- Arena International continues to match suit of their American counterparts by dropping big sums of money on big sponsorships. After last week unveiling agreements to sponsor Olympic Champion Ruta Meilutyte as well as the Olympic Nice Natation club in France, this week, the Italian Swimming Federation has agreed to a four-year agreement with Arena that will run through the 2016 Olympic year.
Outside of their mega-landing of an 8-year deal to outfit the USA Swimming National Team, regaining their foothold in Italy would have had to have been the second-biggest target on the Arena radar, as the company is headquartered in the small central town of Tolentino.
This deal ends a dwindled agreement with Jaked, who rose to huge prominence during the polyurethane suit era but largely disappeared as a major player after it. Arena takes over as the exclusive technical sponsor for each of the 5 aquatic disciplines in Italy: swimming, open water, diving, water polo, and synchro.
“The Italian Swimming Federation has particularly appreciated the interest shown by Arena, a leader of the water movement,”said Paolo Barelli , President of the Italian Swimming Federation and the European federation. “This guarantees quality and reliability. With this partnership we return after four years in the Team Arena alongside prestigious Nations, ready to make our contribution to further enhance an already virtuous company with our high standards.”
Arena now has agreements as the main technical sponsor with at least 19 national federations. In total, these federations combined for 44 of the 102 awarded Olympic medals in swimming and open water swimming, including over half of the golds:
- Bulgaria
- Croatia
- Czech Republic
- Estonia
- Finland
- Germany
- Hungary
- Ireland
- Italy
- Lithuania
- Norway
- Poland
- Romania
- Russia
- Sweden
- South Africa
- Ukraine
- United States
Isn’t Speedo still sponsoring Australia and UK?
If the swimmers can wear whatever they want, why does it matter who the sponsor of the national team is? Seems like a waste of money by Arena. It looked like well over 50% of the swimmers at trials and the Olympics were wearing Speedo LZR.
does the usa’s contract with arena mean that all non-speedo sponsored or other sponsored swimmers will wear arena at international competitions?
swimmer – no. Swimmers are allowed to wear any brand for technical gear that they want (similar to shoes of an NBA player). This means though that their warmups, for example, will be branded with Arena, and they are required to wear those on medal stands and such at big meets.
do you know if the suit are provided for the non-sponsored athletes? Or if perhaps only Speedo suits were given for free?
Is Soni going to continue to swim?
You know speedo is going to sign missy Franklin and market her like crazy… They also still have Lochte and Adrian under contract. (and others like vollmer and coughlin.. And phelps even if he is retired). I’m assuming their marketing strategy is to focus on high profile individuals rather than bidding for entire national federations since those individuals will be the ones getting the most press.
I wonder who will sign Allison Schmitt, Elizabeth beisel, breeja larsen and Caitlin leverenz. Haven’t seen tyr sign many female swimmers. I’m thinking speedo gets Schmitt and beisel. Arena will just dominate the breaststrokers if they get Larsen and leverenz (in addition to soni and ruta).
Arena has taken over the swimwear industry by force. It’s going to take a lot for Speedo to come back from this one. Perhaps the the faulty FS3 is part of the problem? Or maybe they need a new marketing strategy.
RIP Speedo.
Are you kidding? The posts below explain the Nat Contract doesn’t limit the suit company that is worn. That came in a long time ago and was the reason that the single colored suits first showed.Arena had the contract before in late 70’s and early 80’s. hopefully it just raises the competition and maybe benefit the swimmers. When Arena was sponsor the coaches had to be reminded to wear the Arena coaches shirt not there Speedo asthenosphere didn’t have the rights the swimmers had.