Gill Named Official Clothing Sponsor of Cowes Week

Following the recent announcement that clothing brand Gill would replace Line7 as the clothing sponsor for Emirates Team New Zealand, the company has announced that it will become the official clothing sponsor of the well known UK regatta; Cowes Week.

As part of the three year deal, Gill will supply event organisers with clothing as well as develop a merchandise range. The sponsorshp will be activated with a series of competitions.

Commenting on the announcement, Michelle Warner, Sales & Marketing Director for Cowes Week Limited says:

“We are really excited about working in partnership with Gill and increasing the value we are able to offer participants racing at Cowes Week. Gill is hugely respected by the sailing fraternity and the partnership represents some fantastic opportunities for us both.”

Founder and Chairman of Gill, Nick Gill adds:

“Cowes Week is an internationally iconic event and one that Gill is extremely proud to be associated with. We are looking forward to working with the Cowes Week team to develop a great range of event clothing and a great presence for our brand at the world’s premier sailing regatta.”

Henri Lloyd Gear Up for 2010 F1 Season With Mercedes GP

Henri Lloyd are going to be busy this year. It’s one thing to make a couple of jackets for Ben Ainslie and his TEAMORIGIN crewmates, it’s quite another to try and make enough baseball caps for all Michael Schumacher’s fans.

In 2009, the Manchester based clothing company did a deal to be one of the only sponsors on the Brawn GP car that Jenson Button used to win the F1 championship.

The deal was probably one of the most lucrative of 2009 anywhere in sport. Not only did the brand get to position itself to a completely new global audience, but sales of t-shirts, jackets and caps would have dwarfed any merchandising revenues the company had ever received from sailing.

In 2010, Brawn GP has become MERCEDES GP PETRONAS and Henri Lloyd are still on board. Graham Allen, Henri Lloyd Commercial Director states:

“We are delighted to be partnering with MERCEDES GP PETRONAS for the 2010 Formula One season and have been working closely to ensure we provide clothing at the highest levels of fabric technology that provide the ultimate comfort and durability needed in all conditions. These same principles are also being carried through to a new Merchandise Collection. We are very much looking forward to an exciting season and to support MERCEDES GP PETRONAS all we can!”

Hopefully the relationship can bring some benefits back to sailing. It would be great to see Mercedes involved at a top level in yacht racing.

Barbados Backing ‘Non-Traditional’ Sports like Sailing to Boost Sports Tourism

There used to be a great advertisement in Australia for Bacardi. The film showed different Caribbean islands, each with a different rum based cocktail, lots of partying and sunshine and good times. The closing line was truly memorable. “If you live on an Island, you drink Bacardi. Australia – the world’s biggest island.” Well it seems like if you are a tourism authority, you need to have a sailing event. Luckily for the sport, the ‘in thing’ is to host a major sailing event to drive an increase in tourism.

For some places, sailing is understood, but for others, even Caribbean islands, the sport is seen as “non-traditional”.

Barbados will host the Fireball International World Championship, this year, as part of a deliberate strategy by Government to boost sports tourism.

Minister of Tourism, Richard Sealy said:

“One has to look at the backdrop against which this is happening and the determination by Government that we need to have sports tourism not just to help us out of this recession in terms of driving more numbers to Barbados, but certainly something that can be expanded upon to truly take Barbados’ tourism to another level. You hear of sports tourism now in other areas – polo, lawn tennis and of course the whole marine sports… so this is really part of a deliberate strategy to try to broaden and deepen the whole concept of sports tourism in order to have it as a tool for developing our tourism generally.”

And, he added that it was important to understand that even some of the non-traditional sports, not previously embraced, from a tourism point of view, had now to be accepted.

The world class competition will be staged here for the first time, from April 24 to May 7 with major sponsorship from the Barbados Tourism Authority (BTA). It will be sailed under the auspices of the Barbados Sailing Association (BSA), with the BYC as the host venue.

Meanwhile, President of the BSA, Penny McIntyre acknowledged that Fireball Barbados World’s 2010 was a fantastic way to begin “what might well become the best decade of sailing in Barbados”. She praised Government for recognising that Barbados had “one of the remarkable sailing venues in the world” and expressed the hope that the World Championships would be an inspiration for sailors, both young and old and that locals and visitors would “come out and support the spectacle, while putting Barbados on the world sailing map”.

Approximately 20 countries are expected to be represented at Fireball Barbados World’s 2010. Over 76 Fireball dinghies, with some 150 sailors, their families and friends are expected on the island for the tournament. Barbados will be represented by three teams captained by Colin Symes, Robert Povey and Robin Patterson.

Jessica Watson Backers Looking to Put Sailing Back on Page 1.

Record attempts are risky things to sponsor, but history has shown that they can deliver massive return on investment. Ask someone in the UK to remember a sailing moment and most will recall Ellen MacArthur becoming the fastest person to sail around the world. They may not be able to remember the actual achievement, but most will get the name right and know that it caused a big media fuss.

So, as sixteen year old Australian, Jessica Watson starts to head for home in the last legs of her record circumnavigation, sponsors are starting to jostle to have a piece of the promotional pie. The majority of the marketing success should go to early sponsors Ella Bache and One HD – they took the risk when many were saying the attempt was unsafe lunacy, but that won’t stop savvy brands from using Watson’s new found celebrity status to sell cars or banking products.

Australian media reports that Jessica Watson could be one of the country’s richest teenagers, with a “multi-million-dollar sponsorship bonanza awaiting her return to dry land”.

Spokesman Andrew Fraser said:

“We’ve had approaches from an automotive company but she hasn’t even got her L-plates yet. She’s old enough to sail round the world but can’t drive a car.”

The great news for sailing, is that the sport will be back on the front page of the papers and with any luck the front of cereal boxes and bank branches. The press are already positioning Watson as “a global star in the mould of Olympic snowboarder Torah Bright – transcending the confines of sailing to become a poster girl for action and adventure.”

The teenager’s website receives about one million hits (?) a week and her fan base has extended internationally. Naturally there will be a book, which she is writing at sea and no doubt there will be TV documentaries as well.

Jessica is now about 4000 nautical miles off the West Australian coast, about 6000 nautical miles from the finish of her voyage.

http://www.jessicawatson.com.au/_blog/Official_Jessica_Watson_Blog/

Emirates Team NZ Announce Gill as Official Technical Clothing Partner.

Following the collapse of New Zealand based marine clothing supplier Line7 last year, several high profile teams have been in the market for a new official clothing sponsor, including Emirates Team New Zealand.

The NZ America’s Cup challenger has announced that the new official technical clothing supplier will be Gill. The word technical suggests that the door has been left open for a more fashion oriented brand to supply the team with off-the-water kit.

Gill, which is currently supporting the UK tri-services project; exercise Transglobe, will be supplying a range of if its technical product for both the prestigious Louis Vuitton Trophy events during 2010, and the TP52 taking part in this seasons Audi Medcup.

Emirates Team New Zealand Managing Director Grant Dalton said he is pleased to welcome Gill to the team.

“The partnership brings together Emirates Team New Zealand and Gill, an acknowledged world leader in research, development, design and production of high-performance technical sailing clothing. Gill is a brand the team is proud to wear.”

Founder and Chairman of Gill, Nick Gill commented

“we have been developing high performance technical clothing for exactly these environments and this partnership offers a great opportunity to have the gear on the water with a fabulous team which are at the absolute pinnacle of performance sailing. Our new Race Collection for example has been developed specifically for this area of the sport. In elite events such as these it is the details that make the difference between winning and losing. Our high performance garments will be exposed to the race environment which they were designed for, we trust that they will excel and hope that they may even make the difference that turns a 2nd into a 1st.”

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