UPDATE: Hunters Burned by Under Armour Fire Back
OutdoorHub Editor: Keenan Crow 08.22.16
UPDATE: There is now a petition going around on change.org to “Bring back the Bowmars.” Supporters of Josh and Sarah Bowmar are fighting back and now have over 6,000 signatures on the petition. The original petition that caused Under Armour Hunting to remove Sarah Bowmar as a sponsor had 4,350 signatures.
Scent Blocker is having a site-wide sale on all of their gear up until August 31st, and their using the hashtag – #WeDo – to promote it. Their website reads, “#WeDo stand behind ethical, legal sportsmen and women who cherish the outdoors lifestyle.” If you’re one of the hunters that is now in the market for some new camo this season, today is a good day to do so.
In the wake of an online uproar over a legal bear hunt with a spear, Under Armour Hunting has ended its contract with bowhunter Sarah Bowmar.
After the filming of her husband, Josh Bowmar, executing a legal spear kill on a bear – and a slanderous article on The Mirror surfacing – Under Armour began receiving some flak from people in disgust of this hunt and the company’s brand.
The video was posted to the couple’s Bowmar Bowhunting channel in June and was captured in Alberta, Canada. On Friday, Under Armour severed ties with Sarah Bowmar.
Under armour and the Bowmars broke up today. I’ll do a blog post in a few days when I am no longer crying. #AntisWon
— Sarah Bowmar, MBA (@sarahbowmar_) August 18, 2016
The two hunters were left confused, and saddened by the company’s decision. Josh said in an interview, “What is going through my mind right now is just utter disbelief. Anyone that knows animals, they run. When you hit an animal like that, it’s going to run a lot further than 60 yards to evade danger. Which means the bear ran until it died. A bear runs roughly 30 mph. That means it runs about 15 yards a second. So with the bear in the fight or flight mode, running at full speed and only going 60 yards he would have made it there within 4 seconds.”
Josh Bowmar by slogotribo
Aside from the hateful and threating comments from anti-hunters, the two have received a great deal of support from fellow hunters, such as UFC fighter Chad Mendes. Also, hashtags like #standwiththebowmars have been trending on Instagram and Twitter lately.
The hunting community is a tight-knit group, we share common ground, on which, we hunt upon. Hunters around the world have been in an outrage, wanting Under Armour to stand by them and back them up. As represented in the video below, “you back us up, we back you up, if you go against the hunters, the hunters are going against you.”
Josh and Sarah own a charity called Whitetail Wisdom. They donate meat to needy families and personally pay for the processing. In the past 10 years, they have donated over 30,000 meals.
It will be interesting to see what Under Armour’s next move is as a brand. As for other UA Hunt sponsor Cam Hanes, he had this to say on the incident, which I think shines some – much needed – light on this whole debacle.
