One of Nigeria’s leading sportswear brand, OWU has been unveiled new kit sponsor of the Handball Federation of Nigeria. Speaking at the unveiling in Lagos on Thursday, CEO OWU Sportswear, Tunji Brown is elated to partner with the Handball Federation of Nigeria and described it as a huge milestone for the brand.
“When we were setting out, we said in six years of our first production we plan on kitting the Super Eagles to the Nations Cup which was like the one of four years ago. Coincidentally, four years down the line we have a national team label which is very laudable. We appreciate the Handball Federation for coming to partner with Owu.”
Brown persuaded the HFN to guide his brand as they are relatively new in kitting other sports aside football which is their familiar terrain.
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“We have Adidas, Nike, Umbro lately there is Under Armour but this one here is a Nigerian brand we are doing everything possible to make sure we get to that level because we are not there yet. So we stand to be guided in Handball if its football I can give you a long history because we are the number 1 brand in the Nigerian League,” Brown said.
“We kit 25% of the Nigeria Professional Football League clubs, 33.3% of Nigeria National League clubs and 30-40% of the amateur league. Don’t also forget our partnership with the Channels kids Cup for the past 8 years, the Shell Cup, NPFL All Stars in Spain three years ago. So if you put all that together you would understand we know what they want but for Handball, please come along with us and let us know what you want,” he requested.
In his response, President of the Handball Federation of Nigeria Sam Ocheho also described the new kit sponsorship as historic.
“I am proud to witness having a kit sponsor for our national league. I think that is something historic and remarkable for our national league so we should celebrate it.
“This jersey was worn by our team in Niger which we actually came back with a Gold and Silver and that is just the beginning of greater things to come and we can only improve from there and we don’t intend to go back.
The contract between the two parties is for an initial period of one year with an option to extend with no charges attached to kitting the Handball National teams. Ocheho explained what both parties stand to gain from the kit sponsorship.
“Owu is doing it for free because these are the days of our humble beginnings. We intend to take the brand to greater heights and we will be taking it to Europe. On the part of the Handball Federation of Nigeria, we are looking at it on the branding side because there are a lot of competitions we will be attending this year. First, we are taking OWU to Kosovo, Under-20 World Cup in Barcelona in July, Under-18 World Cup in Macedonia, and some other competitions in Tunisia, Niger, Morocco, Burkina Faso of course all these countries would start knowing OWU through handball.
“We have 22 teams in the league and everyone is entitled to two pairs of jerseys home and away in the two phases so that’s technically 4 pairs and OWU will handle all our jerseys that we will pay for while on one hand he is doing it free for the national teams. All the coaches, referees will be kitted by Owu,” said Ocheho
