If BD used an old stock photo of Shane with a different cue on it's current cover, that sounds a lot more like a pathological need to knock someone's action than a post by some guy on an internet forum. After all, if you are worried that Jones Chang might stumble across a post buried in some internet forum causing him to fire Shane, what effect do you think showing Shane with a different cue on the current cover of an industry leading rag will do?
Your outrage should be directed at Billiard Digest rather than the OP. After all, the OP did say he thought Shane was playing with a different cue. That sounds like a qualified statement to me, rather than a flat out statement of fact that you suggest it was.
Well, Jim could have mentioned in the first post that he saw the current BD cover with Shane using the Schon and that would have framed the discussion around the use of OLD images for current covers. Obviously a sponsor wants their player to make the covers of leading magazines and be shown using their equipment and sporting their logo.
So yes, as a sponsor I am disappointed in Billiard Digest's choice.
But I am also disappointed that people would stand up and say that Shane is NOT using the Cuetec when he clearly is. If you're going to be a citizen reporter and report your observations then there is an obligation to be factual and not speculative. If you say I was there and I saw it with my own eyes then people will tend to take you at your word.
If in fact you were not sure then you should use words that reflect that so that others can chime in and either corroborate your observation or correct it.
As to the assertion by Lance Salazar that "most" pros in pool don't use the equipment provided to them, speaking of cues, that is not true in my experience. In my experience
most pros use the cues they are given with slight modifications, changes that ANY pool player might do to their cues. New tip, different wrap, change the weight, different ferrule, etc...
SOME players do more extensive mods like use a different shaft by a different maker, some don't use the brand they are sponsored by when they are gambling. SOME, not all, not 50% not most, a few. In my experience. A lot of them use the equipment they get right out of the box without changing anything.
The whole purpose of sponsorship is to use the player to introduce the brand to the consumer. Unless the advertising states that the player is using the EXACT same model with no changes that any consumer can buy then one should always make the assumption that whatever the player has in his hands is what he likes. Just because he likes it doesn't mean you will.
But BECAUSE he wears a logo the hope is that you will try it and like it. If the cue company did a good job then most consumers who pick it up should like it. If they don't then all the sponsorship in the world won't help much.
But when someone comes out with the flat out knock and says that player X does not really use brand X then that defeats the whole reason for sponsoring players.
Now, if the player is really blatantly not using the brand then sure report it. But if you're not sure then leave it alone. Because you're screwing with people's livelihood's and people's investments.
I could register 20 accounts and knock all my competitor's sponsored players by insinuating that those players don't actually use the products that they are sponsored by. And they could do the same to our brands. What's the benefit to that for anyone?
If that happened then what little sponsorship there is for players would dry up even more.
So be responsible in what you "report" is all I ask.
