The Olympic Federation of Ireland has announced a renewed partnership with Irish sportswear wholesaler McKeever Sports to supply Team Ireland athlete’s product for the Olympic Games in Tokyo 2020.
The partnership will see McKeever Sports provide a range of adidas products that the Team Ireland athletes helped finalise the designs for utilising the adidas mi Team portal.
In 2019 McKeever Sports supplied a range of adidas training apparel, village and competition wear for Team Ireland athletes who competed at the European Games in Minsk, the European Youth Olympic Festival in Baku, the ANOC World Beach Games in Doha, and this year’s Winter Youth Olympic Festival in Lausanne.
Adidas has a long history of involvement at the Olympic Games with iconic moments including Jesse Owens in Berlin, Emil Zatopek, Nadia Comaneci and Daley Thompson all competing in the famous three stripes logo.
The brand was a major sponsor at the London 2012 games and was reported to made made a sales leap of £150 million in the UK following on from a £100 million investment.
It is still the official partner of Team GB going into the Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games.
Under Armour was Team Ireland’s most recent partner for international Paralympic competition.
The Olympic Games in Tokyo will see a team of up to 80 athletes compete across up to twenty sports, with 46 athlete spots already secured in ten sports.
The final stages of garment and colour choices saw input from Gymnast Rhys McClenaghan, Modern Pentathlete Natalya Coyle, Hockey Player Hannah Matthews and Race Walker Brendan Boyce on the adidas products that will be worn by their teammates.
“We are delighted to renew our partnership with McKeever Sports for 2020 and to announce that Team Ireland athletes will be once again wearing adidas,” said peter Sherrard, CEO of the Olympic Federation of Ireland.
“It has been a pleasure working with Padraic and the team over the past twelve months, and their attention and commitment to Team Ireland has been tremendous. We look forward to continuing to work together and to strengthen what is already a successful relationship.”
“Being involved with Team Ireland for the worlds biggest sporting event is an amazing opportunity for McKeever Sports and one we wish to deliver at the highest levels of service,” added Padraic McKeever, Managing Director of McKeever Sports.
“Our expertise in delivering high-quality product to Team Ireland coupled with the talent and dedication of the Athletes and staff will hopefully prove a winning formula in Tokyo this summer.”
“Naturally we place a great deal of importance around our team apparel both in terms of performance and identity,” said Deputy Chef for Team Ireland Gavin Noble.
“Thanks to our strong relationships with McKeever Sports we are able to kit Team Ireland athletes out to the highest level in an iconic brand. Importantly too, we are including our athletes as part of the decision-making process so that their voice is heard in terms of design, function and fit.”
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Image Credit: Dan Sheridan, Inpho.ie
