Fulham Football Club has today announced a major new sponsorship deal with the leading French sports brand Airness, which will see its players wearing an exciting new football kit from the beginning of the 2006/2007 season.
Airness, one of the fastest growing sports brands in France, was established by an ambitious French designer in 1999. The marque of Airness has as its logo an alert panther which is synonymous with the motto of the brand 'Toujours plus haut, toujours plus fort' - 'Always higher, always stronger'.
Airness is a leading kit supplier of football teams in French Ligue 1 including Nantes, Lille and Rennes as well as manufacturing kit for Portuguese side Boavista and Genk from Belgium. It is also official kit manufacturer to African national teams DR Congo, Guinea and Mali.
Currently with a turnover of around £65m per annum for clothing alone, Airness is eager to establish itself in the UK market and fortify its ambition as being a serious contender within the established sports kit manufacturers sector.
The three year kit deal, the biggest in the Club's history, will deliver an innovative quality product combined with exciting French design to meet the needs of the players and supporters. Designs for the new kit will be released at the end of the 2005/6 season and will continue to sport the logo of Fulham's official main team sponsor, PIPEX.
David McNally, Fulham Football Club's Managing Director commented:
"This is a particularly exciting deal for the Club from both a commercial and consumer perspective. Airness is an ambitious brand which focuses on quality for the clubs it supplies and also for supporters of those clubs."
"This is a significant time in Fulham Football Club's history with major investment being made on the pitch and also at Craven Cottage to enhance facilities and provide a best in class service to our fans. This deal signifies further improvements to the merchandise that we can offer our supporters, and obviously, will provide the best possible product to our First Team squad."
"Therefore I am more than delighted to welcome Airness to Fulham and look forward to a long and prosperous future together."
Airness Founder, Malamine Kone added:
"It is a real honour for me to associate the image and the combativeness of the Airness Panther to a young, ambitious and dynamic team like Fulham FC."