As we are approaching January’s halfway point, the nostalgia from New Year celebrations is calming down. It is now time to look forward and do so by looking forward to one of the most anticipate events of the last few years. The Olympics. I, for one, am indifferent to this fortnight of sport. I honestly cannot make my mind up whether it is worth the billions of pounds of investment or if it will flop and embarrass the UK on the international stage. Whichever side you are on, the simple fact is that the Olympic games are going to happen and we are stuck with it. So what are we to expect? Well, a skip...

The latest piece of high-tech kit due to be issued to all British forces deploying to Helmand already has a nickname. It is known by the troops who have tested it as the “combat codpiece”. The name may be irreverent, but the intention behind the new piece of body armour is deadly serious: to protect soldiers’ most important piece of personal kit from blast injuries to the pelvic area caused by the Taliban’s roadside bombs. All those deploying to Helmand are already being issued with four pairs of special anti-blast underpants. They look like black cycling shorts, but are made...

The Royal Mint has won the contract to produce athletes’ medals for the London 2012 Olympics. The clutch of gold, silver and bronze medals will be produced at the Mint’s headquarters in Llantrisant, Rhondda Cynon Taf.   Around 4,700 medals are planned, although the final design will not be announced until next summer. Royal Mint’s chief operating officer Adam Lawrence described it as “great news” for Wales. berHe said the contract was a welcome development for the company’s 800 employees and its suppliers.   London 2012 chief executive Paul Deighton said:...

We love bespoke promotional products here, and we have noticed that Brylcreem has launched a limited-edition cricket-themed pack to coincide with the start of this winter’s Ashes Test series in Australia. While the men’s hairstyling brand is not an official sponsor of the England cricket team, batsman Kevin Pietersen has been the brand’s ‘Brylcreem Boy’ since last year. The red cricket ball-shaped tub, created by Echo, carries Pietersen’s signature and contains a new product called Brylcreem Paste. The variant will be on sale from 25 November, the day after the first Ashes Test match...

The latest selection of official London 2012 Olympic merchandise has been unveiled by the London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games.   Using the vibrant colours of the London Olympics logo, it ranges from clothing and ceramics to toys and pin badges. LOCOG also announced the list of suppliers such as Filofax, Touch of Ginger and Links of London.   Judging from what I’ve seen of the products, they look a lot more attractive then the initial marketing efforts of Wenlock and Mandeville.   Show your support for the British team by wearing their branded products which can be...

Promotional sportswear is big business in the corporate gift industry, having your school kids football team all kitted out with their own branded kits, will make them feel much more professional. Branded sports kits don’t come too much bigger then Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, who have agreed a shirt sponsorship deal, restricted to Premier League games, with software company Autonomy Corporation. The two-year deal, which begins from the start of the 2010/2011 season, will see the Autonomy brand feature on the Tottenham Hotspur shirt in Barclays Premier League matches. The football club said that...

If you’re a tennis fan, you’ll know doubt have enjoyed the spectacle of Roger Federer avoiding one of the biggest upsets in tennis history as he came from two sets down to beat Alejandro Falla at Wimbledon.   The defending champion came through 5-7 4-6 6-4 7-6 (7-1) 6-0 in an eye-brow raising opening match on Centre Court. Falla, the world number 60, served for the match at 5-4 in the fourth set, but top seed Federer found the strength from somewhere. “I definitely got very lucky out there,” a relieved Federer told BBC Sport after winning in three hours and 18 minutes to book a...

One of the most prized assets for sports teams is the name of their home ground, and a massive benefit for a sponsor to have its brand inserted in the name of a stadium hosting FIFA World Cup matches. Despite forking out an arm and a leg, not all commercial partners will get access to this massive global audience however.   When the Argentina v Nigeria game kicked off in Johannesburg’s Coca-Cola Park last Saturday, you won’t have heard the TV and radio commentators referring to the soft-drinks company as the stadium’s sponsor, and newspapers refrained from mentioning it in their match...

                          I can’t believe they have nothing better to do, but FIFA is investigating whether their sponsorship rights have been breached by a brand of English ale. Striker, made by Oxfordshire brewer Hook Norton, has been launched to coincide with the forthcoming football tournament. Promotional material claims it is ‘Brewed to celebrate the FIFA World Cup 2010. Supporting England’. A spokesman for FIFA said that citing the World Cup would ‘clearly go against our regulations’. I think it’s pretty obvious that the beer has no...

The world and his wife are aligning themselves with the World Cup, with some clever branding from a wide variety of businesses. The latest company to jump on the brandwagon is Nestle’s Kit Kat, who are to sponsor all the Sky World Cup coverage as part of the UK’s largest dedicated mobile campaign to date.   I don’t think Kit Kats play a major role in the player’s diets, but this hasn’t stopped the  six-figure deal, brokered by Mindshare, will see Kit Kat sponsor Sky’s World Cup coverage across iPhone, iPod Touch, Smart-phones and all other WAP-enabled mobile...