As strange as it sounds in the Red Bull era, Andy Macdonald was a trail blazer of sorts 11 years ago when he signed an endorsement deal with SoBe, one of the first skateboarders to do so with a drink company.

That relationship came to an end this year, with PepsiCo opting to no longer sponsor riders under the SoBe brand. Macdonald was able to fill the void with a trio of new sponsors, but acknowledges that action sports is anything but recession-proof.

"When it comes time to make cuts in the budget, the first thing you cut is your marketing budget, and that's where all of our money comes from," said Macdonald, who claimed his first Dew Tour victory at last year's stop in Salt Lake City.

Even with the young audience it reaches, the Tour down to its individual athletes have felt the economy's sting in many cases. Two former presenting sponsors -- Right Guard and Panasonic -- are not back for this year.

"Obviously, we were disappointed that they left, but at the same time, I think it wasn't because of anything we did," said Chris Prybylo, the Tour's general manager. "I think it was more strategic decisions on their part."

The Tour maintained a five-city schedule, but held separate skateboarding and BMX events at its first two stops in Boston and Chicago, a move that several athletes believed was driven at least in part by economics.

At the individual level, BMX rider Anthony Napolitan lost an endorsement deal with Target. "Certain corporate companies are pulling money out here and there," said Napolitan, who continues to ride for Levi's. "It's tough, but it'll boot back up again."

Fellow BMX rider Kevin Robinson is one of the fortunate. All of Robinson's sponsors have been on board for 10 years or more.

Yet Robinson described a reality in which most action sports athletes are fighting to make it. Among top vert riders, Robinson added that he is almost alone in having a sponsor (Hoffman) from the otherwise struggling bike industry.

"People just see the glory of it and the fun part of it and they don't see the real-life stuff we have to deal with every day," Robinson said.

"We're all grown adults with mortgages and kids and schools to pay for and groceries to buy and car payments to make just like every other adult. We're not just a bunch of kids out here partying with tattoos."

The Salt Lake City stop is officially titled the Toyota Challenge. For all the difficulties the automotive industry has faced, Toyota was a founding sponsor of the Tour and remains committed to action sports.

"Overall, it is a great multifaceted platform for us," Toyota spokesman Chad Harp said, adding, "It hits a lot of different marks for us."

That includes everything from the television exposure available through NBC to the Tour's presence in five major markets to the opportunity to interact with fans in the festival village. "We look at it as something of value to us and something we want to stay in," Harp said.

Toyota is committed to the Tour through at least 2010, Harp said, though he wouldn't discuss specifics of the multiyear deal. In addition, Toyota individually sponsors skateboarders Bob Burnquist and Greg Lutzka and BMX rider Jamie Bestwick.

The Tour, meanwhile, has provided competition for ESPN's X Games when it comes to sponsorships, charging as much for five events as the X Games does for one, according to a July story in SportsBusiness Journal .

Officials also were able to hold prize money steady -- $15,000 for winners -- despite the economy.

That comes as some disappointment, however, to athletes who had been hoping the growth of the Tour would be accompanied by a growth in prizes.

"We hadn't seen that in the first four years," Macdonald said, "and then here it's the fifth year and the recession hit, so we're certainly not going to see it anymore."

rsiler@sltrib.com