PRODUCT & MARKETING
+++ Angell Sports Ltd, a British brand of custom tennis rackets, has introduced the ASi 2.0, a tennis racket with a novel hybrid construction of carbon fiber chassis and injection-molded body
+++ French football club Paris FC has signed a contract with Adidas for four seasons, ending a 16-year partnership with Nike
+++ Adidas has signed amateur golfer Rose Zhang into the company’s first name, image and likeness (NIL) endorsement deal
+++ Castore will succeed Kappa as jersey sponsor of Premier League club Aston Villa from the 2022/23 season
+++ Puma has extended its jersey sponsorship of German Bundesliga soccer club Borussia Mönchengladbach
+++ FootJoy has signed up Jessica Korda, the American pro golfer who plays on the LPGA Tour, to a multi-year apparel, glove and shoe contract
+++ Italian fashion label Fendi has entered into a two-year deal with Italian Serie A soccer club A.S. Roma, outfitting the players with their official off-field wardrobe
+++ Mattel’s Barbie brand announced freestyle skier Kelly Sildaru as an Estonian “Barbie Role Model” for her achievements in the sports field, part of Barbie’s Dream Gap project, which aims to help girls build self-confidence through positive role models
+++ On Running continues to grow its roster of road elite athletes with the partnership of marathon runner Nicolas Navarro, the fastest Frenchman at the 2020 Tokyo Olympic marathon
+++ Austrian slalom specialist Michael Matt is moving to Völkl as his equipment supplier after seven years with Rossignol
+++ Puma is taking over from Nike as the new technical sponsor of Spanish football club Real Sporting de Gijón in a multi-year deal that will run until 2026 +++
CORPORATE & M&A
+++ Gap Inc. may soon need to get more specific about the rumors currently circulating about plans to spin off its growing DTC women’s activewear brand Athleta, according to a note from Credit Suisse analysts, saying, “We think the chances that [Gap Inc.] has to announce that it’s exploring value creation initiatives are rising significantly, but in the end, we don’t see an easy way to separate these businesses — and think with Old Navy struggling, separating out Athleta by itself would leave a RemainCo with a very difficult narrative in the public markets.”
+++ Infosys and the French Tennis Federation (FFT) are launching a five-year partnership to usher in a new era of technology-enabled sports broadcasting and fan engagement through a series of 3D, AR, VR and AI-powered experiences on and off the court, including a new STEM initiative that uses tennis as a platform to educate and inspire young people about the impact of science and technology in sports
+++ Amazon is keeping up the pace of expansion in Germany and is building a new logistics center in the east of the country, bringing the number of automated fulfillment centers in the country to 22
+++ Pinterest has signed a definitive agreement to acquire The Yes, a fashion platform founded in 2018 that allows users to shop through a personalized feed based on their active brand, style and size inputs
+++ Rossignol Group has announced that it will move its Canadian headquarters from Montréal to the ski town of Bromont (also Québec) next month +++
RETAIL & DISTRIBUTION
+++ Skechers has launched an e-commerce site in Italy
+++ Nike has opened a Nike Live concept store, dubbed Nike By Orio, at the Oriocenter Selected Stores shopping mall in Orio al Serio, a municipality in the Province of Bergamo, Italy +++
E-COMMERCE & DTC
+++ Puma announced that it will be using parcelLab’s service, a company offering shipping notifications sent to a customer as an order update, to provide its customers with branded, more personalized and more transparent post-purchase communication +++
EXECUTIVE CHANGES
+++ The Olympic Refuge Foundation (ORF), launched in September 2017 to support the protection, development and empowerment of displaced young people through sport, 365 days a year across the globe, has appointed Airbnb co-founder and chairman of Airbnb.org, Joe Gebbia, as the newest member of its board
+++ Foot Locker has named former Constellation Brands SVP Neil Bansal as EVP and chief strategy & transformation officer +++
CSR & SUSTAINABILITY
+++ Puma is the most sustainable brand in the industry according to the latest ranking by Business of Fashion, which ranked the 30 largest companies in the fashion business
+++ Nanollose Limited, a bio-materials business commercializing scalable technology to make low-impact fibers and textiles, announced that it has signed a binding memorandum of understanding with fashion retailer Inditex +++
Click here to access our Short Stops archive.
