Commercialism In Sports

Sports and Brands

Today the sports industry is a multi-billion dollar business and everyone knows that with hard work and potential you could walk into a world where your next sponsoring deal is just around the corner, but where does this whole industry have its roots?

Throwback to the 19th century: Sports like boxing or rowing had been around for decades. Professional boxing was even seen as a job but sports in general were not seen as serious as they are now. Amateurs and Professionals could take part in rowing championships.

Pierre de Coubertin, the reviver of the Olympic games was a big advocate of an “amateur idea”, he thought that by performing a sport professionally, those sportsman had an advantage to the amateurs. And that would

And in 1932 the DFB (Deutscher Fußball Bund) introduced professional football. Because of the steady growth more and more money had to be put in the sport. The Coaches, the players and the playing facilities: everything costs money. So the commercialism was inescapable.

At first the people were strongly against it since they felt as if the sportsman were not as hard working as the blue- and white collar workers, but the urge of the professionals to perform at a higher level made the professionals more excepted. But what did the commercialism mean? It meant that sporting events were used for not sports related reasons like advertising. By the professionalization of the sports, companies were needed which could supply the sportsman with the needed equipment, that’s when sports manufacturers started to

One group had kids from the age of 10 to 13 in it the other group was slightly younger. The kids were asked how important brands are to them for different kinds of products. In this survey they also asked the kids how important it is that their sports shoes were from a brand. 73% of the older group answered that it is important to them. That’s a really high number which shows just how much the brands have made their way into the sports industry. Looking back at the survey above you might say that 45,5% still don´t care that much about their sportswear being a brand product and it is like that. But what the kids survey shows is that kids from a young age are knowing more and more about the brands and in a few years the survey above will look a lot different. I mean just look at our school sports. I would be surprised if one person wouldn´t be wearing even one brand clothing. And there are many reasons why brands are