In Buffalo, David Bertola reports locally based G&G Fitness is "planning to introduce the Gronk fitness line of equipment" in the nickname of Patriots TE Rob Gronkowski. The company is owned by Gronkowski's father, Gordon. The new equipment line will feature a silhouette of the All Pro "spiking a football." Gordon Gronkowski said that his company, which had $27M in revenue last year, "is in the process of having the equipment manufactured." It will include "balls, ropes and a couple of different benches." He added that the plan for the new line is to "sell it nationwide" (BIZJOURNALS.com, 5/15).
ANOTHER KIND OF COURT: REUTERS' Adam Jourdan reports Michael Jordan will “take a trademark dispute with a Chinese sports firm to China’s supreme court.” Jordan sued Qiaodan Sports in ’12, “saying the sportswear firm ... had built its business around his Chinese name and famous jersey number ‘23’ without his permission.” A court ruled in Qiaodan’s favor earlier this year and the ruling was “recently upheld by the Beijing Municipal High People’s Court.” Jordan is known as “Qiaodan” in China (REUTERS, 5/15).
DOWNWARD FACING DOGS: Fitness company Gaiam announced the release of two yoga programs as part of their Athletic Yoga series. Marlins RF Giancarlo Stanton takes part in “Yoga For Power,” while Revolution and USMNT MF Jermaine Jones appears in the “Yoga For Conditioning.” Gaiam earlier this year released a “Yoga For Flexibilty” starring Cavaliers F Kevin Love and “Yoga For Strength” featuring former NFLer Eddie George (Gaiam).
OLYMPIC INFLUENCE: Pivotal Research Group Senior Analyst Brian Wieser said that spending on national TV ads "rose nearly 3%" in Q1 of '15 "compared with a year earlier -- excluding Olympics-related spending" in '14. The WALL STREET JOURNAL's Miriam Gottfried notes that number "could be a bit muddled by the difficulty of fully stripping out the effect of the Olympics." But Wieser estimates that even comparing the most recent quarter with Q1 of '13, national TV advertising "grew by 5.4% over that two-year period, or a compound annual rate of 2.7%" (WALL STREET JOURNAL, 5/15).
