Marketplace Roundup
Blackhawks RW Patrick Kane during Thursday's Red Wings-Blackhawks NHL Winter Classic at Wrigley Field will unveil personally-designed skates and sticks, which were developed in collaboration with Bauer Hockey specifically for the outdoor game. The Nike Bauer Vapor skates designed by Kane feature the black, white and red colors of the Blackhawks uniforms that the team will wear during Thursday's game, and the Nike Bauer Supreme One95 stick is completely red and features a "Candy Kane" pattern to celebrate the holiday season. Only 88 skates and sticks were created for Thursday's event, a nod to Kane's jersey number. Kane will sign and auction off a portion of the merchandise to raise money for breast cancer research in both Chicago and his hometown of Buffalo (Nike Bauer Hockey).
DRIVE IN, DRIVE OUT: NASCAR driver AJ Allmendinger's Business Manager, Tara Ragan, indicated that Allmendinger is expected to sign a deal to drive for Gillett Evernham Motorsports (GEM) next season. SPORTING NEWS' Reid Spencer cited sources who confirmed that Allmendinger is expected to replace driver Elliott Sadler in GEM's No. 19 Sprint Cup Series entry. GEM in May announced that Sadler had signed a multi-year extension, but GEM CEO Tom Reddin reportedly told employees and sponsors "about the impending driver change before Christmas." How Sadler's departure will be "orchestrated remains unclear" (SPORTINGNEWS.com, 12/27).
WINTER WONDERLAND: DMNEWS.com's Dianna Dilworth reported Nike has launched a new holiday campaign titled, "2008 Baby, It's Cold Outside." The effort, via Agency.com, is "centered around an interactive video that is running on Weather.com, About.com, as well as on Nike.com's homepage and in NikeTown stores nationwide in an extended 45-second version." The video, which is accompanied by Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Jordan's version of the song, "Baby, It's Cold Outside," features a "woman running, walking and exercising in various environments representing different aspects of winter weather." The ad allows a consumer to "rollover the woman at any given time to see all of the sportswear products worn throughout the video" (DMNEWS.com, 12/24).
THE BEST IT CAN GET: Ad Age's Brian Steinberg, in a special to the BOSTON GLOBE, reviewed several ad campaigns from '08, and ranked the Gillette effort featuring golfer Tiger Woods, tennis player Roger Federer and Yankees SS Derek Jeter as one of the top campaigns of the year. Steinberg wrote Gillette's advertisements have "largely been about performance and product attributes," but the company with this campaign "gets it right by lacing in humor and celebrities" (BOSTON GLOBE, 12/25).
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