The sailing clothing and apparel market used to be fairly simple. Most sailing clothing brands had a national focus. French brands sponsored French sailors, American brands sponsored American sailors and limited distribution meant that the choice for consumers was quite limited.
Of course in an increasingly global market, this is no longer the case, but some brands are responding more quickly than others.
Marinepool has been busy on the sponsorship front recently and the latest deal partners the German clothing brand with the hottest sailing team on Facebook - Oman Sail. The deal means that Marinepool will be the ”Official Clothing Partner” for racing teams, instructors, staff, and young sailors.
The partnership further strengthens the international profile of the Marinepool brand, which is also the official clothing partner to the Extreme Sailing Series™, Energy Team France – Challenger for the 34th America´s Cup and Groupe Bel – the Vendée Globe campaign of French sailing star Kito de Pavant.
While the external face of Oman Sail is two competing teams in the Extreme Sailing Series and a newly announced MOD70 campaign. This year has also seen Oman Sail run a highly successful M34 campaign finishing in the top 5 of the Tour De France a la Voile.
But Oman Sail is much more than the racing teams. More people like Oman Sail on Facebook than the America’s Cup, and the project has goals that have a long-term focus including the promotion of Oman as a marine destination, but also using sailing as a platform to empower Omani people.
By partnering with Oman sail, Marinepool gets to align itself with hugely successful race teams, but also becomes recognised as a company that supports Oman´s development. The long term benefits to Marinepool from being associated with the ever expanding grass-roots sailing training programmes which provide self-confidence (and marketable skills) to the youth of Oman will probably deliver an ROI well beyond providing high performance kit to the sailors in the Extreme Series and the America’s Cup.
