The Danish sportswear brand hummel has been busy expanding its football sponsorship portfolio in the US, securing deals with two national teams and five clubs from the country’s second-tier league in the past three months.
The aim is to leverage football as a steppingstone to becoming a key player in the American market.
The last few years, hummel has been focusing specifically on penetrating the US market and now its strategy across the Atlantic is starting to yield significant results.
Within the first months of 2024, hummel’s aggressive approach to acquiring football sponsorship has secured five deals with clubs from the USL Championship, which ranks as the second-highest football league in the US.
The new sponsorships include teams such as El Paso Locomotive FC, Las Vegas Lights, and Orange County SC. Notably, hummel has also become the first non-Adidas brand to secure a deal with an MLS system club, Carolina Core. Furthermore, from 2024, the national teams of Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands will sport hummel’s iconic chevrons as well.
“Football gives us a unique opportunity to penetrate a market characterized by fierce competition. It’s through football that we can build our brand and create awareness around ourselves. So far, we’ve secured agreements with a quarter of the USL Championship clubs, clearly demonstrating our market approach,” says hummel’s CEO, Allan Vad Nielsen.
A spike in Football Interest
Allan Vad Nielsen emphasizes the importance of capitalizing the growing popularity of football within the US, especially considering recent investments in the sport and the upcoming FIFA World Cup in 2026, expected to significantly boost the sport’s profile in the country.
“With football icons like Messi in MLS and the upcoming World Cup, interest in soccer in the US will only increase in the coming years. Ultimately, the timing could not be better for hummel to establish ourselves as a key player in the market,” Allan Vad Nielsen states.
The hummel CEO makes no secret of hummel’s ambitious goals for the US market, in which the brand expects to triple its business by the end of 2028.
“Football will be our lever to establish ourselves in the market. As this development unfolds, we expect it to also benefit our other product categories within team sports and lifestyle, consequently continuing the positive growth we’ve experienced in the USA in recent years,” concludes Allan Vad Nielsen.
Hummel reports that the American market currently constitutes a smaller percentage of the brand’s total sales but opts not to disclose specific revenue figures.
