In what might have been a slip of the tongue, or in this case, the type, a corporate sponsorship brochure talking about Macron’s potential to retail to stores, as well as who their partners are had a unannounced one – Aston Villa.
Whilst it has been mooted in the press that Macron may well have been the manufacturer to succeed Nike’s current contract the brochure, which lists Aston Villa as a “Macron Team”, meaning they are the manufacturer of that team’s kit, is confirmation, albeit without the fanfare of a statement on the Aston Villa official site.
So Aston Villa have switched designer from global giant Nike to comparative minnow in the Italian based Macron. Given the fanfare and happiness associated with Villa’s partnership with Nike, which was eventually soured by kit manufacturing issues in the 2010-2011 season, it will be interesting to see how supporters take such a move. Kit manufacturer doesn’t, in all reality have an impact on fans per se, but the decision to move from Nike to Macron is still surely likely to be hotly debated.
The question is – with Macron taking over, and with the laxity of allowing their partnership slip in a corporate brochure, will this force the club to admit the partnership early? Or will things go on as if nothing has happened?
It’s not the first time Villa have seen a deal announced early with Genting’s sponsorship deal breaking early, as well as kit designs appearing on a sports manufacturer’s site for pre-order before designs had been shown officially.
What does it mean for the club? Is the regular silence at Villa Park regarding projects slowly breaking, even if unintentionally? Or are this mishaps just that – a sign that deals aren’t being kept as guarded as they should be?
Below is a visual snippet of the offending document, with Villa’s state starred, indicating that the current kit does not bear the Macron logo at this point.
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