Sportswear brand New Balance has developed a new advertising campaign specific to the Irish market promoting its partnership with Athletics Ireland as official kit supplier.
The campaign, titled #NewBreed will focus on stylised images of four of Ireland’s leading young athletes Thomas and Jessie Barr, Fionuala Britton and 2015 Junior Athlete of the Year Karl Griffin.
These are exciting times for Irish athletics as others including Mark English and Sarah Lavin have stepped forward to take the place as leaders following the retirements of previous World class performers such as Olive Loughnane, David Gillick and Derval O’Rourke.
World Champion Race Walker Rob Heffernan is the star attraction in the athletics camp but it is the strength in depth of those behind him that has prompted the latest campaign.
The visuals of the campaign aims to captures the dynamics of each athlete while the words across their kit have been chosen to identify a key psychological component in each.
These include “Your Limits are Limitless” on Thomas Barr in the image featured above; “Be the Hunter and the Hare” on Fionuala Britton; “Run the Race or the Race Runs You” on Jessie Barr and “The Zone is Beyond Your Comfort Zone” on Karl Griffin.
The average age of the Irish team at the recent European Athletics Championships in Zurich and Prague was 23 and the number of athletes hitting required standards to become part of the High Performance programme has increased this year by 35% from 87 to 118.
