Leading Russian sports retailer Sportmaster launches Sochi 2014 Olympic branded products
The Sochi 2014 official retail sales operator, Sportmaster, has started sales of products featuring the Olympic and Paralympic logo for the Sochi 2014 Games. Over 250 special departments containing official Sochi 2014 products have opened in the company's stores in 122 cities throughout the country. The departments will house an extremely wide range of licensed products for the Games including souvenirs, stationery and other licensed merchandise, a first for any Winter Games. Thanks to the new departments, high-quality licensed merchandise bearing the Olympic and Paralympic logo is going to be available to everyone in Russia, and also to those competing in or attending the Games in Sochi.
In the official Sochi 2014 merchandise departments, customers will be able to browse among official products bearing the logo for the 2014 Games: sleds, skis, snowboards, skates, ice-hockey sticks, pucks, balls and other sporting equipment. For the first time in Sportmaster's superstores - Sochi 2014 mascots, stationery, badges, children's toys, arts and crafts products, exercise books and plenty more besides will be available. In total, by the time of the Games in Sochi over 5,000 product lines of licensed merchandise are going to be launched, and the vast majority will be put on sale in the Official Sochi 2014 merchandise departments in the Sportmaster retail network.
The “patchwork quilt”, that features the cultural diversity of Russia, was used in the design of each official Sochi 2014 merchandise department. The area of each department depends on the overall area of each store, but on average it is approximately 50 sq. m. Thanks to the bright design, the departments are set to attract much attraction and will be easy to find thanks to special navigation.
The grand opening ceremony for the first official Sochi 2014 merchandise department, in one of Sportmaster's Moscow superstores, was attended by the President of the Sochi 2014 Organizing Committee, Dmitry Chernyshenko, the CEO of the sports product chain Sportmaster, Leonid Strakhov, double Olympic ice-hockey champions Vyacheslav Starshinov and Svetlana Masterkova, as well as prominent athletes and Sochi 2014 Ambassadors Olesya Vladykina and Olga Zavyalova.
The CEO of the Sportmaster sports retail chain, Leonid Strakhov, commented:
"Sportmaster is delighted by the development of its cooperation with the Sochi 2014 Organizing Committee, and by the fact that it has been given the honor of taking part in such a prestigious project as the Sochi 2014 Games. The opening of licensed Sochi 2014 merchandise departments in our superstores, throughout the country, is an important new branch of our activity aimed at developing the Olympic Movement, mass sport and a healthy lifestyle in Russia! We are sure that the licensed Sochi 2014 merchandise is going to be very popular among all Russians and visitors to our country. From our side, we are making every effort to popularize and promote licensed Sochi 2014 merchandise throughout the entire territory of Russia."
Notes to the editor
Effective organization of the sales of licensed merchandise during the period while the Games are being prepared and staged, in the territory of the Russian Federation, is being provided via the official retail sales operators.
In spring 2012 a licensing agreement was signed between the company Sportmaster and the Sochi 2014 Organizing Committee. Under this agreement, Sportmaster gained the status of the "Official retail sales operator for Sochi 2014” and the right to arrange sales of the whole line of licensed products for the Games. In addition to Sportmaster, agreements have also been signed with the largest federal retail network in terms of toy sales, OOO "TS Begemot Hypermarket", and Russia's largest automated sales operator, OOO "Yuvenko Invest", which have also been given the status of "Official retail sales operator for Sochi 2014".
One of the main tasks of the Sochi 2014 Organizing Committee's retail sales program is to distribute high-quality licensed merchandise bearing the logo for the Sochi 2014 Games, and to ensure that it is accessible to all Russians, and to all those attending or visiting the Games.
All licensed Sochi 2014 products are fitted with protection badges. Their authenticity can be checked by clicking on the following link http://brand-pro.goznak.ru/?l=ru
Sportmaster is the clear leader in sports retail in Russia and the CIS. In 2012, the company was listed among the top three largest European sports retailers, and it is also among the "Top 12" leading sports retail chains in the world.
The company Sportmaster has over 300 Sportmaster superstores, spread throughout all of Russia's federal regions, including shops that take a unique format: sports hypermarkets. Each year, the company's shops draw 100 million visitors, and the Sportmaster brand is the one that customers find most easy to identify, within the category "Sports shops". The range of products on sale in the shops contains all the main groups of products for sport and leisure: clothing, shoes, sports equipment, exercise equipment, and other products for active leisure, adapted to conditions in Russia.
In 2011 Sportmaster won a contest for the right to produce winter sports equipment featuring the Sochi 2014 logo. For the 2012-2013 season, a large number of products have been released for sports and winter leisure - snowboards, skis, tubing equipment, skates, ice-hockey sticks and plenty more besides. These products will be available for purchase in Sportmaster superstores.