I'm a BOP amateur and am not sponsored this year. have gotten lucky in the past and got team uniforms and cool schwag and discounts for being on Degree's Deodarant's Team and Inside Tri Mag. Age Grouper team.

I am hubby sponsored......ahahahhahah

In seriousness though, I like to think about the effect my racing has on others and not myself in that respect. I currently try to raise about 2k a year for charity (mostly from races in which my fee supports a charity, like the "montauk-we-hope" century later this year). Don't get me wrong, I'm not a 'giving-nut' or a particularly charitable person otherwise, I just think that racing is something I do for fun and health and not something I would feel okay being reimbursed for. I would feel really uncomfortable if someone actually paid me (or gave me gear, etc) for my activities, I'd much rather someone donate $50 to a worthy charity than give me a tacky bib or a new set of shoes.
But this goes full circle too now though, so many races give out fancy tech shirts that I can actually find them in the local Salvation Army.
Oh, in case it's not obvious, I am most certainly an amateur.

I have one-year contracts with trisports.com and Zipp, an indefinite contract with First Endurance, and I've had one-time pro deals (non-contracted) with 2XU and Ridley, as well as some pretty generous support from my LBS. The only companies I started working with before I went pro were trisports.com and my LBS.

I think sponsorships are a great opportunity for both parties. The athletes get the support that makes training and racing competitively easier while the sponsoring company gains exposure. Everybody wins.

The only con I could see would be that some athletes go out looking for sponsors just to say that they are sponsored. They don't actually stand behind the company that they're supposed to be working with, but only push the wares because they have to. I think this is just sleazy. I would only seek out a sponsorship with a company that I have had past experience with and know for a fact that they either make an excellent product or perform an excellent service.

I don't ever get sponsored but I apply to everything when it comes around. At the worst I got some free product for my time filling out the form ;-)

It's all about the schwag, isn't it?

I ride on my LBS's team. It's not really any kind of full sponsorship, but we get breaks on equipment and maintenance, and stuff like that. And cool biking kit.

I'm looking into getting sponsored by Jelly Belly, but we're still working out the details. There's a lot of red tape.