Kappa to supply Jamaican football team
The Jamaica Football Federation (JFF) has announced a significant new kit deal with Italian sportswear brand Kappa. The deal, which is worth around $2 million, will see Kappa supply the playing strips worn by the Jamaican men’s national football team, known as the Reggae Boyz, leading up to, and potentially including, the 2014 Fifa World Cup finals in Brazil.
While Kappa will also supply kit to the country’s other eight national teams, both male and female, for the three-year duration of the deal, an added incentive of $350,000 is available if the men’s team qualifies for the finals in 2014. Kappa previously supplied kit to the team between 2008 and 2010 under an agreement valued at $1.7 million, according to the Jamaica Observer. Kappa's sports sponsorship manager Paulo Fulgenzi told the newspaper that the brand’s decision to sign a new deal was late in coming due to both parties having to “take our time in working out the detail".
"It took us one year to make a decision, not because we were not interested, but more because this project is so important to the president who is very hands-on when it comes to the Jamaica project,” said Mr Fulgenzi. “The Reggae Boyz brand is very marketable and this is why we have decided to go with it again... we're staying because it's a good link with our brand and the story of Jamaica.” The new Kappa-designed playing strip is set to be unveiled in April in time for Jamaica’s first World Cup qualifier against Guatemala on 8 June, 2012.
