Last month Hugo Boss announced that they were to end a long-running association with the McLaren F1 team and switch to the new Constructors Champions, Mercedes, for the 2015 season which will also be the company’s 34th consecutive year involved with Formula 1.
This however should really not come as a surprise, as Hugo Boss have been heavily involved in sport for many years and not just through their Hugo Boss Sport range which was rebranded in 2003 as Boss Green.
There are predominantly three sports that the brand has put its time and money into. The previously mentioned F1 is and always has been their main field but they also have a sizeable presence in golf having previously sponsored major legends of the game such as Berhard Langer and Seve Ballesteros, as well as currently backing former World Number 1 Henrik Stenson.
They also sponsor three golf competitions: the BMW Open in Munich, the BMW Championship in Wentworth, and the UBS Hong Kong Open. This is on top of their hugely successful Boss Green golf range, carrying everything from jackets, and polos right down to Hugo Boss branded golf bags.
Whilst people may well be familiar with the association with F1 and golf, fewer people will know about the other major sport to which the brand have close links - yachting, and in particular a British sailor by the name of Alex Thomson who has been sponsored by Hugo Boss for the last 11 years making it one of the longest relationships in professional sailing.
Thomson appeared on Hugo Boss’s radar way back in 1999 when he became the youngest skipper to win a round-the-world race aged just 25 (a record that still stands). He also smashed the single-handed monohull transatlantic record by more than 24 hours in July 2012 and has carried out some pretty daring stunts all in the name of Hugo Boss publicity.
Their links within sport aren't exclusive to those three activities though, as other noteworthy mentions should include the links they have with the football teams Manchester City (reigning English Champions), Real Madrid (reigning Champions League holders), and Bayern Munich (reigning German Champions); the world of tennis where they have previously sponsored the Davis Cup; and they also like to keep things closer to home too by sponsoring DTM; the German Touring Car Series as well as having been the official supplier of formal wear to the German National Football Team (pictured below) since 2011, who as everyone knows won that little event called the World Cup just a few months ago.
