KT Tape signs endorsement deal with USOC ahead of summer olympics

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – KT Tape and the United States Olympic Committee on Wednesday announced KT Tape as the official kinesiology tape licensee of Team USA. KT Tape will help support the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic teams through the Rio 2016 and PyeongChang 2018 Games.

 

Designed for muscle, ligament and tendon pain relief and support, KT Tape will be made available to Team USA athletes at all U.S. Olympic Training Centers. 

 

“KT Tape is proud to support the Olympic and Paralympic movements by becoming a licensee of the United States Olympic Committee for the next several years,” stated Greg Venner, CEO KT Health. “As a licensee to Team USA, we will be providing them the support they need throughout training, Olympic Trials, competition and to the podium.”

 

The USOC endorsement is expected to drive significant awareness around a category that only has 4% household penetration in the U.S. market, Venner told Drug Store News. "If you think about it, all of the sports that are covered in the Olympics, are the sports that our consumers play as well," he said. "Our consumers are at every level from the weekend warrior through Olympians and professional athletes."

 

With this support, KT Tape is looking to connect to its core demographic - 18-49 year old men and women who lead active lifestyles. "What we find is that our typical user is higher income, better educated, very involved in sports and generally have been through their lifetime," Venner said. 

 

At the shelf, KT Tape is releasing a specially designed, limited edition tape featuring the official USOC logo beginning in April. Along with that KT Tape is developing a series of sidewings, clip-strips, free-standing displays and counter displays to help draw attention to the new designs, Venner said. 

 

As the category leader, KT Tape is the most widely distributed kinesiology tape brand in the United States and is also sold in more than 40 countries. Notable athletes such as Olympic gold medalist James Harden and three-time Olympic gold medalist Kerri Walsh Jennings are brand ambassadors. 

 

“Having been partners with KT Tape since 2008, I was so happy to see them become a part of the Team USA family,” Walsh Jennings said. “I know how much the product has helped me with pain relief and support throughout training and competition, and I am glad that all members of Team USA will have access to the tape throughout their training process as well as at the Olympics.” 

 

“We’re pleased to welcome KT Tape to the Team USA family, and know this product will be a great resource for the USOC sports medicine program and Team USA athletes,” said Bill Moreau, USOC managing director of sports medicine. “America’s elite athletes have dedicated themselves to compete at the highest level and this multipurpose tape allows us to provide pain relief solutions in a number of areas to help athletes achieve maximum performance.”

 

KT Tape will support its USOC licensee through a variety of media channel activations over the course of 2016 leading up to the Rio Olympic and Paralympic Games.