I don’t write much about tennis here, so when a friend of mine sent me a press release about a tennis partnership that combines a major sporting event (US Open), a top athlete (Venus Williams), cool technology (a virtual interactive clinic), a top fashion line (Polo Ralph Lauren), a premium sponsor (Mercedes-Benz) and fundraising (Women’s Sports Foundation), I thought I would share some of the release with you. This is the type of partnership-driven event that really creates value for every party and brand involved, from the sponsors to the consumers.

POLO RALPH LAUREN PRESENTS THE LEGENDS CLINIC FEATURING VENUS WILLIAMS

In celebration of its sixth year as the Official Apparel Sponsor of the US Open Tennis Championships, Polo Ralph Lauren presents the Legends Clinic with Venus Williams, a live interactive virtual tennis clinic produced in partnership with Mercedes-Benz at New York’s SPORTIME Tennis Center on Randall’s Island on August 26 at 2:00PM EST. Tennis enthusiasts around the world will tune in as seven-time Grand Slam Champion Venus Williams answers questions, demonstrates technique and offers hints and tips on how to improve your game during this live one-hour interactive clinic. The clinic will reach a global audience as it will be streamed live online exclusively at RalphLauren.com and accessible on mobile devices at m.ralphlauren.com/USOpen.

“The Legends Clinic is ground-breaking. This is a dynamic way of connecting fashion, technology and sports in a way that has never been done before,” said David Lauren, Senior Vice President of Advertising, Marketing and Corporate Communications. “We are providing our customers around the world a unique experience to personally connect with one of the world’s premier tennis legends while she is engaged in her sport.”

Ralph Lauren will design a limited-edition dress in partnership with Eleven to be worn by Venus Williams during the Legends Clinic as well as a special limited-edition US Open polo shirt to accompany the collection. Both the Ralph Lauren designed limited-edition dress and polo shirt will be available on-site at the US Open Polo Ralph Lauren shop and online at RalphLauren.com. Additionally, the limited-edition US Open polo shirt will be exclusively available at Macy’s Herald Square in New York. Fifteen percent of sales will be donated to the Women’s Sports Foundation, dedicated to advancing the lives of girls and women through sport and physical activity.

“It is truly exciting to partner with Polo Ralph Lauren in this unique endeavor and to bring my professional expertise and personal experiences to tennis fans around the world,” said Venus Williams.

The Ralph Lauren US Open collection is available on-site at the US Open Polo Ralph Lauren shop open for the duration of the tournament. The store also features a wide selection of items such as tote bags, tennis dresses, skirts, sweaters, commemorative caps, classic Polo shirts for men and women. The collection will also be available at select Ralph Lauren stores, department stores and online at Ralphlauren.com.

As part of the Legends Clinic, Mercedes-Benz, the official vehicle of the US Open Tennis Championship and presenting sponsor of the Men’s Single Championship, will highlight its new SLS AMG supercar that draws inspiration from the 1954 300SL Gullwing, a legendary car known for its iconic style and innovation.

This announcement reinforces Polo Ralph Lauren’s leadership in major sporting initiatives. The company also serves as the Official Outfitter of the Wimbledon Championships and will be the Proud Outfitter for the US Olympic and Paralympic Teams at the London 2012 Olympic Games. Polo Ralph Lauren also sponsors an elite roster of professional golfers, as well as the Blackwatch Polo Team.

Today’s post is courtesy of guest blogger Dr. Don Sandusky of Primo Sport Inc.

It’s a tough call, but Adidas’ new match ball just might beat out the Vuvuzuela horns as the most polarizing thing on South Africa’s World Cup pitch. The Jabulani ball — translated as “Celebration” — has been criticized for its unpredictable movement, called cheap and been implicated in botched plays. The new ball is heat molded rather than hand stitched, which makes it feel a little more like a toy ball and makes it fly a little less true. FIFA plans to address the ball after world cup. If their approach toward considering public uproar and goal-line technology is any indication, meaningful change may come soon. And although this ball has been named a “nightmare,” its impact extends far beyond the pitch and into a globally-devastating territory.

The center of the soccer ball universe is shifting from the skilled trades of Pakistan to the mass production of China. For decades, Sialkot, Pakistan has been home to the ubiquitous cottage industry of hand-stitched soccer balls. The skilled trades need hand strength and experience but most importantly, technique which is passed-along in a very personal way. The range of expertise in this field causes fierce competition for the most highly skilled workers. In the search for technical competitive advantage Adidas executed a well thought-out plan to innovate away from hand stitching to mass production, protected by a patented monopoly. After getting FIFA on board, their new thermal molded soccer balls started being produced on automated equipment which requires skilled operators rather than skilled trades. The process also requires reliable infrastructure and supply continuity so the assets were deployed in China rather than Pakistan. By all accounts, the thermal molded ball strategy is working well for FIFA, Adidas and their manufacturing partners.

But what about the Pakistani stitchers? Everyone knows that Pakistan is caught-up in chaos. Newsweek recently reported that for 2009, Pakistan surpassed war-torn African nations in the number of newly displaced people. And although two-thirds of the displaced have returned home, most have returned to “grim futures,” facing destroyed homes, livelihoods, families, schools and hospitals. Maslow’s hierarchy of needs supports anecdotes that regular Sialkot residents are focused on basic stuff. But, with the trend away from hand stitched soccer balls toward mass produced thermal molded, skilled tradesmen are losing work to the ever expanding Chinese factory. This may be an unfortunate time to export this kind of work from Sialkot.

So yes, the trend to molded balls has distressed soccer players and coaches across the globe. Molded balls are polarizing but a missed goal is usually not a tragedy. What’s devastating is that the trend to molded balls is undermining the basic needs of the poor folks in Sialkot, Pakistan, whose livelihoods have always depended on work outsourced by the soccer Futball universe. At Primo Sport Inc., we apply our Nitroblock® latex bladder technology exclusively to 32-panel hand stitched soccer balls, made in Pakistan. We can’t castigate FIFA or the makers of molded balls (like the Jabulani). In fact, we’re all about technological innovation. But we can say this: when we talk to our Pakistani vendors, they keep a stiff upper lip and say the best thing we can do for them is to make more ball orders and to keep their people busy. And we believe them, so we will.

Don Sandusky is a Ph.D. Engineer who cut his teeth in the R&D labs at NASA, then hired-on with DuPont. He worked his way up through the ranks for 10 years before setting off on his own to start Primo Sport, Inc, where he invented the Neverflat® technology, which is licensed to Spalding and continues to be the #1 basketball. He enjoys getting his head around a big idea, putting the pieces together and helping a team build a brand. In addition to heading Primo Sport, he works with other entrepreneurs to help structure start-up’s, derive workable commercial transactions and building teams with every reason to overachieve.

There’s one March Madness juggernaut that no one has been talking about on sports talk radio. It’s not Kansas, or Syracuse, or even Duke… it’s Nike. The Nike basketball Twitter account announced just hours after the selection show that 49 of the 65 tournament teams would be wearing the swoosh, with three more sporting the Jordan brand. That means more than 75% of the teams are under the Nike umbrella.

Even more striking is the fact that every single team in the West Region is a Nike team, which assures the swoosh of at least one Final Four team. Here’s the breakdown by region (courtesy of @nikebasketball):  Midwest – 10 Nike, 1 Brand Jordan; West: 16 Nike; East: 12 Nike, 1 Brand Jordan; South: 11 Nike, 1 Brand Jordan.

Nike’s contract with each university varies widely. With the millions of dollars in payments, equipment and apparel that they are paying to these schools, the national TV exposure that they’ll garner this weekend is their payback. On Thursday and Friday, Nike teams will participate in over 48 hours of basketball. Every time there is a close-up of a player diving on the floor after a loose-ball or lingers on a player getting ready to shoot a foul-shot, Nike executives will be cheering. The prolonged exposure is why those deals are signed in the first place. This weekend, Nike and Brand Jordan will reap the rewards of those strategic contracts.

Tournament Expansion
This morning I listened to a prominent NCAA basketball coach talking about the prospect of the tournament expanding to 96 teams. He was very frank in his opinion (keeping the tournament at it’s current 65 teams), but was also honest about the fact that his opinion may be tainted by the fact that every one of his teams has made the tournament. If he missed a couple in a row, his vote might change.

I feel strongly that the tournament should NOT expand to 96 teams. How many of us out there can name 31 teams that didn’t make the tournament this year? Ok, several of us could do that, but now let’s think about 31 teams that we would want to see playing this weekend… that’s not quite as easy. Also, doesn’t it take a little bit of the cache away from making the tournament and devalue the regular season if all those the number of teams expands by almost 50%?

Brackets
Now, gambling on the NCAA tournament is illegal. Luckily, just filling out a bracket is not. Most likely I will fill out two brackets. One with my heart (with Syracuse winning), and one with my head (Kansas). Thursday and Friday are those two infamous days of the year where employers lose billions of dollars on lost productivity. While it’s not technically part of my job, I’ll be keeping an eye on the games and social media simultaneously, to see what teams and brands are activating using those platforms. So, who do you have winning your bracket?

This Sunday, the Dallas Mavericks will host the 2010 NBA All-Star game at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas. Admittedly, I’m not a huge NBA fan. I hear a lot about the Phoenix Suns on sports talk radio because of where I live, and I follow the Denver Nuggets because they have my favorite player, Carmelo Anthony. So normally, the All-Star Game might slip by me relatively unnoticed, especially since I’m running a half-marathon that day, and it’s every woman’s favorite holiday - Valentine’s Day!

But today I received a press release from a large PR firm. It’s not clear who exactly commissioned the press release, but I’m guessing it is a group called ‘the Coalition to Advance the Protection of Sports logos.’ After reading the press release, it really made me wonder if sports fans care about this age-old question: Are they real, or are they fake? (Merchandise, that is).

The press release attempts to ’separate facts from fiction.’ Some of the fictions include statements like ‘counterfeiting isn’t that big of a problem’ and ‘people don’t sell counterfeits in North Texas.’ The facts given are that businesses lose $600-700 billion (yes, billion) annually due to counterfeiting and that innocent buyers get scammed by this inaccurate and often poorly made merchandise.

So my questions for all of you are:

• If you went to an event like the All-Star Game, are you concerned with whether the merchandise is official or not?
• Do you look for the hologram on the tag?
• Do you double-check the spelling of all the names and logos?
• Are you concerned with the exact colors of the logos?
• Or does the lure of 2 shirts for $15 override any of those issues?

At times I’ve been worried only about getting a good deal. Other times, the event or team involved has been important enough to me to make sure I have the official merchandise. What do you think?

I think most people have probably seen this already, but just in case, I’m going to share it here as well. Macy’s made a little mistake with an advertisement they ran in Monday’s Philadelphia Enquirer. Take a look (thanks to the AZCentral.com FanBoy Blog for the photo).

In case you weren’t following baseball, the Phillies are currently down three games to two in the World Series, and in fact, they were down 3-1 when this ad actually ran. While I like the idea of having confidence in your team, I think this is taking it a bit too far. The newspaper has since apologized for running the ad. In situations like this, I’m a big proponent of trying to turn a mistake into a gain, so maybe Macy’s can offer a special discount on other Phillies merchandise for anyone that brings in a copy of the unfortunate advertisement. They could gain some goodwill for the mistake and generate some new sales. Do you think this would work?

An interesting story has developed over the past two days. It seems that at yesterday’s Sports Sponsorship Symposium in New York, Mike Principe, the director for BEST (the agency that represents Michael Vick), announced that Vick had a deal in place with Nike. This was big news, since Nike was fairly vocal in their decision to drop Vick when the dogfighting charges were filed in 2006.

I wasn’t at the event when this announcement happened, but I have to believe the response was quite mixed. There would be a tremendous amount of risk for Nike to sign Michael Vick so early in his return to the NFL. At the same time, it seems like the response in Philadelphia for Vick has been mostly supportive and without backlash against the Eagles’ existing sponsors.

Fast-forward to today, and we have an official response from Nike (as reported by Darren Rovell of CNBC here): “Nike does not have a contractual relationship with Michael Vick. We have agreed to supply product to Michael Vick as we do a number of athletes who are not under contract with Nike.”

This probably makes a lot more sense from Nike. Every athlete needs equipment, and I see nothing wrong with Nike providing their products to a former client that is making a comeback. The relationship is very minimal, without Vick representing Nike in any formal or public manner (and yes, even if he’s wearing Nike products, that’s not indicative of representing Nike – he could have bought Nike product on his own to wear).

So why did Principe make such a public statement yesterday about this relationship? I wish I knew the exact wording, which would help determine if he over-exaggerated the agreement or if the audience jumped to their own conclusion. Either way, the story is now damaging to all parties involved: Nike for the “potential relationship,” Vick for the deal that wasn’t, and Principe for possibly misrepresenting his client.

Today’s post is courtesy of guest blogger Dave Fogelson:

Citing the economy and an absence of players with superstar potential, Sonny Vaccaro, who knows more than most about athletic footwear promotions, recently predicted a tough endorsement market for the NBA Draft Class of 2009. 

All true but let me suggest another reason for the dwindling endorsement market.  The so-called “Shoe Wars,” that commanded so much attention during the ’80s and ’90s, are over.  They have been for some time.  How can there be a war with Nike’s share of the U.S. athletic footwear market more than double the combined share of its three “closest” competitors?  Meanwhile, New Balance has jumped ahead of adidas and Reebok adding further justification for its “Endorsed by No One” positioning.   

I was as caught up in hyping the “Shoe Wars” as much as anyone in the industry.  But when things got a little too serious, I would think back to the time my Uncle Ed and I were sitting in the upper deck at Shea Stadium during the 1973 World Series.  My uncle had just opened a sporting goods store and was peering down at the Mets and A’s through his binoculars while furiously making notations.  He wasn’t a scout, so I asked what he was doing.  “Checking out what shoe brands they’re wearing,” he said.  “Who cares?” I replied. 

Ten years later when I began my career in the athletic footwear business, I started to care a lot and learned very quickly how top athletes enhanced brand authenticity and credibility.  While anything remotely approaching a mega shoe deal is today unlikely even for first-team All Americas, I believe it’s still important for sports products to be promoted by the best athletes.  P.T. Barnum (the Sonny Vaccaro of his time?) once said, “Without promotion, something terrible happens – nothing.” He wasn’t referring to athletic footwear promotions, but the observation is relevant.

The shoe business was more competitive 20-25 years ago, and the promo people went overboard on the number and scope of endorsement deals.  Nevertheless, having athletes and entire teams wear your brand gave us shoe dogs something else to promote beyond EVA midsoles, lightweight uppers and durable outsoles.  Case in point: so much was made about Shaquille O’Neal’s endorsement that Reebok, in the minds of many, was transformed almost overnight into a performance brand on par with Nike.  This was far from reality but as the Reebok PR person, I wasn’t going to argue the point.   

While the running category defined a brand’s technology credentials, the real battle for athletic footwear bonafides was waged in basketball.  The war quickly spilled over into the NFL, MLB, international soccer and college sports before reaching a crescendo in 1996 during the build-up to the Atlanta Olympics.  The media even portrayed the Tonya Harding-Nancy Kerrigan incident as a new front in the Reebok-Nike rivalry. 

As long as Reebok, adidas, Converse, PONY and others remained in Nike’s rearview mirror, getting some sort of shoe deal was part of the right of passage for most athletes turning pro.  It was a sellers’ market, but much of that exposure eventually became nothing more than wallpaper, and the consumers who did notice were cynical. 

Back in the “Shoe Wars” days, agents and their clients typically strode into Beaverton, OR Mountainside, NJ or Stoughton, MA with a checklist of expectations (demands) about signature shoes and guaranteed advertising exposure, all for a lot of money and a bare minimum of the player’s personal time.  With the shoe now on the other foot, that approach is more outdated than playing basketball in a pair of PF Flyers.

While more modest in scale, endorsement opportunities are available for athletes committed to building true partnerships with the companies whose products they endorse.  The partnership needs to revolve around the athlete endorser committing to activities that give the company’s retail partners, consumers, suppliers and employees multiple reasons to care about the brand of shoes they wear. 

Attending sales meetings and employee events, accompanying sales people on key account visits, speaking to the media about company initiatives, connecting with fans in-person and on digital platforms and partnering on community betterment programs give people reasons to care.  This requires the endorser to devote more time and effort but can be accomplished without interfering with their main job as a professional athlete.

From first-round selections to the last player picked in the draft, professional athletes are influential.  Their performances inspire people and provide us greatly needed respites from life’s realities.  Off the field and away from the court, they have so much potential to do good work in their communities and motivate others to follow their lead.  When properly conceived and managed, their endorsements are economic stimulus packages helping companies grow their business. 

The “Shoe Wars” are over.  Long live athletic footwear endorsements.

About the author: Dave Fogelson held PR positions with adidas USA and Reebok and was most recently Director of Worldwide Communications for Octagon.  He can be contacted at dfogelson@optimum.net.   Note – This article was recently printed in the Sports Business Journal and is shared here with the permission of the author.

Adidas has put together a very interesting and interactive campaign called “Me, Myself” to support the launch of their new women’s apparel website.  Visitors have the opportunity tobe the new “face of adidas” by entering a special contest, either through the website or in select stores.  Participants can upload their picture and share a personal, inspirational story that other visitors can view and vote on.  The site also allows for voting via an integration with Facebook and other social networking applications.  At the end of the contest, three winners will be chosen to be in a photo shoot with Candace Parker of the WNBA, and these photos will be the basis of many online and in-store marketing elements. 

This campaign looks like it has a lot of potential for several reasons:

• A close partnership with Candace Parker, who is one of the most recognizable and successful female professional athletes
• Combining online and in-store elements to reach consumers through multiple channels
• Creating multiple interactive elements (entering the contest, voting, and making winners part of the campaign itself), which will better engage their consumers and website visitors
• Connecting with successful social networking platforms to reach a wider audience
• Using personal stories to build a deep and lasting connection to their brand

The campaign officially launched on February 1, and you can see the contest for yourself at www.adidas.com/women.