Article - Branded Sports Clothing & Your Team | XCO Group
29 Apr 2019
How Branded Sports Clothing Can Help to Promote Your Team’s Performance
Branded sports clothing is still one of the best ways to display a brand or a team identity, and to associate members from a particular team with each other. Imagine a rugby game without branded sports clothing. It would be complete chaos! Nobody would be able to tell what is going on and who is winning. But this is not the only reason why branded sports attire is used. Most sports apparel is branded for a particular reason: it is because it is so highly effective at gaining visibility of a brand, especially when television coverage or social media is involved.
This is how it works: one of the main objectives of any marketing strategy is to get the brand noticed by the relevant target market. Sports personalities are often sponsored by related brands that include deodorant, face washes, hair products, shoes and trainers, energy drinks, and even sweets! Sponsors know that whenever a team steps onto the field or the court in their branded clothing, it will get noticed.
The science behind this is that brand visibility causes brand recognition. This means that the potential customer will be familiar with the brand. Brand familiarity, in turn, becomes a great weapon in the market place because studies have proven over and over again that when someone is familiar with a brand, even if they have never used it before, it becomes their first choice when they need something. If the product, service, or brand is good enough, it encourages brand loyalty, which means repeat sales and lots of money.
But enough about the marketing jargon. Let us get back to the actual sportspeople and how their performance is affected by wearing branded attire. Here are some of the ways branded attire can actually enhance the performance of an athlete or a team.
All athletic people belong to a team in some way or another. Whether it is an individual race at a provincial level, or a team that represents a particular country, there is one thing they have in common: they wear branded clothing that identifies them with a particular entity. This encourages pride in the representation of that particular entity – whether it is a team or a country. Someone wearing provincial colours will be representative of that province, and inevitably be proud to represent that entity. This means that they will do their best to elevate the status of that particular entity or team, so emotional bonds are increased. This inspires them to do their best for the common goal, and that is usually to win!
Another way in which branded clothing can enhance the performance of athletes is to wear a particular design that enables them to perform better. Think, for instance, of rugby jerseys. In previous decades, heavy, wool, or cotton jerseys were worn by the players, even on hot days. This impaired performance because players overheated and got dehydrated very quickly. Tennis, for instance, has changed face completely. What men and women (in particular) wear on the tennis court nowadays is specifically designed to enhance comfort while promoting performance. It is simply impossible to perform at peak levels if the clothing is badly designed, too hot, too cold, or too restrictive.
This is where XCO Group comes in. Not only are we on top of the latest design and fabric trends, but we go well beyond the usual t-shirt and golf shirt. We design and manufacture high-quality attire for specific uses and environments, and as a result, we can help your team to perform better when they are wearing our attire.
We also specialise in creative branding, which means that your sports personalities or teams will be proud to display their branded attire during the event, and even afterwards! If you would like to find out more about how we can help your team to perform better with specifically designed attire, give our consultants a call today!