FIS and Athlete Sponsor Clash

 Red Bull has once again captured the attention of FIS President Johan Eliasch. Initially, the FIS enforced its logo regulations, prohibiting the use of the original Van Deer/Red Bull ski logo. Adhering to FIS rules, the logo underwent modification, wherein the red bull was substituted with the word “racing” in the shape of the bull’s silhouette. Now, the scrutiny of the FIS has shifted to the helmets of Marco Odermatt, Sofia Goggia and their peers.

As the Swiss daily newspaper “Blick” reports, the World Ski Association no longer wants to accept the Red Bull helmet design with the blue and silver-colored rectangles. The look is too similar to the classic design of the energy drink cans and is, therefore, an extension of the advertising space in the eyes of the FIS. According to the regulations, the athletes may claim a maximum advertising space of 50 square centimeters on the helmet. The “Blick” article warns athletes like Odermatt, Alice Robinson, Alexis Pinturault, Goggia, and Dominik Paris that using their traditional helmet design risks warnings, fines, and disqualification.

According to FIS, a design seen on Daron Rahlves’ helmet in 2003, 20 years later, causes “problems.” For the ski jumpers, the Austrian Andreas Goldberger has been protecting his head since 1995 with the  “can color design” without the FIS leaders worrying about it.

And what about Wendy Holdener’s current helmet design? This is strongly reminiscent of the mug with the chilled, caffeinated drink advertised by the lettering on the front. It’s not as if Red Bull is the first or currently the only company to have its “company colors” painted on the athletes’ helmets. 

There is, for example, the Uniqa blue helmet from Marco Schwarz, the Raiffeisen yellow helmet from Nina Ortlieb or Hermann Maier in the past, and the light blue or yellow BKW helmets used by Swiss Ski athletes. Color schemes such as Didier Cuche’s Ovaltine orange, Anna Veith’s purple Milka helmet, or the white and yellow Dr. Böhm helmets by Cornelia Hütter each provide color support for the company logo on the front that has become a trademark of athletes and is helpful for the TV viewer to identify racers.

Is it a coincidence that Red Bull, a strong partner for the athletes under their contract, has twice become the target of the new, seemingly absurd FIS logo and color theory within a short period? Or has the Austrian beverage manufacturer become too strong a player in the system for the FIS president, who would like to market “his” association centrally? Would the helmet design be a problem if the FIS made some money from it? For example, if Red Bull buys permission to approve the design with a considerable sum for the FIS coffers? This assumption might be obvious based on recent developments in Oberhofen.

The fact is that Red Bull is not only well represented in alpine ski racing but also in freestyle/ski cross (Fanny Smith), in snowboarding (Ester Ledecká) and in ski jumping (how about the pink painted helmets there?) and has repeatedly entered into current partnerships with athletes and has co-sponsored events. In any case, it is a highly clumsy move by the FIS president to act this way against sponsors who co-finance snow sports and actively support its protagonists. Eliasch would like to be able to pay the athletes in the non-world sport of skiing salaries that are customary in the world sport of tennis. With such schemes, the multimillionaire and former HEAD CEO will not achieve this undesirable utopian goal.

Diego Züger, co-director of Swiss Ski, made it clear in the reporting of “Blick”: “Nowhere in the regulations is there a clear prohibition that a helmet may not be equipped with the colors of a sponsor. That’s why, in recent years, there have been marketing experts from Milka, Helvetia, Ovaltine and Ricola, in addition to Red Bull in the ski circus, who have had their athletes paint the corresponding company’s colors on their helmets for advertising purposes and have thus claimed this gray area for decades.” Swiss Ski, according to Züger, clearly advocates that the sponsors continue to add color accents to the heads of their stars in the future.

Ultimately, this discussion about the new FIS sponsor color theory, started by Johan Eliasch, will not be limited to the helmet. Before Marco Odermatt, Michelle Gisin, Wendy Holdener and Co. got into the Levada racing outfits of Swiss Ski’s main sponsor, Sunrise, they wore the light blue, white and red Swisscom suits beginning the winter of 2009/10. These were a company logo, reaching from the collarbone/shoulder area to just above the ankle. The FIS would do well to tackle or even solve more urgent problems – namely climate change and financing of World Cup races – instead of unnecessarily raising (snow)dust with the association’s color theory.

Peter Gerber Plech, editor-in-chief of skinews.ch