State of the Nation: Sports

Good sports

From the racetrack through to the UFC ring, the first part of 2022 has proved to be a busy time in the licensed sports category. LSB rounds up some of the latest highlights.

Inset: The deal allows authentic, race-used memorabilia to be sold through www.f1authentics.com. Below: The countdown is on to the Rugby World Cup 2023. Below left: New Era is backing France Rugby with the new collection.

New Era on board with France Rugby

IMG and France Rugby have launched an initial collection with global leader in lifestyle and sports headwear, New Era. The line features France Rugby’s iconic blue, white and red logo across five pieces of merchandise, with bestseller Blue NEW ERA Heritage 9Forty. Available online through the France Rugby and New Era official websites, prices range from €22 to €33. A new collection with New Era will be released shortly.

RWC 2023 heads online

Ahead of the Rugby World Cup 2023 tournament taking place in France, its online store has launched, through deals brokered by IMG. The website features official products for the major sports competition including supporter ranges, with new products available on a regular basis and product offering increasing leading up to the tournament.

The Memento Group lines up with McLaren Racing

Sports licensing, retail and memorabilia business, The Memento Group has confirmed a new multi-year licensing deal with Formula 1 team, McLaren Racing. The deal allows authentic, race-used memorabilia to be sold through www.f1authentics.com – F1’s official memorabilia platform. The multi-year licence agreement will extend the relationship between McLaren Racing and The Memento Group until the end of the 2024 F1 season and is the largest commitment the F1 team has made to date to the F1 Authentics ecommerce platform. Under the terms of the agreement McLaren Racing will release official components and bodywork for the first time, alongside heritage items and racewear pieces that have been available on F1 Authentics since 2019.

Fanatics body slams in with WWE

WWE and Fanatics have confirmed a long-term sports and entertainment partnership across ecommerce, licensed merchandise, trading cards and NFTs. This summer will see Fanatics exclusively re-introduce a new ecommerce and mobile destination – WWE Shop – giving fans access to an assortment of merchandise across all categories including apparel, hard goods (such as title belts), headwear and accessories. In addition, Fanatics Collectibles – the company’s trading cards and collectables division – will also become the exclusive provider of licensed WWE physical and digital trading cards, which will bear the Topps logo. Also under the pact, later this year Fanatics’ next generation digital collectables company, Candy Digital, will become one of WWE’s primary NFT partners.

Le Mans movie marks 50 years

In celebration of the 50th anniversary of the movie Le Mans (1971), 24 Hours Le Mans has launched a dualbranded leather collection by Classic Legend Motors with Steve McQueen and Le Mans, in a deal brokered by IMG.

Available in Europe, UK, Switzerland, US and Japan, best sellers include the weekend bags and jackets among the global collection of leather products.

Below: José Mourinho is on board as Topps’ EURO Ambassador.

Topps scores with UEFA Euro 2024

The Topps Company has confirmed its partnership with UEFA as an official licensed partner of UEFA Euro 2024. Topps will now be the exclusive partner, providing official stickers, trading cards and collectables connected to the UEFA EURO and other UEFA national team competitions. Already the official partner of the UEFA Champions League and all other UEFA club competitions, Topps and UEFA will also now team up on UEFA EURO 2024, UEFA EURO 2028 and other UEFA national team competitions including the UEFA Nations League Finals and the UEFA Women’s EURO 2025. To help announce the partnership, Topps – which earlier this year became part of Fanatics - signed José Mourinho as its EURO Ambassador to personally select the players which will be included in the Topps collections. In a humorous campaign film #TheSpecialSelection, José is presented as the official Sticker Manager of all the national teams for Topps and the Road to UEFA EURO 2024 collections. First and exclusive products will be released in summer 2022.

Tokyo Time gets ahead with UFC

British headwear brand Tokyo Time has secured an official long-term headwear partnership with the UFC. The new collection will release three official ranges as part of the new partnership: Tokyo Time Heritage Pack, Tokyo Time Core Pack and Tokyo Time Retro Pack. The initial UFC range consists of a small line of headwear including caps, snapbacks and Beanies. “This huge partnership will allow us to showcase our products globally through the biggest and best fighting organisation in the world,” commented Paul Davison, ceo of Tokyo Time. UFC returned to London in March after an absence of three years.

Poetic Brands rides in with Tour de France

Poetic Brands has secured a deal with Tour de France, to design a wide range of apparel based on the 119 year old epochal cycling race.

The new collection will comprise t-shirts, hoodies, sweats, beach wear, Above: The apparel line nightwear and underwear for will include motivational men and women. slogans such as ‘Allez!’

Designs for the new range use the instantly recognisable contrasting yellow and black logo, along with silhouettes of cyclists, motivational slogans such as ‘Allez!’, ‘La crème des crèmes’ and ‘Jaune d’esprit’, as well as key milestones from along the world famous race including Mont Ventoux, Iseran, Izoard and Le Galibier.

The deal was brokered by SGLP’s Simon Gresswell.