Start Up: Chris LaCivita

— STARTUP —

Chris LaCivita ’18, Sportsman’s Culture Founder and President

Chris LaCivita

In 2017, Christopher LaCivita ’18 saw an opportunity to combine his passion for hunting and fishing with photography and videography. Chris wanted to educate others on sportsmanship within hunting and fishing, while sharing his passion for the outdoors.

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Tell us about your company, Sportsman’s Culture. Sportsman’s Culture is a media company that’s dedicated to educating the public on sportsmanship through our experiences and the stories of others. It was founded in 2017 while I was a junior at Benedictine. Several classmates helped create the brand, including Jake Schattner ’18 and Kendall Dreyer ’18. Maddock Wigg ’21 has recently become a big supporter of the company as well. Sportsman’s Culture specifically focuses on video production, marketing, and content creation within the outdoor industry. On top of this, Sportsman’s Culture also has its own line of apparel sold solely online.

How has your original vision for the company changed over time? At first, Sportsman’s Culture was strictly focused on posting Instagram videos and photos with other outdoor companies. After graduation, I went on to study digital marketing at Virginia Tech which has really helped me gain more knowledge in the fields of media and marketing. With this knowledge in hand, the company started to grow and Sportsman’s Culture gained more credibility in video production and marketing. Now, we produce videos for companies and people beyond the reach of social media. However, the goal with the majority of our videos is still to educate about hunting and fishing sportsmanship. With these educational videos, we promote ethical and fair hunting and fishing through our experiences and the stories of others. This is still our goal, but we would like to partner with more companies in the future to make these stories more widespread and to educate an even larger audience.

Why is it important to educate the public on sportsmanship? My company has been creating hunting and fishing content that represents proper sportsmanship in the field because many outdoorsmen are given a bad reputation in the media today. Trophy hunting is frowned upon, and usually only the bad stories

make their way to the media. What you don’t see are the stories like a child harvesting his/her first deer and the joy it brings them, or the meaning of a hunt for wounded warriors and how hunting is their therapy. These are the stories we want to tell. In addition to our own media platforms, we have been able to work with several hunting and fishing companies to help them grow and learn to be better sportsmen through our social media consulting and videography work. We come up with video ideas through the season we are in, what we are hunting or fishing during that time, and through the stories that are shared with us.

What is the company’s current reach? Sportsman’s Culture has collected over 35,000 followers on social media platforms, engaging with millions and millions of impressions. We have been able to sell (and sell out) of several apparel items which have been sold across the United States. We have a target audience of mostly high school to college-aged men, but our goal is to appeal to men and women of all ages. However, engaging with a younger age is great because it gives us the opportunity to educate them on proper sportsmanship and helps to create outdoorsmen of the next generation.

How do you envision the future of Sportsman’s Culture? I would like to think of Sportsman’s Culture being a non-profit foundation one day. Our main goal would be to continue to educate others on sportsmanship through inspirational hunting and fishing videos. We would do this by filming the stories of sportsmen who have a story to tell. This would give us a chance to reach out to bigger companies to use these videos to educate their audience as well. If we became a non-profit, Sportsman’s Culture could be used to help fund state conservational and sportsmanship projects.

How did Benedictine prepare you to start your own company? Benedictine taught me to communicate. Communication is key, and Benedictine helped me with this through military leadership, strict in-person classes with heavy engagement, and public speaking projects. But above everything, Benedictine strengthened my faith. I believe my faith has helped me accomplish a lot. Hunting and fishing in the outdoors goes hand in hand with your faith. Use this as an example: “Now therefore, please take your weapons, your quiver and your bow, and go out to the field and hunt game for me.” Genesis 27:3

What advice would you give to other young people who may be interested in starting their own business? Communication is important. You won’t land a job or succeed without proper communication. This means the way you talk to others (be confident), the way you write, the way you relay messages to others, and the way you are disciplined with your daily tasks. Also, don’t follow the trends you see on social media. Believe in what you are starting, find people around you who will support you, and the rest will follow.

Maddock Wigg ’21 and his cousin Michael Townley ’25 on location for a shoot

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