Replying to Trend Watcher: Sponsor loyalty on the decrease?

Today, as I logged into Newschoolers, I watched one of the best edits I've seen in a very long while. What edit, you may ask? This one:



Nothing like a good old Delorme park edit to soil your undies, but the headlining notion of it really struck me; Delorme had moved from Fatypus to Faction. I mean, the company doesn't seem like the greatest fit for him in my personal opinion, but his motivator was probably money.

Over the past year or two, I have noticed that many skiers have been seemingly "quick" to leave their parent (if that's the right word) companies, i.e. Ian Compton and Line. From someone who isn't too personally acquainted with the fellow, his move to Nordica came as a complete shock to me and I did not see it coming what-so-ever. Without Line in the picture for Ian, I have no doubt that he would not have become the skier he is today, or at least to the magnitude that he has made it. Don't twist my words, he's one fucking radical and talented dude, but Line essentially raised him.

Jason Levinthal would be another example; he made Line from the ground up, and recently left to do his own full-time time project. I totally admire his audacity in making such a statement, and especially the image J-Skis is now trying to portray, but why not make such skis as a sub-sector to Line, a company with prestige in today's ski industry?

In the early to mid 2000's, staying with a company for more than 5 years seemed like the regular, but today, I see so many people jumping ship extremely early, or at least more than before.

To keep this short for the sorry ass bastards who have the attention span of a 9 year old with ADHD, are the skiers of today any more likely to leave their parent companies than skiers were 10 years ago? Is sponsor loyalty as big of a factor as it was in previous years? Could there possibly be a lower level of passion for the sport, causing money to become an even larger component than ever?

TL;DR What the fuck is up with lots of people leaving their long-time sponsors?