
Can you give us some background on the brand?
Aqua Sphere was established in Italy in 1998 to deliver the highest quality innovative equipment to fitness and recreational swimmers and triathletes. Its revolutionary Seal mask set the standard in aquatic eyewear and laid down the brand’s reputation for innovation, a reputation that has amplified year on year as the brand has launched new goggles, regularly winning awards for comfort and vision.
The Aqua Sphere artillery now includes performance swimwear, aquatic fitness products and triathlon wetsuits. With quality and innovation always at its core, Aqua Sphere has won the respect and trust of swimmers in more than 90 countries and is now the fastest growing swim brand in the UK.
Who are the ranges aimed at?
Fitness and recreational swimmers of all ages and abilities, as well as triathletes of all abilities – from beginners to world class. Once people try Aqua Sphere they get hooked because they realise just how much top quality and leading technology can enhance their enjoyment of swimming.
At the end of the day, we are a team of people who are passionate about swimming and want everyone to feel safe and comfortable in the water. If you provide swimmers with the best possible comfort and performance, you’ve given them freedom – the freedom to enjoy their swimming without feeling restricted. That’s our aim with every product we create.
Key features and benefits
Our wide range of curved lens goggles deliver 180-degree panoramic vision – much wider than traditional goggles – are easy to fit and comfortable on the face. Our performance swimwear is beautiful, but it’s also designed to incorporate hi-tech attributes, offering swimmers a choice of technical fabric constructions and barrier properties that provide every variety of performance benefit.
Our triathlon wetsuits are designed in conjunction with top athletes to deliver exactly what triathletes need, creating a choice of suits that combine different levels of buoyancy and speed depending on ability and aspiration.
Tell us about your new partnership with Michael Phelps
We are incredibly proud to announce that Aqua Sphere has partnered with the world’s most decorated swimmer and his Hall of Fame coach Bob Bowman to launch a new global swim brand in competitive swimming. We are thrilled because all parties share the same vision – a desire to expand the sport of swimming and help more people to live healthy lives, encouraging them to feel more comfortable in the water and help improve their skills.
Aqua Sphere’s focus has always been to deliver comfort, performance and extraordinary vision to fitness swimmers, recreational swimmers and triathletes – and these core attributes should also be available to competitive swimmers. The new partnership is a superb opportunity to leverage Aqua Sphere’s impressive R&D and utilise Michael and Bob’s depth of experience at the highest level to develop a fresh new line of products for training and competitive swimming that are performance driven, but also comfort driven. Michael sums it up best when he says it’s: “The coolest opportunity that I’ve ever had.”
How will the new brand be positioned?
This will be a completely new line of Michael Phelps products – not an extension to the current Aqua Sphere line. Aqua Sphere will continue to develop and market innovative products for fitness swimmers and the new Michael Phelps brand will be focused on serving the competitive swim market. It’s a natural evolution, retaining Aqua Sphere’s core values while significantly enhancing our offering to the retailer. Both brands will be clearly marketed to effectively communicate their focus. It’s a perfect match of competencies and an opportunity for retailers to grow their swim sales.
Martin Newton is sales and marketing manager for Aqua Sphere UK.
For more information visit www.aquasphereswim.com or call 01254 692200.