When Dara Torres made her comeback prior to the 2008 Beijing Olympics, she was flooded with sponsorship opportunities. It’s no surprise that Janet Evans, who is attempting a similar feat at a similar age, and with a similar child, has signed her sponsorship deal, though she nabbed her first deal before even swimming at a major competition.
Evans has signed with Umii Products, a new company that produces U-Sport, which is billed as an all-natural sports drink. Though Evans’ focus, as an elite athlete, will be on the U-Sport product, Umii also is planning lines of every-day “wellness drinks” along with skincare and haircare lines. The “all-natural” food trend is a large and growing one amongst swimmers, especially those residing on the West Coast, and with Evans’ endorsement, the Umii products could grow very quickly within that community.
Umii has over 30 product lines in development, and are expecting a November release date.
“I’ve trained since I was a little girl in Southern California in distance events that require a tremendous amount of energy as well as the ability to recover after exceedingly long workouts,” said Janet Evans. “I’ve tried many products on the market and felt like most of them didn’t provide me what I was looking for as both an athlete and a busy mom. U-Sport is a combination of all natural ingredients and amazing taste. As I make my comeback and look toward achieving my goals, I’m excited that Umii is on my side.”
Umii is planning a global brand, and has offices in Atlanta, New York, London, Manila, Moscow, Sydney, India, Mexico City, Vancouver, Hong Kong, and Sao Paolo. The company is really diving into the $300 billion sports drink market head first with such a huge international presence for a fledgling organization.
Evans, not surprisingly, is signed with the same PMG Sports agency that manages Torres.