adidas and Fitness First Middle East announce new partnership

adidas and Fitness First Middle East  today announced a five-year partnership, making adidas the official outfitter for the world-class fitness chain until 2016.

The comprehensive agreement between the global leading sports brand adidas and Fitness First Middle East, a franchise of the world’s number one health and fitness club chain and member of the Landmark Group, commences with immediate effect and extends to over 28 clubs in the UAE, Bahrain, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Jordan.  

As the official outfitter to Fitness First Middle East, adidas will supply innovative performance sportswear to personal trainers, GX Instructors and club staff.

“We are proud to announce a continuation of our partnership with Fitness First Middle East, an organisation that shares our commitment to help people across the Middle East push themselves to new limits and achieve their fitness objectives. Fitness First is a leading brand recognised globally for its world-class facilities, services and innovative concepts that make it an ideal partner,” said Jad Chouman, Head of Marketing, Emerging Markets, adidas.

Speaking on the new agreement, Mark Botha, Sales and Marketing Director, Fitness First Middle East said: “We welcome the long-term support of adidas, a global leader in sport products and a company with a proud heritage in helping athletes reach their full potential with performance technologies. This agreement symbolises the mutual respect and future ambition of adidas and Fitness First Middle East. Our collaboration will offer the very best training experience for fitness enthusiasts across the Middle East.”

The announcement coincides with adidas’ launch of training-specific products that have been developed and tested in collaboration with world-class athletes to provide comfort, functionality and style in performance.

adidas is set to launch women’s and men’s training spring/summer 2012 collection across the Middle East. The women’s collection focuses on dance-inspired ClimaCool training, featuring the leading body temperature control technology ClimaCool^® to provide outstanding breathability and moisture management.

This season, both the women’s and men’s training collections focus on boxing-inspired training apparel and footwear. The collections are also supported by the adizero range of lightweight footwear, which includes breathable sprint-web technology that moves as part of the athlete’s body in motion.

Jad Chouman added: “Our association with the largest fitness chain in the region at a time of rapid growth will allow us to further strengthen and extend our market leadership in training. adidas is continuing to set new standards in innovative and ground-breaking performance products. It is, therefore, fitting that the professionals from Fitness First will be able to train while wearing the latest range of performance-enhancing adidas products.”

The Fitness First agreement builds further upon the commitment of adidas to the Middle East through a range of local partnerships as official suppliers to regional athletes, clubs and sporting events that include Al Jazira FC UAE, the Dubai Standard Marathon and RAK Half Marathon - Esport Clark Francis Academy, UAE and MeFit Pro UAE, to name but a few.

As part of an expansion plan, Fitness First Middle East aims to increase its network of branches to 34 clubs across the region by July 2012. The chain offers world class facilities including state-of-the-art equipment, a dedicated free weights area, personal training by world-class fitness professionals, intensive weight loss programmes, free group exercise classes and multiple membership privileges across all its all locations.