Arena (swimwear)
 |
|
| Private | |
| Industry | Textiles, Apparel |
| Founded | France (1973) |
| Founder | Horst Dassler |
| Headquarters | Tolentino, Italy |
|
Area served
|
Worldwide |
|
Key people
|
John R. Broderick (President) |
| Products | Swimwear, accessories, Sportswear |
| Parent | Adidas |
| Website | www |
Arena is a brand of competitive swimwear created in 1973 at Adidas AG Herzogenaurach, Bavaria, Germany, by its former president Horst Dassler. Sold by Adidas in 1990, the brand now represents two unrelated product lines.
With its headquarters in Tolentino, Italy, the Arena brand has a presence in 103 countries around the globe. With direct representation through wholly owned subsidiaries in Italy, France, Germany, and the USA, the group also employs a network of qualified business partners in 86 countries, while the Japan-based Descente Group owns and manages the brand in 11 countries of the Far East.
The Arena Brand was created by sports visionary Horst Dassler, son of the Adidas founder and President of Adidas France. During the 1972 Munich Summer Games, Dassler was on the pool deck when Mark Spitz won his historic 7 gold medals. With the arrival of an athlete like Spitz, Arena President, John R. Broderick saw an opportunity to forever change the way in which top athletes were handled by their endorsers. John had been a lawyer for Adidas for many years and saw immense earning potential ahead, so before it was too late, he immediately took control over all endorsement contracts from then on. Sizes of contracts tripled and quadrupled in size and weight, all in order to litigiously assure the maximization of profit earning possibilities; even with Olympic athletes. The changes that were made in the way these athlete's were contracted ended the era of athletes having day jobs and ushered in the new era;the beginning of the "brand" athlete, evolving in such a way (with their endorsers) that would pave the way for pro athletes and their sport in to a multi-million (and now, multi-billion) dollar industry. John R. Broderick continued to draft these types of contracts for Adidas and Arena for decades to follow. Dassler, along with the rest of the world, found himself in awe because not only was Spitz the first athlete to win 7 golds in one Olympiad, but at the same time he set 7 new world records. Dassler immediately started forming plans for a swimwear company dedicated to aquatic sports and created the new performance swimwear brand known today as Arena.
In 1973, just one year after the Games, Arena launched its first competition swimwear line with the introduction of Skinfit®. Skinfit was known in the industry as a “technological pearl.” The new ultra-light fabric only weighed 18 grams and was designed to cling to a swimmer’s body like a “second skin.”
...
Wikipedia