Simone Biles has just signed for a Gap affiliate. The Spanish rhythmic team, with its coach Alejandra Quereda, wears and receives the support of Inditex. The big fashion retailers have discovered the flank of the sport. An emerging market.
In Spain, 10,000 girls compete federated in the gymnastics sector, the most practiced sport among young women. It is confirmed by Jesús Carballo, president of the Spanish Gymnastics Federation.
The giants of the textile industry have broken into the sport with force and they have done it to stay. The american Simone Biles, five-time world champion and gold in Rio 2016, is the new image of Athleta, a brand of the American firm GAP, while in Spain, the national rhythmic gymnastics team prepares the next Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games with the Oysho brand, from the Inditex Group.
Simon Biles has been the last athlete to change the course of his sponsorship towards a multinational in the textile sector and follows the path marked by other great stars of world sports such as his compatriot Allyson Felix, who also joined Athleta in 2019 or like the Swiss Roger Federer who wears with the Japanese firm Uniqlo.
Jesús Carballo, president of the Spanish Gymnastics Federation, weighed the value of this sponsorship and the change in trend in the sports fashion market.
“The introduction of large textile companies such as GAP or Inditex in the sports market may be an upward trend for the next few years. In the end, These companies have been able to detect the image value of the athlete. People take more and more care of themselves, healthy living is in fashion and what better ambassador for your brand than an elite athlete “, he says.
“Oysho has perceived that with us. With the rhythmic gymnastics team that got the silver medal in Rio 2016, they made a great campaign at the international level, they crossed the borders of Spain and had an exceptional reception,” he adds.
For Carballo, the collaboration between Oysho and the Federation brought a breath of fresh air to the clothing of the Spanish rhythmic gymnastics team.
“Starting to work with Oysho meant for us, as a federation, a change of trend in the vision of sportswear. The Spanish teams used to wear official clothing, with the classic corporate image of the federations. Oysho, in this sense, what he did was implement a much more casual training kit. It renewed the image of our rhythmic gymnastics team, “he explains.
The president of the Federation values ”very positively” the agreement with the Inditex subsidiary that runs until the end of 2021 and points out that it represents a “win to win” for both parties.
“The truth is that Oysho has done a great job with us, they are great companies that promote healthy living, training and they have given us a lot of visibility. For them, the collaboration is also very powerful, since we are talking about the most practiced women’s sport in Spain, around 10,000 girls participate in national competitions of the Spanish Federation “, he indicates.
Finally, for the next Games, he points out that they will wear a fully lashed rhythmic gymnastics squad after silver in Rio and explains that the generational change, with the pandemic involved, “it has cost.”
“This sport requires years of preparation to be able to compete at the highest level. We have good prospects for the future, but we still need more training time,” he concludes.
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