In the 1950s, outdoor retailer Eddie Bauer donated down jackets to American mountaineers embarking on climbing expeditions in the Himalayas. In the 1990s, chemical manufacturer W. L. Gore & Associates donated both goods and $2 million to an expedition in Antarctica. The funds dedicated to sponsorship by the end of the twentieth century reflect a shift in how companies saw expeditions as useful to their marketing goals. This article uses two archives previously unexplored by historians that offer an unprecedented chance to compare sponsorship relationships in a single industry across decades. Commercial sponsorship of American expeditions and athletes has undergone three dramatic changes since 1950, and these shifts help explain how sponsorship as a form of marketing became so popular. Sponsorship contracts shifted from vague to specific as a result of decades of unsatisfying results for corporate sponsors. Sponsored athletes became business partners and began taking an active role in promoting the companies that provided them cash or donations in-kind. Finally, companies developed strategies for leveraging their sponsorship deals. The changing landscape of the business of expeditions ultimately reveals how the most long-lasting legacies of these extreme adventures happened far from the trail and much closer to company boardrooms, sponsorship managers’ offices and retail stores where consumers learned to engage with the narratives companies and athletes had crafted together.

在1950年代，户外零售商Eddie Bauer向在喜马拉雅山进行登山探险的美国登山者捐赠了羽绒服。在1990年代，化学品制造商WL Gore＆Associates向南极探险队捐赠了物品和200万美元。到20世纪末，用于赞助的资金反映了公司对考察对他们的营销目标有用的看法的转变。本文使用了两个历史学家以前未曾探索过的档案，它们提供了前所未有的机会来比较一个行业数十年来的赞助关系。自1950年以来，美国远征队和运动员的商业赞助经历了三项重大变化，这些转变有助于解释如何将赞助作为一种营销形式变得如此流行。由于数十年来企业赞助商的不满意结果，赞助合同从模糊的变为具体的。赞助运动员成为业务合作伙伴，并开始积极地促进向其提供现金或捐赠的公司的发展。最后，公司制定了利用赞助协议的策略。探险业务不断变化的格局最终揭示了这些极端冒险中最持久的遗产是如何远离路程，更接近公司董事会，赞助经理办公室和零售店的，在这里，消费者学会了与叙事公司和运动员们一起精心制作。赞助运动员成为业务合作伙伴，并开始积极地促进向其提供现金或捐赠的公司的发展。最后，公司制定了利用赞助协议的策略。探险业务不断变化的格局最终揭示了这些极端冒险中最持久的遗产是如何远离路程，更接近公司董事会，赞助经理办公室和零售店的，在这里，消费者学会了与叙事公司和运动员们一起精心制作。赞助运动员成为业务合作伙伴，并开始积极地促进向其提供现金或捐赠的公司的发展。最后，公司制定了利用赞助协议的策略。探险业务不断变化的格局最终揭示了这些极端冒险中最持久的遗产是如何远离路程，更接近公司董事会，赞助经理办公室和零售店的，在这里，消费者学会了与叙事公司和运动员们一起精心制作。