MINNEAPOLIS (BRAIN) — Kurt Manufacturing's Kinetic trainer brand has expanded its athlete and team sponsorship program this year as international sales grow.
"It is very important for us to be involved in road and mountain bike racing, and riding at every level from enthusiasts to pro teams as we continue to grow," said Kinetic marketing manager David Simpson. "With a range of well-established markets and smaller emerging markets to serve, we've worked closely with our European distribution partners to find the right balance of teams and individuals to support."
Pre-race warmups on stationary trainers provide Kinetic with a marketing opportunity.
"The hero worship surrounding professional teams and their athletes is hard to quantify, but it is definitely there with race fans and strongly corresponds with a brand's image," said Bruce Fina, Kinetic's European sales and marketing manager. "We've all done it, when we first got into the sport, checking out what the pros used to see what was cool and what we should buy. Unless you're pretty jaded, a lot of us still do it even now as experienced cyclists."
Kinetic is sponsoring three UCI professional women's road teams, one UCI professional continental men's road team, five UCI continental men's road teams, two cyclocross professional men's teams, a Spanish UCI Elite U-23 development team, two professional mountain bike teams, and one Latvian top-10 ranked UCI world MTB marathon racer. The company also recently announced its sponsorship of two world champion triathletes.
Kinetic's team list is as follows:
UCI Pro Women's Teams
USA: Team TIBCO Women's Pro Cycling
Italy: Astana BePink Women's Team
Spain: Team Lointek
UCI Pro Continental Men's Teams
Team Novo Nordisk
UCI Continental Teams
USA: Jelly Belly
Austria: Team Vorarlberg
Germany: Team Stuttgart Pro Cycling - Stuttgart and KED Stevens Cycling Team - Berlin
Slovenia: Adria Mobil Pro Cycling Team
Other Professional Teams
Belgium: Telenet-Fidea Pro Cycling Team (Cyclocross)
USA: Cannondale p/b Cyclocrossworld.com (Cyclocross)
Spain: Construcciones Paulino Cycling Team (UCI Elite U-23 team)
Mountain Bike
USA: Team Topeak-Ergon and LUNA Chix Pro Team
Latvia: Dana Rozlapa
Professional Triathletes
USA: Kevin Collington
Europe: Frederik Van Lierde
