The South Tyrolean sporting goods group Oberalp Group announced sales partnerships with two other brands on Tuesday. These are the US racket sports specialist Diadem and Blackroll from Switzerland, a provider of fitness and regeneration products.
The Bolzano-based group of companies, which includes the mountain sports brands Salewa, Dynafit, Pomoca, Wild Country, Evolv and LaMunt, will take over the distribution of the label in twenty European countries as part of a twenty-year agreement with Diadem. These include Germany, Italy, Spain, Poland and Norway, among others.
“The long-term partnership with Diadem represents an essential part of our idea of building a stable and lasting presence in Europe for brands from overseas while at the same time further strengthening fast-growing trend sports such as tennis and pickleball,” explained Michele Rossi, General Manager Distributed Brands at the Oberalp Group, in a statement.
As part of the collaboration with Blackroll, which is initially limited until 2030, the group says it will be “responsible for exclusive sales in sports shops, fitness halls and treatment centers as well as for e-commerce in Italy”.
Before the agreements now announced, the Oberalp Group was already responsible for the regional sales of nine international brands, including Under Armor and Fischer. According to the group, what is new about the latest two partnerships is that they cover “all sales channels including e-commerce”.
Oberalp CEO Christoph Engl explained the background of the business model. “In recent years, we have developed from a professional sales partner to a brand developer, including for brands that are not our property but fit well with our corporate direction,” he explained in a statement. “We choose our partner brands carefully – there are a lot of inquiries.”