lol, I'm not going to touch this one, except to say this: Pete Rubish's popularity is a reflection of what youtube fans want to see. He did a good job finding a niche and promoting himself, and you have to have some strength to be as widely appreciated as he is. Most people don't know where he's ranked, and they don't care; they consider him the strongest simply because he's much more visible than his competition. I try not to hold anyone's success against them because self-promotion is an important part of the equation. People might feel like I deserve more recognition, but how many of you know who the IPF Raw world champion from my weight class with a 1411-lb. total is? He's stronger than me, but nobody here likely knows he exists.
This is what I bring up every time we talk about this. Jesus. There's a lot of crap writing on there. I don't get it. The website itself is very reliant on written content. If you're sponsored but can't muster some grammatical and rhetorical proficiency--and dare I even suggest nuanced writing--I am not interested in you as an "online personality." If you're dumb as shit but straight up brilliant on the platform maybe I'll go for it. Nothing short of straight up brilliant though.
So it boggles me because Kyle is one of the best rhetoricians I've run into in my undergrad and graduate years--both blocks of time I spent in humanities departments supposedly filled with intellect.
It's no secret that lifting doesn't really take a lot of brains, but I'm interested in training and expanding my own right along with the time I put into my body. I like reading content from lifters who think, too.
Unfortunately, good writing only takes you so far; having a persona is equally important, and the archetypal powerlifter isn't supposed to be a versed writer. But if you put out good content, eventually people will notice.
Are most people who get into PL interested in geared?
I'll answer this in a second.
These days, I'm not so sure at all. I think raw is moving into a far greater prominence, so it is somewhat likely (or more than it used to be) that people who are introduced to the sport will be introduced by raw lifters just based on the numbers.
I agree with this. As Tosa suggested, the large majority of active competitive powerlifters now are raw. It's easier to compete raw than it is geared, and so it makes the sport infinitely more accessible. Also, the raw numbers aren't as daunting as the geared ones--people get easily discouraged when they see someone's benching 1000 pounds, not realizing it's done in multi-ply gear.
If you're wondering why geared powerlifters are more regularly sponsored, the legacy of powerlifting is largely found in its geared history, and the sponsors of this sport make far more money off of geared powerlifters than they do raw ones. You can only sell a raw lifter so much stuff; powerlifting gear, on the other hand, is a much more lucrative market. So, apparel company are invested in the continued success of geared powerlifting, and they want new powerlifters to make the transition to competing in gear, so that's what they promote.
In powerlifting, there aren't very many sources of revenue. The lifters provide much of it, and sponsorship really only comes from powerlifting apparel companies. There are some supplement companies out there willing to invest in powerlifting, but the big sponsors are mostly either a.) geared powerlifting manufacturers, or b.) lifter groups who run seminars. The only two ways to really make money in the sport right now are to sell powerlifting gear or to run seminars, with the latter option being the best. So, because there aren't other sources of revenue, the apparel companies still have a pretty strong hold on the sport.
