Tattoos, branding, and a little bit of bike racing

In January, Veloce Sports LLC, which manages the Webcor Builders team, suspended new signee David Clinger after he showed up at the team’s training camp with an entirely unanticipated full-face tattoo. The suspension is with pay and Clinger will be reinstated after completing several months of laser removal treatments.

Although Clinger himself showed little if any opposition to the team’s decision, some fans saw it as a flagrant violation of Clinger’s right to self-expression. Team Consultant Frank Scioscia said that “the team and David faced the issue and there was no disagreement,” but admitted to being surprised by the controversy that flared up after the situation became public.

In the eyes of Scioscia and Team Manager Ted Huang, Clinger’s Maori tribal mask did not fit with the image that the team’s title sponsor wanted to present. Webcor Builders agreed. The fact that Clinger was suspended with pay and not fired outright should be evidence that it was strictly business and not a judgment of Clinger’s lifestyle or values.

In a marketing sense, this is a clear example of the idea that promotional rights are distinct properties purchased by sponsors from teams and by teams from athletes. In any sport, a professional athlete sells to teams a combination of his or her ability and image – let’s call this total package the athlete’s “brand”. In a sponsorship-driven sport like cycling, a team signs athletes in order to use the athletes’ brands to fulfill the team’s obligations to promote its sponsors’ brands.

As Scioscia explains, “[The team has] created a certain image that’s attractive to sponsors … In order to honor our commitments, we can’t change that. [Clinger’s] appearance would be contradictory to the image that was acquired by the sponsors for the 2005 season.”

In other words, team managers are not simply talking about nebulous concepts like being ‘positive’ or ‘professional’ when they talk about how sponsors want to be represented. On the contrary, companies define very clear terms for how they want to present their brands at all times. As Scioscia puts it, “Sponsors … create a platform to convey the messages that they want to convey.”

So when Veloce Sports signed Clinger, they signed a rider whose brand they would be comfortable using to present Webcor Builders’ brand in exactly the way that Webcor Builders has determined that its brand should be presented.

It’s the same idea as if a rider on a team sponsored by UPS showed up at training camp with a green UPS jersey. For his or her team management to say, “Put on a brown jersey because our sponsor’s brand is brown” wouldn’t be considered a value judgment against the color green. Similarly, saying, “Get the tattoo removed because our sponsor’s brand is represented by a more conservative personal appearance” isn’t necessarily a judgment of David Clinger as a person.

Of course, the appearance of unfair cultural discrimination against Clinger is impossible to ignore. But a professional athlete’s career is so closely tied to his public image that what’s fair simply isn’t as much of a consideration as it is in most careers.

So aspiring pro cyclists and team managers take note: your brand is your most important asset. If you want to change your image, wait until the end of the season and clear it with next year’s sponsors.