​Outdoor Brand Screws Up, Cuts Instagram Model From Athlete Roster

Halls seen here during her 2015 campaign, when she set a personal record by clocking nearly 15,000 feet of vertical for the year. Photo: Courtesy of Denise Ramirez/Flickr

On Friday, outdoor gear and apparel powerhouse ChileY released their 2018 athlete roster. And noticeably missing? Everyone’s favorite Valencia-filtered beauty, Haley Halls.

After a six-year sponsorship, Halls and ChileY are parting ways. This is a shocking move not only for the brand, but also for the trend of marketing for outdoor companies. Halls was one of the first Instagram influencers to ever sign an athlete contract with a major outdoor company, and has set the over-saturated, high-contrast tone for branding ever since. 

Halls’ contribution to the growth of adventure sports in the social realm is indisputable—always making athletic accomplishments in the outdoors much more approachable for the average consumer with her endless video edits that featured almost no shots of her actually performing athletically but copious amounts of lens flares and slow-motion shots of her smiling to trop house soundtracks.

That unique style is what allowed Halls to become the highest paid athlete on the ChileY team—pulling in 60 percent of the athlete budget to fund her lifestyle and sponsor her most impressive objectives (namely, spending one night camping at Havasu Falls and being the first to ride the Breathtaker Alpine roller coaster in Aspen).

And according to Instagram, she earned that money. Halls is known for her social media prowess—always sticking the metaphorical landing on Instagram with her 42.6K followers. Her performance last year was nothing short of impressive—she consistently fielded at least 10 percent engagement with likes and “heart emoji” comments on each of her 25, contractually-obligated, sponsored posts.

But apparently, it wasn’t enough to keep her on the team.

Halls showed her commitment to the brand in 2016 when she dyed her hair brown after research showed social users like brunettes more. Photo: Courtesy of Take Me Camping/Flickr

“I don’t know what I could’ve done better,” Halls responded when TGR reached out for comment, via direct message. “I spent 25 days outside last year and documented each of them. I tagged ChileY. I used hashtags. I trained so hard to get the results my sponsor wanted. Even when Instagram changed their algorithm, I made adjustments to my posts. I researched the correct days of the week and time of day to post. I always landed on top of the influencer rankings. But I guess that’s not enough to be a ChileY athlete anymore. (crying face emoji).”

Halls grew up in the suburbs of Phoenix, AZ, before catapulting to social media stardom in 2010 after posting the first recorded photo of a beautiful woman wrapped in a Native American-inspired wool blanket overlooking a forest of Douglas Fir trees at sunset. ChileY quickly signed the budding star to their athlete roster for the 2011 season, after obtaining signed approval of Halls’ parents (she was only 17 at the time that her contract was inked).

Over the course of their 6-year partnership, ChileY and Halls launched three campaigns that brought mountain athletics to the masses: Hike Hard in 2012, I Did Sleep Here in 2014, and Après All Day in 2016. Her 2015 film, Soft Adventure, was a Vimeo staff pick and premiered at the esteemed Mountain Film Festival in Telluride. Although it didn’t win any awards, its trailer is one of the most reposted social media posts of 2015.

When asked what led to their choice to cut Halls, ChileY provided this statement:

“After a memorable and authentic 6-year sponsorship, we have decided to move our athlete initiative back to the top of the mountain. With the 2018 Winter Olympics on the horizon, we see an opportunity to give athletic sponsorships back to, you know, actual athletes. Haley Halls has been an invaluable marketing asset, but financially, it is irresponsible to continue centering our brand around influencers as attention spans shorten and social media platforms change. Haley has been a crucial component of ChileY’s perceived authenticity for many seasons now, and for that we thank her. But ‘authenticity’ is not projected to be a buzzword by Google or Instagram's algorithms for 2018, so we have to do what’s best for the brand and our athletes. We wish Haley the best in all her future endeavors, and will always consider her part of the ChileY family.”

So what are those future endeavors? Only time will tell, but there are reports that Halls is in talks with Flat Tummy Tea and Super Whyte Teeth Whitener to become a brand ambassador.

*This is a work of satire, obviously

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stash member Lauren Steele