adidas Canada and the Canadian Olympic team yesterday announced a four-year partnership making adidas the official high performance apparel and footwear supplier for the Canadian Olympic Team. Sport Chek, owned by Canadian Tire, has been named as the lead retail partner that will carry the entire adidas line. In addition, Sport Chek and adidas also announced their sponsorship of seven Canadian Olympic hopefuls (adidas). The GLOBE & MAIL’s Susan Krashinsky writes Canadian Tire is "challenging Hudson’s Bay Co.’s dominance as Canada’s Olympic apparel retailer." The deal marks the first time the Canadian Olympic Committee "has ever had two apparel partners,” as Hudson’s Bay supplies "opening and closing ceremony uniforms, podium outfits, and casual wear." Sport Chek as part of the agreement with adidas “will be responsible for marketing the new line (the two companies share an advertising agency, Montreal-based Sid Lee).” They "separately signed sponsorship deals with seven Canadian athletes, who will be the faces" of a new TV and promotional campaign called "What it Takes." The campaign "will launch in the fall." The deal represents “a new source of sponsorship revenue for the COC.” It also “reflects a broader evolution long under way in the sports marketing and sponsorship world: Where athletic organizations in the past would partner with a single car maker or fast-food chain, for example, increasingly these sponsorships are being divvied up to allow for more niche-focused deals” (GLOBE & MAIL, 6/26).
NORTHERN EXPOSURE: Canadian skeleton racer Jon Montgomery, who will be featured in the "What It Takes" campaign, said, “It’s still a tough row to hoe for Canadian athletes when it comes to getting sponsorship dollars in the private sector -- even for the seven of us standing up here. It’s not an easy landscape to work within as far as private sponsorship in Canada, so it’s so rewarding when a deal like this comes together.” Meanwhile, the GLOBE & MAIL’s Rachel Brady notes the COC "has been active recently in landing new deals.” It announced a “new partnership with BMW Group Canada earlier this year, which will go through the next two Olympic Games” (GLOBE & MAIL, 6/26).
