Reluctantly Obliging Matt Rinella

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Oct 15, 2017
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"Jackson left with 200 pounds of meat and picked up another 3,500 followers in the weeks following his post about the hunt."
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Thanks for sharing article. Don't own a piece of Sitka and swore I never would. This read let's me know I've made the correct decision!

Matt is correct, preach on brother!
 
Joined
Jul 27, 2021
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1,595
Funny how most of the gear for sale in the sale section is big name stuff, if it's so great why sale it. Just asking for a friend. Like I said save your money on the so call elitist brand names, put it into good guns and glass, and decent gear it's out there and won't break you just so you have a name tag on it. and go hunting on your dime, not some self-imposed so called expert hunting on your dime.
 

ladogg411

Lil-Rokslider
Joined
Jan 11, 2023
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Sitka paying $20K for their new snowboarder-hunter ambassador to hunt the Deseret Ranch isn't far from other industry arrangements.

FirstLite sends the meateater crew on high dollar hunts all the time (deductible advertising). Sometimes picking up private land fees. Other times using public land but paying all travel as company expenses. I don't distinguish between who is pulling the trigger - the ambassador or a full time employee.

This post is supporting Robby Denning in a similar type arrangement. The profit from Rokslide advertising is also surely later deducted as a company expense when it is used to buy tags, trucks, fuel, gear for hunts (to produce more content, books, etc..).

The only folks mad are the fools of us remaining that hunt with post-tax dollars.
 

TheTone

WKR
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Mar 4, 2012
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What I agree with is that the hunting tradition shouldn’t be solely influenced by the people who stand to make money from pimping our sport.
I also think social media is terrible for our tradition.

That doesn’t really affect what I buy for my enjoyment. I guess that’s why I’m not welcome on either side of the debate.
Agreed, I can’t think of a brand out there that isn’t utilizing someone I don’t care for or I don’t think is fully in it for the wrong reasons. Kinda the sad state of affairs with social media marketing, the low barrier for entry, and playbook that influencers are happy to share around so others can be influencers.

I’d be happy to see 99% of them go away and have to get a real job
 

BBob

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Funny how most of the gear for sale in the sale section is big name stuff, if it's so great why sale it.
I can't say for the other guys but for me I'm often tempted to try new stuff even though what I have is working great. That leaves me with something I like better or something that I didn't like better and one of the two in the end needs to go. This goes for all gear not just clothing. I'll bet well over 90% of new stuff I try doesn't work out so there's always plenty to cull and get rid of.
 

Swamp Fox

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Oct 20, 2022
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There's A LOT of buy-it-and-try-it out there in the hunting gear game. Maybe because you can't just mosey over to some local shop and put your hands on stuff. You should see what goes on with bows and bow sights. Boggles my mind,, but it makes for a good used/secondary market for a lot of things (not everything).

I like to know I'm going to like something before I plunk down my money, but different strokes for different folks.
 

Macintosh

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It's a perfectly valid conversation to have, to question if the "hunting industry" along with all of its attendant media, marketing, etc is good for huntING in the long-term as opposed to just "good for huntERS" in the short term, and the same question applies equally to the outdoor industry in general. I see Matt's points and think many are at least based in reality and there are legit problems, but boy he seems unfathomably shortsighted to not also recognize the other side of that same coin that he rails against. It's weird to me that he calls out sitka, they are in the overwhelming majority of outdoor companies that pour marketing dollars into growing their market, growing participation in the outdoors, etc. There are virtually NO companies in any outdoor space that DON'T do this in one form or another. I understand and share his frustration with some topics (not all, not by a long shot) but his anger as I have heard him express it seems really, really off target. My understanding: Brother Steve sees his contribution to hunting and the outdoors at least in part as raising awareness and acceptance of hunting among non-hunters and urbanites who vote, in order to ensure that all of the good things that have come of the North American Model--species recoveries, habitat recovery and management, huge $ for scientific research to maintain helathy wildlife populations and for habitat conservation, etc--have a larger and broader pool of advocates. Brother Matt sees only that there are more people in his woods with him making tags harder to get, and can't seem to acknowledge that for all its warts this system that he seems to want to burn down completely, is still contributing massively to the very thing he is trying to save.
 
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intunegp

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Sep 28, 2021
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There's A LOT of buy-it-and-try-it out there in the hunting gear game. Maybe because you can't just mosey over to some local shop and put your hands on stuff. You should see what goes on with bows and bow sights. Boggles my mind,, but it makes for a good used/secondary market for a lot of things (not everything).

I like to know I'm going to like something before I plunk down my money, but different strokes for different folks.

Even when you can put your hands on stuff it's not the same. I can go to Scheels and see the full lineup of Sitka and Stone Glacier clothing side by side, but that doesn't always help me determine how warm/cool/breathable/waterproof a given piece might be in the field. They have Crispi and Kennetrek and Hanwag boots that you can try on and wander around the store, but that's not enough to tell if there's a hotspot that might become an issue after a few days of 3-5 mile hikes that isn't apparent in the first 10 minutes.
 

Swamp Fox

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Oct 20, 2022
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Even when you can put your hands on stuff it's not the same. I can go to Scheels and see the full lineup of Sitka and Stone Glacier clothing side by side, but that doesn't always help me determine how warm/cool/breathable/waterproof a given piece might be in the field. They have Crispi and Kennetrek and Hanwag boots that you can try on and wander around the store, but that's not enough to tell if there's a hotspot that might become an issue after a few days of 3-5 mile hikes that isn't apparent in the first 10 minutes.
True enough...
 

Swamp Fox

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Oct 20, 2022
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It's weird to me that he calls out sitka, they are in the overwhelming majority of outdoor companies that pour marketing dollars into growing their market, growing participation in the outdoors, etc. There are virtually NO companies in any outdoor space that DON'T do this in one form or another. [...]
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Macintosh

WKR
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Feb 17, 2018
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Sure, they are a big target in the hunting industry so its easy to single them out. Shades of grey though, they arent doing anything at all that most other companies arent also doing, and I'd argue Sitka is better about it than most other companies, espeiclaly on the larger end of that scale. They certainly didnt invent it. REI is a $Billion+ outdoor retailer who puts massive $ specially into "growing outdoor particpation"--every vendor that sells to rei puts 2% of their sales into REI's program to grow outdoor participation, and many of those people are in Matt Rinella's woods too, scaring Matt Rinella's elk off their calving habitat. The North Face is a $Billion+ manufacturer with a giant marketing budget and a department of people and "team members" whose job is to market the brand and get people excited about going outside to crowd Matt Rinella's trailheads. Sitka is owned by WL Gore, which is a big company...but also pays the excise taxes that support so much conservation work, which Matt is entirely aware of. Regardless of the motivation, why single out the company paying 11% into conservation--not to mention the donations, giveaways etc--when there are equally large if not bigger companies doing exactly the same thing, that arent contributing a dime to actual conservation??
 

Pacific_Fork

Well Known Rokslider
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May 26, 2019
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Seems like everytime a Matt rinella thread pops up I'm always amazed by the bitterness of unsuccessful hunters and Matt knows exactly how sell them his ideas

Or you can just say you enjoy hunting media and disagree with Matt’s views for reason xyz?

You can label people like me bitter, but I fill 2 deer tags, and at least 1 elk tag every.single.year. If that’s unsuccessful to you let me know why. Thanks!
 

Elkangle

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Jun 16, 2016
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Or you can just say you enjoy hunting media and disagree with Matt’s views for reason xyz?

You can label people like me bitter, but I fill 2 deer tags, and at least 1 elk tag every.single.year. If that’s unsuccessful to you let me know why. Thanks!

I already have and I said it directly to Matt on another thread

I have no idea if your two tags and an elk is success to you
 
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