Reebok Partners With UFC For ‘Champion Fight Kit’
The Ultimate Fighting Championship is the largest mixed martial arts promotion company in the world. Think of it as the WWE with detrimental results if the combatant is unprepared. With millions of generated revenue from merchandise and pay-per-views alone, the UFC is getting into the apparel business by partnering with Reebok in a new deal.
The company boasts top stars such as Ronda Rousey, CM Punk, and Cain Velasquez. A global fan base of 200 million, the deal is beneficial for both parties who are looking to break into the sports and entertainment market. Reebok and UFC unveiled its partnership via a small platoon of pugilists and prize fighters, a fog machine, roaming spotlights and bleacher seating.
Dubbed Reebok x UFC’s “Fight Kit”, the private audience who were on hand at Skylight Studios in Manhattan got a chance to meet the mixed martial arts competitors and check out the merchandise. Developed in three variations, the collaborative effort features the “Champion Kit” for current champions, the “Country Kit” with nationality-based items, and the “Universal Kit” for all athletes on the roster. The attire features tops and bottoms, both adorned with the Reebok logo and sweeping UFC markings.
The UFC Fight Kit will also include the official walkout jersey, variations of the Octagon short, the Octagon skirt, the walkout hoodie, and assorted performance tops for women.
Photographers from all over the sports world came in for this moment, as Reebok vice president Todd Krinsky described combat training as “the fastest growing fitness category”. Women account for half of the 35 million people worldwide “who train like fighters,” Krinsky lamented. Forty percent of combat training fans started doing so in the past year, he added. This is due to the success of such fighters like the aforementioned Ronda Rousey, Daniel Cormier, and Jon “Bones” Jones. Rousey, 28, is the company’s Bantamweight Champion and always hoped for something like this for fighters.
“I wish I had this Reebok deal when I was coming up because it would’ve been nice if I didn’t have to hustle for an apparel sponsor,” said the Olympic judo medalist, who will face Bethe Correia at UFC 190 on August 1, 2015 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Her last fight was won in 15 seconds flat and a healthy fan base is there for wearing her black-and-gold Champion kit. “I always like wearing black because I’m the bad guy, and I always like wearing gold because I’m the best.”
Terms of the deal were not revealed, yet the top line is that UFC’s deal with Reebok is for six years and $70 million dollars. “We’ve been going back to our roots in fitness,” Reebok president Matt O’Toole told WWD when speaking about the company’s transformation. “[We] really are inspiring people to move with a laser-sharp focus on this new sport activity, what we call tough fitness,” said O’Toole spotlighting Reebok’s “Be More Human” campaign.
The Reebox x UFC Fight Kit will officially arrive at Sports Authority stores nationwide July 7 and at Reebok FitHubs in the U.S. and Canada on July 10. It will also be sold at the UFC Fan Expo in Las Vegas on July 10 and 11, timed to coincide with International Fight Week.
[via WWD]
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