Premium turbo trainer brand Kinetic has reported strong growth in international sales, resulting in the expansion of its athlete sponsorship efforts for 2014.
The expanded team sponsorship follows recently inked deals with high profile triathletes such as reigning Ironman 70.3 US Pro Champion Kevin Collington, and Ironman World Champion Frederik Van Lierde.
“It is very important for us to be involved in road and mountain bike racing, and riding at every level from enthusiasts to pro teams as we continue to grow,” said Kinetic Marketing Manager David Simpson. “With a range of well-established markets and smaller emerging markets to serve, we’ve worked closely with our European distribution partners to find the right balance of teams and individuals to support.”
Sponsorships are seen as a viable and effective tool for getting product into the hands of influencers as well as getting great product feedback from in field-testing. However, Kinetic notes that ‘sponsorship is simply another cog in the wheel of a well-executed marketing plan.’
For Kinetic, team sponsorship presents an opportunity to put the Kinetic brand in front of a broader audience. Race-day warm ups provide a good outdoor environment for what’s typically an indoor product and allows the company to reach consumers in a relaxed festive atmosphere.
“The hero worship surrounding professional teams and their athletes is hard to quantify, but it is definitely there with race fans and strongly corresponds with a brand’s image,” said Bruce Fina, Kinetic’s European Sales and Marketing Manager. “We’ve all done it, when we first got into the sport, checking out what the pros used to see what was cool and what we should buy. Unless you’re pretty jaded, a lot of us still do it even now as experienced cyclists.”
With those factors in mind, Kinetic chose to sponsor three UCI professional women’s road teams, one UCI professional continental men’s road team, five UCI continental men’s road teams, two cyclocross professional men’s teams, a Spanish UCI Elite U-23 development team, two professional mountain bike teams, and one Latvian top-10 ranked UCI world MTB marathon racer.
Kinetic’s team list is as follows:
UCI Pro Women’s Teams
USA: Team TIBCO Women’s Pro Cycling
Italy: Astana BePink Women’s Team
Spain: Team Lointek
UCI Pro Continental Men’s Teams
Team Novo Nordisk
UCI Continental Teams
USA: Jelly Belly
Austria: Team Vorarlberg
Germany: Team Stuttgart Pro Cycling – Stuttgart and KED Stevens Cycling Team – Berlin
Slovenia: Adria Mobil Pro Cycling Team
Other Professional Teams
Belgium: Telenet-Fidea Pro Cycling Team (Cyclocross)
USA: Cannondale p/b Cyclocrossworld.com (Cyclocross)
Spain: Construcciones Paulino Cycling Team (UCI Elite U-23 team)
Mountain Bike
USA: Team Topeak-Ergon and LUNA Chix Pro Team
Latvia: Dana Rozlapa
Professional triathletes
USA: Kevin Collington
Europe: Frederik Van Lierde
Kinetic is supporting the teams and their athletes with trainers and accessories including its Rock and Roll trainer, ‘the only trainer that simulates the feel of balancing and riding a bike outside on pavement’; plus Road Machine trainers, Riser Ring sand trainer mats.
Kinetic is known for its patented sealed fluid chamber with a magnetically coupled driveshaft design, ‘providing leak-proof performance and measurable and repeatable workloads with resistance from 5 to 2000+ watts.’
For 2014, the trainer line was redesigned to reduce overall trainer weight; rubber-over-plastic moulding was added to knobs and feet and a refined frame design allows all Kinetic trainers to fit up to 29 x 2.3″ tyre sizes. The company also offers the Kinetic Traxle, a 12mm thru axle replacement system to allow the popular new rear wheel standard to lock into trainer cone cups.
