PRODUCT & MARKETING
+++ Adidas renewed its kit sponsorship of the New Zealand All Blacks rugby team and junior teams, which began in 1999, in a multi-year deal said to be worth NZ$10 million ( €5.76m) per year
+++ Blenders Eyewear, part of Safilo Group, announced an exclusive new product collection in partnership with Oracle Red Bull Racing as a continuation of the company’s official sponsorship
+++ Nike announced Norwegian player Erling Haaland as a new member of its elite football roster
+++ Macron has signed on as the new kit sponsor of Cricket Ireland from this season until 2026 +++
CORPORATE AND M&A
+++ Wilson and court specialist Playtomic have signed a deal to promote the sport of pádel especially in small but rising economies, according to CMDsport and Padel Alto
+++ Swiss sportswear brand On and Santara Tech, a company founded by triathlon stars Kristian Blummenfelt and Gustav Iden, entered into a collaboration agreement to ”develop the next generation of the fastest performance running shoes,” driven by athlete data
+++ The French Tennis Federation (FFT) and Amazon have extended their partnership with a four-year exclusive domestic broadcast renewal that will expand the night session coverage of the French Open on Prime Video until 2027 for the tournament’s initial 11 days
+++ Rocky Brands has sold its Servus performance and lifestyle footwear brand, which it acquired in March 2021, to PQ Footwear, a subsidiary of Industrias PetroQuim and will use the proceeds from the transaction to pay off debt
+++ The CEO and sole owner of the German company Trigema, 80-year-old Wolfgang Grupp, told Forbes that after 53 years, he plans to hand over all his shares in the company by the end of 2023 to his wife Elisabeth, who in turn is then expected to hand over the company to one of their children within six months
+++ Compass Diversified’s subsidiary Marucci Sports, a designer and manufacturer of baseball and fastpitch equipment and apparel, has acquired Baum Enterprises LLC, a designer and manufacturer of composite wood bats, without disclosing any terms of the transaction
+++ Rafa Nadal is teaming up with Sierra Blanca Estates to create a new 33,000-square-meter sports city in the Spanish town of Málaga, in the Parque Litoral area +++
LEGAL & INSTITUTIONAL
+++ Acushnet is suing three members of the McMurdie family and a company affiliated with them, Lemon and Lucy, in a Utah district court over the sale of unapproved Scotty Cameron putters on an online marketplace in the U.S.
+++ The 2025 UEFA Women’s Euro will be hosted by Switzerland, the UEFA Executive Committee has decided, with matches taking place in eight venues across the country in the summer of 2025 +++
EXECUTIVE CHANGES
+++ Spanish sports equipment retailer Fútbol Emotion has hired Carlos García, former senior manager at Adidas, as chief teamsales officer
+++ Aude Garnier and Franz Gruber, together with Markus Schröcksnadel, have taken over the management of Sitour Marketing GmbH near Innsbruck, a world market leader in the field of mountain sports information and advertising space in ski resorts, from the previous Austria managing director Michael Mattesich, who will focus more on the Swiss and Italian markets
+++ After three years as marketing director at Peloton Germany, Anke Drewicke has joined telecommunications provider Congstar as head of sales & communications
+++ Blizzard-Tecnica has hired ski industry veteran Topher Plimpton, previously business unit director of winter sports and running at Scott USA, as business unit director for the U.S. and Canadian markets
+++ Super Retail Group founder and non-executive director Reg Rowe is retiring from the Australian retailer’s board with immediate effect and will be replaced by Mark O’Hare, chairman of Rowe’s private investment group +++
RETAIL & DISTRIBUTION
+++ Following the opening of its first Hong Kong store at Pacific Place, French outerwear brand K-Way has opened a second concept store in the city’s K11 Art Mall in partnership with Bluebell Group
+++ eBay is opening The ’85 Shop, a pop-up store in Chicago (1045 W Fulton Market) that, for two days only (April 6 and 7), will commemorate the birth of the Air Jordan 1 and its rise to dominance in the sneaker wars of the 1980s, offering just about everything related to the sneaker from originals to retro styles, film props and other 1980s vintage sneakers +++
MARKET STATISTICS
+++ The America’s Cup in Barcelona in 2024 is expected to generate an economic impact of €1,200 million and to create 19,000 jobs, according to an impact study by Fundació Barcelona Capital Nàutica +++
TRADE FAIRS & CONFERENCES
+++ The 17th edition of Footwear India Expo will be held on Aug. 18-20, 2023 at the Pragati Maidan in New Delhi +++
