Partnership · 2027
Put your brand somewhere people will actually remember it
A three-day, 110-mile bike-and-paddle trip across Wisconsin's Driftless region, benefiting Adaptive Adventures. Seventy riders on the route, around ten thousand people following along, and forty percent growth last year. Here's who comes, what it costs, and what we'll happily take in trade instead of money.
Start with the boring part
The numbers
Because that's what you actually need, and because a page that leads with adjectives is usually hiding something.
Roughly 10,000 people across email and social, with some overlap between the two, plus seventy who spend an entire weekend with your product in their hands.
The part that matters more than the headcount
Who actually turns up
Seventy is a small number. It's also seventy of a very specific kind of person, for three days, with your product in their hands.
What they do
Heavily medical: nurses, doctors, plus a lot of tech and, oddly consistently, pilots. People with demanding jobs, real disposable income and a strong motive to disappear into Wisconsin for a weekend.
What they buy
Outdoor gear, enthusiastically. This is a crowd that likes trying new kit: tools, layers, anything that solves a problem on a bike or in a boat. Technical outerwear and cycling apparel land hardest.
Pick the one that's you
Two very different reasons to sponsor this
Worth being upfront, because a bar in Sauk Prairie and an electrolyte brand are buying completely different things from us.
You're a local business
A bar, a resort, a shop, a gas station anywhere near the route.
- Riders actually stop and spend moneyThere's no set route, so people ride where they like and stop where they like. Being a known stop on the Drifty is real foot traffic on a specific weekend.
- You get named in the briefingEvery rider is in one place on Thursday night. We tell them where to go.
- You go on the route mapThe map is the most-studied thing on our site. Being on it is being part of the plan.
- They come backPeople fall for the Driftless on this trip and return with families. That's a longer tail than one weekend.
You're a brand
Gear, nutrition, apparel, bikes, boats, anything an adventurous person buys.
- Sampling at four captive stopsEvery rider passes the start, both transitions and the finish. Hand them the product at the exact moment they need it, which for electrolytes or food is worth more than any banner.
- Content you'd otherwise pay to shootReal people using real gear while genuinely tired, in good light, for three days. Not models. You get the photos.
- An audience that buys this categoryPeople who own a bike, take time off to ride 110 miles, and pay to do it. Nobody here is a casual.
- A rider perk you can measureHand seventy qualified buyers a discount code and you'll know exactly what it returned, which is more than most sponsorship can ever tell you.
- Association with the causeEvery registration supports Adaptive Adventures. That's a genuine story, not a badge.
Where you'd actually be
Four stops, and everybody hits all of them
This is the part most events can't offer. There's no expo hall to be ignored in. The route funnels every rider through the same four places.
Thursday night. Everyone in one field, eating, drinking and listening to the briefing. The highest-attention moment of the weekend.
Bikes handed over, boats picked up. Riders are stationary, hydrating and rummaging through gear.
Off the water, showers, mechanic. Saturday, 9am to 4pm. A long window and a tired, receptive audience.
DriftyFest. Everyone at once, in a good mood, with a beer and a phone out.
Plus the support rig itself, which meets riders at all four and spends the weekend driving between them.
What it costs
Packages
Named after the event rather than metals, so it's obvious what you're actually getting.
Trail Partner
$299
- Logo on the site, linked
- Named in the Thursday briefing
- Marked on the route map as a recommended stop
- Logo on the rider shirt: back, small
- Two DriftyFest tickets
The natural fit for a bar, shop or resort near the route. Capped at six so the shirt stays worth having.
Transition Partner
$1,500
- Everything above, larger on the shirt back
- Own one transition point: signage and a presence where every rider stops
- Sampling rights at that stop
- Named on the route map
- Photos from the weekend
Only two exist. Sauk Prairie and WI Riverside.
Support Rig Partner
$3,500
- Everything above, plus a sleeve or chest spot on the shirt
- Your brand on the rig: the truck that meets every rider four times and hauls their gear all weekend
- Sampling at all four stops
- Logo on rider comms before the event
- Named in the recap film
One only. The most-photographed object of the weekend.
Presenting Partner
$7,500
- Everything above, plus front of the shirt
- "The Lil' Drifty, presented by ___"
- Top billing everywhere
- Name an award at DriftyFest
- First refusal on next year
One only, and we'd want to actually like your product.
Why the shirt matters
Ten slots on one shirt, and that's the lot
Every rider gets a shirt, and a shirt gets worn for years. It's the longest-lived thing any sponsor gets from us. So placement is sized by tier and the total is capped at ten partners. That's deliberate: a shirt with thirty logos on it is worth nothing to anybody, including the people wearing it.
Often better than money
We'd usually rather have the thing than the cash
Nearly every partner we already have trades rather than writes a cheque, and it works. The tiers and the shirt placements are identical either way.
Something we're already paying for
The most useful thing you can do. We rent a box truck every year to haul gear. That's a real invoice. Discount it or cover it and you've sponsored the event, at exactly what it saves us.
Already doing this: Wisconsin Riverside Resort discount our transition stop, Working Draft host the finish.
Kit for the riders, or prizes for the awards
Swag for the bags, or something worth winning at DriftyFest. Awards here are for the best costume and the worst decision, so a real prize on that table gets talked about far longer than a banner does.
Already doing this: LMNT send product.
A discount code for all seventy
Costs you nothing up front. Seventy people with household incomes of $90–250k who like buying gear, handed a reason to try yours, and unlike anything else on this page, you can measure exactly what it returned.
Would love: a Columbia or Kühl 30%-off card in every rider's hand.
What we're actually short of
If you can cover any of these, we'd bite your hand off:
- A box truck for the weekend. We rent one every year. The biggest single line on our budget that a partner could simply erase.
- Lodging near the transitions, for crew and for riders.
- Food and drink at the Thursday kick-off, where everyone is in one field at once.
- Prizes for the DriftyFest awards. Best costume, worst decision, most creative watercraft.
- Anything a rider carries: bags, layers, tools, nutrition, repair kit.
How we value a trade
At what it saves us, or what we'd otherwise have paid, then it maps onto the same tiers as cash. Cover the truck and you're a Trail Partner with your logo on the shirt. No separate, lesser in-kind category, because in practice the trades have been more useful than the money.
Or something we haven't thought of
The packages are a starting point, not a menu we're attached to. If you want to do something odder, like sponsoring the awards, running a stop or putting a bar on the route, say so.
What it looks like
The content you'd be part of
Currently propped up by
Setting expectations
What we won't do
Faster to say now than to discover halfway through a season.
- We won't sell you rider data. We don't collect much and we're not passing on what we do. If your plan depends on a list, this isn't the one.
- We won't pretend this audience is something it isn't. When the numbers arrive they'll be the real numbers. We'd rather be a good small thing than an exaggerated big one.
- We won't put your logo somewhere embarrassing. Including on things riders would find naff. It reflects on you and on us.
- We won't take a presenting partner whose product we wouldn't use. Riders can tell, and the whole event runs on them trusting us.
- We won't make DriftyFest an advert. It's a party at the end of something hard. You're welcome in it, not on top of it.
Where the money goes
This event supports Adaptive Adventures
Adaptive Adventures is a national nonprofit that expands access to outdoor recreation for people with physical disabilities. They run cycling, paddling, climbing and skiing programmes across the country, develop adaptive equipment with engineers and universities, and support the families around every participant.
Sponsoring the Lil' Drifty means your name sits alongside that work. It isn't the reason to do it, but it isn't nothing either.
Learn more about Adaptive Adventures
Let's talk
Tell us what you're trying to achieve and roughly what you've got to work with. We'll come back with something specific rather than a deck.
partners@lost.travelKeegan or Jerry will answer. Not a form, not a CRM sequence.
