In recent news, we learned that the outdoor clothing company Under Armour dropped their relationship, sponsorship of well-accomplished bow hunter Sarah Bowmar. That in of itself is not particularly newsworthy as sponsorships, company reps, and hunting shows do change for any number of reasons. There are however significant reasons and circumstances that all of my readers should be concerned with. I’ll recommend that you can take actions as well as make your collective voices heard. Causal reading of so-called news reports make it difficult to dissect the story as much of the reporting is emotional or conducted by reporters unfamiliar, nor resourcing specifics of bear hunting, or the relevant history of hunting implements. I will list out a few things in bullet form to make it a bit clearer as to the circumstance and relevant facts of the matter.
Sarah Bowmar accompanied her husband Josh Bowmar on a legal bear hunt in Alberta Canada. Both Josh and Sarah are accomplished hunters, athletes, and in particular, Josh holds All-American Honors in javelin throwing as well as other track and field events.
- Using a spear currently in the Canadian province is a legal implement, and given Josh’s background, an ethical one. As with all hunting implements, training, proficiency, and accuracy is a key factor in claiming it ethical in its use.
- Josh harvested a seven-foot long black bear using a spear which was filmed by Sarah. Josh’s well-placed spear resulted in a very quick and ethical kill. It was estimated the bear traveled 60 yards. I’ll stick my neck out and state that bowhunters and gun hunters would be more than happy with such a short recovery on a large game animal.
- The video footage was published online, resulting in a huge negative response from the anti-hunting community, complete with all the ignorance and emotional nonsense we as sportsmen come to expect from their ranks.
- An online petition https://www.change.org/p/under-armour-stop-sponsoring-bowmar-fitness was created and with little more than 4.3K signatures moved Under Armour to drop their relationship with Sarah. Josh was not sponsored to be factually correct, but a supporter and fan of their products as he publicly states.
As is typical in these controversies, there are the death threats, horrible dialog, and displays of ignorance so common with little-minded keyboard warriors with huge facebook/twitter balls. Such threatening aggressive language, bravado, rarely surfaces in face to face meetings. It is my intention to spend little time with that, as it is futile dealing with their mindset, their fairy tale liberal views of the world.
What I am concerned with, willing to spend time commenting on, and I believe that all of us as hunters and fishermen should pay attention to, is the lack of “I got your back” unity we need to have to prevail in the court of public opinion. In reading some of the commentaries in the hunting communities, It is clear we as a group can be accused of elitism and that of eating our own. It is the tired same ol same ol with archers embracing compound bows, inline vs flintlock muzzleloaders, shotgun vs rifle, and it occurs with every new or so old it is new implement as we now have with spears.
I’ll be upfront here; spearing is not my thing… Images of me in a loin cloth stalking through the woods is a scary image, and should not be viewed by small children or adults with weak stomachs…. Let me back up, I believe Josh was clothed in modern camo clothing and not the latest of Tarzan apparel.
Seriously, no offense, I like my rifles, shotguns, pistols, bows, and crossbows and I am reasonably proficient in each of their uses. I do not participate in every form of hunting or chasing of all available quarry. I hunt to improve my table fare, downtime away from work, and my connection to the natural world. In short, that happens to be my personal tastes, no worse, no better than the next hunter. As a group, we suffer from a few forms of elitism based on quarry pursued, implements used, style of hunting, equipment used, and a multitude of “ethical practices.” We’ll tear each other up, and verbally berate each other over of 25 grams of broadhead weight, or a few thousandths of an inch in bullet diameter. It is a very large black eye for us collectively and easily exploited by those that have the end of all hunting as their stated goals. Even more so, and to be more pointed we are subjected to a death of a thousand paper cuts, and sadly some of our ranks play right into it. Divide and conquer is applied daily in the world of public opinion and yet we sit around scratching our heads, scratching our butts as to how we keep losing ground in recognition of our contributions, senseless new regulations, new hunter recruitment, hunter participation.
To be frank, we all need to get off our high thrones and support all legal forms of hunting, legal pursuits. I am personally not a big fan of some methods of hunting, but I don’t need to be bashing my fellow sportsmen in public. I can vote my opinions with my dollars or participation. Like I mentioned, I am not into spearing or interested in trying it, but I have no problem with it during legal seasons, and the hunter is well practiced in their chosen implement, knows the limitations, and makes the same shoot/no shoot decisions we make with a gun or a bow at further distances. We all know bowhunters and gun hunters that could benefit from the same approach.
Turning my attention to Under Armour, do we as a group that spends something north of 23 billion dollars on equipment and clothing annually put up with being out voiced by a mere forty-three hundred signatures? Seriously? Would Under Armour get the message if we said screw off, and left all their products on the racks at Bass Pro, Cabela’s, Dick’s Sporting goods, and any other retailer? Would having their products, their $40 tops sitting on a clearance rack for $8 get their attention? We are a direct audience for their products. Does anyone think the anti-hunters are buying their products in the same volume that hunters do? Have we totally forgotten what a powerful demographic we are as the purchasers of outdoor clothing, equipment, licenses, travel food, etc. Do we let a bunch of maligned, misinformed, misled anti’s outflank us as an influence in companies that supposedly supply, outfit our hunting trips.
A company such as Under Armour that measures sales in hundreds of millions must certainly understand just how large our demographic is, and what percentage, market share they anticipated gaining by jumping into the camo lifestyle. Personally, I challenge them to explain how such a small petition caused their decisions that may result in throwing a wrench into 4th quarter 2016 sales. There can be, should be a price to pay, a consequence for aligning themselves with anti-hunters rather than those of us that actually purchase their camo products
I’ll strongly suggest you make your voices heard directly to Under Armour, or any other company that picks the wrong team, get’s it wrong on hunting and fishing and still wants our dollars, our support. Make your opinion known with your purse, your wallet, as some CEO’s ignore phone calls, emails, and will not take the time to read your heartfelt letters. Remember, the anti-hunting & anti-fishing groups understand corporate decision making and the art of protesting while we’re too busy in the woods or wetting a line. By the numbers, we are stronger, and we give back, help sustain our resources. Make it count, and participate to take this back to where it belongs.
The knee-jerk reaction of Under Armour matters as it gives power to anti-hunting groups that do not respect legal activities, legal pursuit of time-honored pastimes, and do essentially nothing for the protection or improvement of wildlife and the natural resources that we as outdoorsmen so passionately cherish.
-MJ
© 2016 Joyner Outdoor Media
#BringBackTheBowmars Sarah Bowmar #spearing #underarmour
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