priced clothing that isnt all about what some other more expensive stores are about. I personally would have never thought of asking them to sponsor a team.

[Sgraff_SRHS06]

Correct me if I'm wrong: The AE Team is 2111 and will compete in the Arizona Regional this year. It may be a false interpretation of "Eagle's Aerie Schools"

But this is why I thought American Eagle:

American Eagle's new big deal is its Aerie line for girls. (Also indicates the school sponsored may be an all-girls team.)

But it would be a far reach from AE's local reach, as it is based in PA. They are probably contributing something. (It would be much easier for them to help Femme Tech Fatales (709) due to locality.) But maybe there's a "prettyness" about Arizona that makes national sponsorship attractive.

[KTorak]

Originally Posted by Sgraff_SRHS06

But it would be a far reach from AE's local reach, as it is based in PA. They are probably contributing something. (It would be much easier for them to help Femme Tech Fatales (709) due to locality.) But maybe there's a "prettyness" about Arizona that makes national sponsorship attractive.

AE has a grant program setup. They will donate 1k to 25k to organizations in an area with a store. However, they have pretty strict requirements to apply for money/sponsorship.

[Kingofl337]

All I can say is the team that figures out how to Get OCC or Chip FOOSE to sponsor them will have a sexy looking robot!

[Arkorobotics]

Russian Space Administration? Ha.

I personally would love to get sponsored by Apple Computers.

[Donut]

Sorry to ruin all the excitement, but Eagle's Aerie Schools is a K-12 charter school based out of Gilbert, AZ. No affiliation with American Eagle.

[Mike Schroeder]

Originally Posted by Kingofl337

All I can say is the team that figures out how to Get OCC or Chip FOOSE to sponsor them will have a sexy looking robot!

I would love Foose to sponsor my team, let him overhaul my robot... better yet my bronco