XanGo Re-ups
At a press conference this afternoon executives from both Real Salt Lake and XanGo announced the extension of XanGo’s jersey-front sponsorship through the 2013 Major League Soccer season. When first announced in 2006, the partnership between the two local Utah brands marked the first of its kind in U.S. major league sports and proved to be a trendsetter, with multiple MLS team’s soon following suit and picking up jersey-front sponsors.
As an added bonus to the event, we were able to unveil a prototype of the 2010 RSL/adidas kit featuring the XanGo logo. Peep it below. It’s pretty slick if you ask us…
For more details of the XanGo deal and its different facets (and one more special photo), take the jump below and check out our official press release…
SANDY, Utah (Wednesday, July 8, 2009) – Real Salt Lake and XanGo, LLC announced today a three-year renewal of the Major League Soccer club’s historic title jersey-front sponsorship; financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. The original contract, announced in November, 2006, made history in being the first jersey-front sponsorship in U.S professional sports. Since that time, several other MLS clubs have announced similar partnerships with major global brands.
With the renewal of the jersey-front sponsorship between these two growing Utah entities, Real Salt Lake expressed its appreciation for XanGo’s ongoing commitment to the club and the game of soccer. The current 2009 campaign marks the third season that the XanGo brand has been emblazoned across the front of Real Salt Lake’s home and away jerseys, a partnership that has spanned the entirety of RSL Head Coach Jason Kreis’ tenure on the sideline, the opening of RSL’s new Rio Tinto Stadium home in Sandy last October, and the clinching of the team’s first-ever playoff berth shortly thereafter.
“We are very pleased to continue our partnership with XanGo, and to represent their brand on our jersey through the 2013 season,” said Real Salt Lake and Rio Tinto Stadium President Bill Manning. “XanGo is a great asset to the Utah business community and we appreciate their continued support of our organization.”
Utah-based XanGo is the recognized creator and international market leader in the health and wellness from the mangosteen, a prized fruit from Southeast Asia. XanGo’s multi-year deal with Real Salt Lake includes signage and promotional opportunities at the world-class Rio Tinto Stadium, the continuation of the annual XanGo Cup international exhibition contest each summer, and representation on select adidas/RSL training and off-field gear to promote the XanGo/RSL partnership.
“As a global company that prides itself in innovation, XanGo is very pleased to have joined Real Salt Lake in this partnership as the first jersey-front sponsors in U.S. professional sports, and we are happy to see other major brands follow our lead and support soccer in North America,” said XanGo Founder/Board Member Gordon Morton. “This partnership is ideal for XanGo and our global brand in the sense that our brand goes wherever the team plays and that soccer is the world’s game. We promise that XanGo and its more than one million Distributors worldwide will continue to support Real Salt Lake both at home and abroad.”
Real Salt Lake and XanGo will continue to be synonymous with the outstanding roster of international soccer events heading to Rio Tinto Stadium, beginning with the fourth annual edition of the XanGo Cup this Saturday, July 11, against Mexico’s Club América. The “Summer of Soccer” in Sandy continues in three weeks’ time with the 2009 MLS All-Star Game on Wednesday, July 29, and concludes on Labor Day weekend with the U.S. Men’s National Team’s World Cup Qualifier against El Salvador on Saturday, Sept. 5.
08 Jul 2009 RSL HQ
that better not be the new strip because it’s bloody ugly.
key word prototype LOTS of room to improve the kit
PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE LET THIS NOT BE THE NEW JERSEY.
The sleeves are terribly messy and far from classy. Tell the marketing people to keep it simple.
Adding crazy sleeves is not a way to keep the teams image contemporary. These kits will be out of date fast. Thoughtful simple designs will always be in style. Look at Arsenals kits.
I BEG OF YOU let the designers listen to the FANS not the MARKETING STAFF!
Thanks XANGO for keeping your logo clean and simple making RSL lucky enough to have a good shirt sponsor. I’m glad we don’t have to have a company like Amigo Energy on our chests.
Yuck. (The jersey, not xango). Please tell me this “prototype” is not the final design.
Current jerseys are much better than this.
Why not copy the Spanish MNT kits from the Confed Cup. Those were pretty sick
Ditch the yellow line and the yellow collar and i’m game. That red is a much better shade though.
ARGYLE!!!!!
keep this years jerseys!!! the new protoype stinks!!
This New Jersey reminds me of NEW JERSEY……..Blah
SJ - Real’s first jersey was actually a rip off of Spain’s MNT jersey.
i hate the red shade.
i hate the blue ‘pad’ looking things.
i hate the stupid yellow stripe.
can we just keep this years kit? they are SOOO good looking, and this is a step in the wrong direction.
the only good parts of this jersey is the RSL crest–assuming its like the patch on this years, and not that crappy iron on fuzzy thing from a few years ago–and the XANGO logo.
we haven’t been great on the pitch, can we at least look good?
i like it?
Best jersey ever!!!
I’m glad to see “prototype” because that kit is horrible.
Watchmaker pointed out “Real’s first jersey was actually a rip off of Spain’s MNT jersey.”
It’d be sad not to have originality, but that would be a much better route than that shirt.
Come on we are ReAL Salt Lake guys! I wont say anything other than we can improve on that
Still not bad to throw ideas out there.
Great to see Xango sign-up for another three years. The prototype kit, however, is hideous. Please do not make this the official kit next year. If it is I will NOT be buying one.
Adidas only makes 4-5 main kit designs a year and most often they are just revamps of previous versions, actually Nike does the same thing.
It could be oh so much worse, have you seen the red bull kits? This isn’t a bad kit, I would lose the stripes on the long sleeves but other than that I am OK with it. It does have a cool gold crown on the back of the neck.
I do think a third kit is a must do an I would go with a blue kit based on the current spain kit.
New tops please!!! Sorry, but this is horrible looking…would be nice to get some new colors too.
these new kits are pretty lame… I say a simple color with any added colors in the stitching and adidas stripes… maybe the red with blue stitching, or white with red stitching.. This new one has some pretty ugly sleeves.. I will be happy to wear my current jersey next year rather than buy this peice of …..
I like the new uniforms
i would like to see the uniforms worn before i make my opinion.
Re SJ:
Houston currently uses the same jersey as Spain. Additionally, many keepers (including Stefan Frei) use that jersey as well.
I would like to thank the marketing team and jersey designers for making a kit that will truly make our team look like clowns. Honestly, that is all you have to show for two years work? Really?!! I expected better… I’ve boughten every jersey up to this point (including the green jersey), but I can’t force myself to buy that fugly thing.
The first big picture I dont like the jersey at all but the other picture of the jersey is kind of growing on me. I like it. Now I am not saying that there is no room for improvement, cause it could look better, but it is growing on me.
i still hate in. if it isn’t broken don’t fix it. if this is the prototype i’d hate to see the real thing, i don’t think it can be much better. these are the same idiots that thought the NYRB and now chelsea kits are cool(are the footballers going cycling after the match?)
the league and Adidas are on 18-24 month product cycles, they will not keep a jersey longer than that. It is a smart business decsion, simply put they design 4-5 templates and then adjust colors to them.
If this is the design and you don’t like it don’t buy it. I personally have only one thing (a t-shirt) that has Xango on it because I think the league and team should chose from legitimate businesses not multi-level marketing firms that are very much like pyramid schemes. I would also like to see a real brand name product vs. something that has everyone who sees it asking what the hell is a xango.
The team isn’t going and should not change their colors, colors in sports are as important of a branding tool as the team name is.
I am just amazed at how negative so many fans are, my god it is just plain sad to see so many people just want to bitch, whine, complain, and do nothing but tear down.
how about this each of you who don’t like the jersey, pick an Adidas design you would like, or better yet design a great jersey and sell the template to Adidas.
I would suggest you wait to see it in person before casting judgement, I would also suggest seeing the short sleeved version before getting your knickers in a wad over it.
PLEASE go with the AC Milan styled Adidas kits, they are simple and would be very good looking with our colors (btw, only use 2 main colors, why do we force all 3 into our kits when they dont blend well?)
if we have to go with this style, the first obvious fix is that yellow stripe thing that looks like someone took a piss on you then you stood up.
The next would be to fix the blue things on the sleeves, wtf is that?
This has the possibility of being nice, but has a lot of work to do
oh, and where is Olave?
i rather like the kit! call me crazy but i think a mostly blue kit would be sweet. cant wait to see what the final product is.
15 to 32, it appears that there is an extra arm between Andy and Espindola; it looks like he is behind Andy.
And the jersey is still ugly.
(All of this is for denz)…FYI…NO ONE WANTS US TO CHANGE OUR COLORS! WE ALL ARE FINE WITH RED AND BLUE! we only want to use the colors better!
and as for the kit itself…adidas has more than this one design, and i am sure that they don’t tell RSL which design they MUST use. and in their set of “approved” mls kits, one of them certainly is better looking than this work of “art”
now…let us bitch and moan and whine! what is it to you if we do? so we don’t like this, and we’re giving our opinion. big deal. you like it. great. some of us dont.
most of your post is nothing but complaining about fans complaining. and the odd thing, is that most of your complaints about our complaints are about things we haven’t even “complained” about. (did that make sense?)
im just saying, let us have our moment, okay? because the reality is that even if the FO reads this, they are likely going to say, ‘meh’, and make them anyway. so give us a moment. let us bitch, and whine. because we’re gonna have to deal with these tops for the next 24 months. it will make us feel just a small bit better.
f4denz,
We have every right to complain; we have all invested a lot of time, energy, money, and our emotional well-being into Real Salt Lake. I am really irritated because the team I avidly follow is going to look like 10 clowns running around on the field in this shirt, and I would really rather our jersey look better than this one. We are all just as entitled to our opinions (and the right to express them) as you are.
Again, I really don’t like this design. I could design all the jerseys I want, and even if Adidas bought one it would not make THIS jersey any better looking. I don’t think anybody has a problem with our team colors (I am not even sure where you got that idea) and I am not at all opposed to the idea that they are getting a new design; I am just opposed to this design. Especially when the design we have now is really sharp.
“I am just amazed at how negative” YOU are. I see you bitching about everyone expressing their own opinion much more often than I ever see another single person complaining about anything else. It really seems like you favorite thing to do is come on here and make blanket negative statements about how negative everyone else is.
Please FO, at least tell us as quickly as you can whether this design is just a prototype or if this is the final design. I understand you might not be able to say anything about it right now, but the more time those of us who don’t like it have to get used to it the better. And for that matter, it might just increase the number of current jerseys you sell.
Don’t like the design either; change it
The shirt is awful….but if you get rid of those DAMN POLES in the South End you can go with those ugly shirts!
I don’t really like the ket. I agree with the people talking about simple is better. It really is. I wouldn’t mind going to a kit styled after Milan. I love those kits.
Judge… AMEN! Right now I can’t see the players anyway. You can wear whatever you want as long as I can see you.
I’ve never liked the color scheme in the first place, if I ever get a jersey it will definitely be in road white.
I love our team colors. I love our current jerseys. I don’t think they could be better. I don’t like the prototype jersey. I think it’s very ugly. Could the fact that I like the current jersey as much as I do be influencing my opinion of the new jersey. Certainly. I didn’t realize that would mean I am such an enormously negative person.
I really enjoy reading your blog f4denz, but I think you’re overreacting with your statements above.
Why does everyone complain about Xango? Regardless of its structure if you want it to be someone different go talk to your friend who owns a motorcycle shop, or any other business have them write the check for millions and millions of dollars then help with a practice field, who cares if you can’t buy it in stores and nobody knows about the product its called ADVERTISING for a reason as for the kit did you see the prototype for the original jersey not many people did, but if you were one of the unlucky few to see that you will understand that it will be changed prior to next year. Damn there is nothing wrong with change here and there let’s worry about our team come on right now the playoffs might be a reach unless the other western teams start to choke next years kits are not that big of an issue!!!
Okay, there not as bad as I initially thought. Maybe switch the blue stripes/armband with gold and it’ll look better.