"A lot of the thinking is that if you call something sponsorship it's a gift and there's not going to be a return for someone investing their advertising dollar. But we've run the numbers and there's definitely a return."
World champion powerlifter Brett Gibbs, who works as a personal banker, said he has been competing since 2008 and sponsors had become vital for him since he started competing last year at the international level of his sport.
After winning the 2014 junior world championships, he had drafted a funding proposal that had won sponsorship.
Wai Weight Private Gym owners Bev and Rachel Mackenzie also gave vital support to Gibbs with free gym membership - a boon the couple also shared with other reigning world champions including junior powerlifter Joel Hintz, kickboxer Zane Hopman, and single sawyer Fa'avae Sefo.
His other sponsors include fellow gym member Geoff Masters, of Superior Stoppers, and Powerhouse Gym owner Warren Trent in Wellington.
Gibbs, who competes at the world champs in Finland next month, said his sponsorship strategy includes a burgeoning social media following and national and transtasman speaking engagements and invitational contests.
"If I'm going to keep doing this, I'm going to have to start looking at different revenues. I can't keep expecting money from people around me."
World champ fighter Zane Hopman, who works as an electrical supplies wholesaler, said sponsorship had helped lift him out of debt after his amateur career had sparked.
His employer and sponsor Stewart's Electrical had helped him win back financial stability alongside his other sponsors Kuripuni Sports Bar, Wai Weight Private Gym, CLM, Lone Star Masterton and Trev's Sports.
"I've been through the grind of being an amateur with no financial backing but you and your family," he said.
"I calculated my cash flow as an amateur and in a year I'd pumped close to $10,000 into my sport. It was nothing at the time. I was doing what I loved. But I lived in the red for about four years to do it."
Hopman, who late last year turned pro as a boxer and kickboxer, said his sponsors had helped him win back financial stability.
"You know you're up against it as an athlete in a minority sport - you're always going to be second best - but when you work hard and start getting some recognition and individuals start waving the flag for you, things really change."
Hopman next fights a pro boxing bout in Brisbane on May 30 against a former Hungarian national champion. His next pro kickboxing bout will be on the King in the Ring undercard at Porirua on June 19.
Fa'avae Sefo, a world-beating single sawyer who finishes competitive axes for a living, said he most often paid for competition campaigns in New Zealand but needed sponsors for international competition - Australia, Austria, and the world champs in Poland.
For the past five years he had travelled to the Stihl Timbersports World Championships and also competes at the Sydney Easter Show, which over two weeks costs up to $10,000 to attend. His competition saws, of which he needs a pair, alone cost about $2500 each, and he was weighing up whether to trial for the New Zealand squad to Poland.
Sefo's sponsors includes Jeremy Sharp and the Stihl Shop in Masterton, Bill and Tim Hintz at MTF Masterton, Allan Newman and Enumerate Chartered Accountants, Wai Weight, and Juken New Zealand.
"I don't know what I'd do without any of them (sponsors). You just do what you have to do but that international travel really is a killer. So I'm really thankful to my sponsors and all the people who help me out. I couldn't do it without them.
"I've been in the sport for about two decades and only just got sponsors in the last few years.
"They're not big business but they came on board and they make a world of difference."
-Prospective sponsors may contact Richard and Sara Mason at richardsaramason@gmail.com; Brett Gibbs at brett-gibbs@hotmail.com; Zane Hopman at 027 310 5799; Faave Sefo at 021 0226 7160; or Joel Hintz at 020 4028 6758.
