Why BLAK Print Backs Rodeo
BLAK Print Director Lorrayne Fishenden
You might have noticed BLAK Print popping up around the rodeo and team roping world a little more lately. This year, we’re proud to be supporting both the ATRA National Finals and the 2026 APRA National Finals Rodeo. And for us, it’s about a hell of a lot more than putting our logo on a banner. We know rodeo isn’t everyone’s cup of tea. We also know there are people who look at rodeo from the outside and make assumptions about what it is, who is involved and why people choose to be part of it. But when you live in regional Australia, you get to see another side of the story.
Rodeo is community. It’s families travelling hundreds of kilometres together, kids growing up around horses and livestock, volunteers putting in ridiculous hours, local businesses getting behind events and competitors supporting each other even when they’re there to compete against one another. It’s also an industry that brings people into regional towns. Competitors need fuel, accommodation, meals, horse feed, mechanical repairs and supplies. They visit pubs, cafés and shops. Events employ contractors, announcers, stock providers, photographers, entertainers and countless other people behind the scenes.
That flow-on matters to regional communities and the small businesses operating within them. At BLAK Print, that feels pretty familiar. We’re a regional business ourselves, and many of the people we work with every day are farmers, contractors, tradies, horse people, sporting clubs, committees and small business owners. We understand what it means to build something outside the city and why supporting regional industries and events matters.
There’s another reason rodeo makes sense for us too. Rodeo competitors are walking billboards for the businesses that support them. Look around the arena and you’ll see shirts covered in sponsor logos. Behind many of those logos is another small business putting its hand in its pocket to help someone chase their goals. That’s where BLAK Print gets to play another small part. We can take a competitor’s shirt and professionally add their sponsor logos through DTF heat pressing or embroidery.
We can help teams, committees and businesses with uniforms, merchandise, caps, signage and promotional products. And if you don’t already have the gear, we can help source that too. As part of our support for the industry, ATRA and APRA members can reach out to BLAK Print to receive 5% off our products and services, including getting sponsor and business logos onto competition shirts.
For us, sponsorship should be more than paying an invoice and getting a logo slapped somewhere. We want to support the competitors. We want to support the committees and volunteers who keep these events running. We want to support the businesses sponsoring competitors. And we want to see regional events continue bringing people together.
You don’t have to understand why someone wants to chase a steer down an arena, nod their head in a bucking chute or drive halfway across Australia for the chance to throw a rope. But for the people who love it, rodeo is more than a sport. It’s a community. And that’s something BLAK Print is bloody proud to get behind.
BLAK Print Print. Embroidery. Signage. Merch. And a whole lot more.
