Sponsors battle in Sudirman Cup: Lin Dan and Denmark team

‍‍The Sudirman Cup is underway in Dongguan city in Guangzhou. Two special cases of sponsorship attracted people’s attention. 

One is Lin Dan’s endorsements in relation with Japanese brand Yonex and Chinese brand Li-Ning. The other one is Denmark national team’s sponsorship with two cookie brands. The difference between the two is that Lin Dan gets both endorsements while the latter one only gets one sponsor.

Lin Dan was offcially sponsored by Yonex earlier this year, but as a player of the China national team, he must use equipments of Li-Ning, the official sponsor of Chinese national team when playing for the country. His Yonex contract was reported to be RMB100m which lasts 10 years. As a result, at the Sudirman Cup, people saw Lin Dan changing uniforms of the two brands constantly. 

Players of the Denmark national team are not as lucky. The official sponsor of Denmark team is the cookie brand, Danisa, which prints its logo on the front of the team’s uniforms. However, less than one month before the event, five players were removed from the roster, because their sponsors were a different Danish cookie brand. The sudden change of players led to a younger roster at Sudirman Cup. In the end, the sponsor is safe. 

Denmark national team signed agreement with the cookie brand in February. According to the CEO of the cookie brand who was present at a press conference at the event, the brand aims to further exploit the Chinese market, and regards badminton to be a very suitable sport as it is one of the strong sports of China. 

Source: NetEase