The Finnish Sports Federation reported on the results of its brand work at the opening ceremony of the season. The color scheme, logo and brand name of the racing uniforms have been changed.
Mika Halonen,
STT Sports
On Wednesday, the Finnish Sports Confederation (SUL) organized its opening ceremony for the athletics season at the Olympic Stadium in Helsinki. In addition to interviewing a bunch of athletes, the Sports Federation presented the results of its brand renewal.
SUL has renewed the athletes’ outfits, brand name and logo. The national athletics team will receive new outfits for the Olympic and EC summer competitions, the look of which is in line with the new brand look. The light blue look has changed to a clearly darker blue.
– The values of the new brand are equality, togetherness and unstoppability. The mission is to make athletics a sport that activates Finland, said the president of SUL Riikka Pakarinen.
SUL has built a new brand strategy for athletics with advertising agency Avidly. Brand work started last fall.
– The goal of the brand renewal was to create a new comprehensive vision, mission and goal for athletics, which is communicated with a fresh and attention-grabbing visual look, stated the CEO of SUL’s marketing company Jari Töykkä.
Brand name and new logo
The SUL logo will go out of use and in the future only the Finnish Athletics logo will be used, or in English the Finnish Athletics logo. The purpose is to highlight Finnish athletics instead of the federation name.
– The official name of the association will not change. It remains the Finnish Sports Association. Finnish Athletics is a brand name that describes all of Finnish athletics. This is in line with the International Athletics Federation World Athletics and the European Athletics Federation European Athletics, says the CEO of SUL Harry Aalto.
A renewed brand background research on the image, strengths and weaknesses of athletics has been used for construction.
– We also conducted a public survey, to which approximately 2,000 Finns responded, Aalto said.
The new competition uniforms of the national athletics teams will be used for the first time at the World Para Athletics Championships in Kobe from 17 to 25. May.
The national athletics team has a cooperation agreement with its accessory partner and importer until 2028.
– The new brand look was finished in March, so the outfits have been made on a really fast schedule, Töykkä said.
The online store raises fan culture
In May, SUL will also open an online store whose products are designed to match the brand look.
– This is where the long-standing wish of athletics fans comes true. This is a great step forward in growing fan culture, Pakarinen is happy.
The fan merchandise store is a rare achievement in individual sports from the umbrella organization of the sport.
The selection of the online store includes, for example, a fan shirt of the national athletics team, on which you can find the names of the athletes of the Team Finland coaching group.
Up to 70 athletes for the European Championships
The Finns will compete diligently in the coming weeks. The EC ranking closes on May 26. Athletes aiming for the European Championships in Rome are now living the most important weeks of spring. Some are still aiming for the race limit or additional points for the EC championship.
– Athletes and coaches have the best idea of where to go. Others are waiting for the results of the games, because in the games it will be realized how successful the training season has been, the GM of the Sports Confederation Jani Tanskanen tightly.
Based on the national team camp in Tenerife, Tanskanen believes that the Finnish team is growing to the record level of the European Championships in Munich, i.e. more than 70 athletes.
– In the big picture, the situation is that the athletes’ spring training has gone quite well. The atmosphere at the camp was as it should be at this point in the season.
Finnish track and field athletes will compete fiercely for the next two and a half weeks. May 18–19 on the day the Nordic championships are contested in Malmö, where a team of up to 70 athletes is going. Ranking points can also be won at the domestic GP races on May 22 in Jyväskylä and May 24 in Lahti.
Finns also compete abroad almost every day. For example, moukari star Silja Kosonen will soon head to North America, to the Los Angeles and Eugene games.
– Let’s hope that the last week before the European Championship goes well. We also have to hope that these temperature differences will not cause too much harm to the athletes, Tanskanen regretted the coldness of the next few days.
The EC competitions in Rome will take place from 7th to 12th. June. The track and field events of the Paris Olympics will be contested from 1 to 11. August. shows the races on its channels.