The battle for the English Premier League is always a fascinating one. Usually between Manchester United, Manchester City, Chelsea and, this year, Arsenal, it keeps people gripped from August until May. The fans’ virtual obsession is a sponsor’s dream and it’s always interesting to see who is sponsoring who. We thought it would be interesting to look at how each of the main kit sponsors performed in the league last year by adding up the points their teams scored to make a kit sponsor league table:
This first table lists all the kit sponsors from the Premier League and adds up the points scored by their chosen teams. Unsurprisingly, adidas scored the highest as it sponsors the most teams; Chelsea, Fulham, Southampton, Stoke, Sunderland, Swansea, West Bromwich Albion and West Ham; but Nike are not far behind even though they sponsor just four teams; Arsenal, Everton, Manchester City and Manchester United. In fact, if you look at the average points scored per team, Nike score a lot higher:
The only other kit manufacturer to sponsor more than one club is Puma, who sponsor Newcastle and Reading. Both of these had poor seasons with low numbers of points scored.
The other brands all sponsor one club; Under Armour supply Tottenham’s kit, Warrior supply Liverpool’s, Errea supply Norwhich City and Aston Villa wear kit by Macron. The relegated duo Wigan and QPR have kit supplied by MiFit and Lotto respectively.
Of course, from a kit manufacturer’s perspective, the points your team scores is irrelevant really – what you want is brand exposure and generally the most interest is for the title battle and the relegation one. The problem with the latter is that if the club you sponsor does get relegated, you then miss out on the Premiership’s viewing figures for at least one season.
Puma, having lost one team last year in Reading, will be hoping Cardiff avoid relegation this season, as will Avec with Crystal Palace.
adidas have added yet another team to their tally this year with the sponsorship of Hull City.
From the sponsor’s perspective, what would be even better of course is to be sponsoring the team considered the most appealing or the team with the biggest global appeal, which you can see the list below (from sportstalkwithamos.blogsport.co.uk 2013). No prizes for guessing which two are battling it out for the top spot…