The European Professional Club Rugby (EPCR) club competition organizing body has struck a deal with Italian sportswear brand Macron.
Through a tie-up unveiled today, Macron is now the technical apparel partner for the 24-team Champions Cup and 18-side Challenge Cup pan-European tournaments run by EPCR.
The agreement begins with the upcoming 2024-25 season of those competitions, which both get underway in early December.
Macron will provide kit for the 300+ EPCR match officials, as well as staff apparel, and merchandise lines covering the Champions Cup, Challenge Cup, and the finals of both. This fan merchandise will be released from the online EPCR store.
The EPCR’s most recent kit supply partner has been Kappa, with the last deal between those two announced in late 2022 - this has been valued by GlobalData as being worth $1.5 million overall. The original tie-up, meanwhile, came in 2019.
This deal adds to Macron’s extensive stable of rugby tie-ups, including with organizations such as World Rugby, as well as the sport’s governing bodies in Scotland, Wales, and Italy.
Other EPCR major commercial partners include title sponsor Investec, alongside brands such as Heineken, DHL, Tissot, Gilbert, Macron, and Qatar Airways.
In terms of its recent sports sponsorship activity, earlier this month Macron was announced as the sports equipment partner of Concacaf, soccer’s governing body across North America, Central America, and the Caribbean.
That deal runs for the next six and a half years, through 2030, and represents Macron’s first tie-up with a FIFA regional confederation.
