Scottish Hockey Union has announced it has signed a contract with Kukri Sports Ltd to provide the playing and training kit for all of Scotland's national teams from the U16 development squad to the elite senior level.
Under the new agreement, worth £20,000 per year, Kukri Sports will kit out all the Scottish national teams, including the women's team for the Samsung Hockey World Cup Qualifier in Rome in April this year.
As a result of the sponsorship, Kukri Sports were commissioned to produce the playing kit for the Scottish men and women's hockey teams for the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne next month.
A first glimpse of the new Commonwealth Games kit were offered at a special presentation before last night’s men’s match between Scotland and Trinidad & Tobago at the National Hockey Academy, Peffermill, Edinburgh.
Lancashire based Kukri Sports started out as a rugby supplier but have successfully made the transition into a multi-sports provider supplying kit to clubs throughout the UK and Ireland in sports such has netball, basketball and cricket.
A range of exclusive hockey merchandise will also be created by Kukri Sports' design team and initially sold online through Kukri's website and the Scottish Hockey Union's official site.
In addition, their unique mobile design unit will be a resident fixture at Scottish Hockey's biggest events allowing clubs to design and order their kit on the spot.
Scotland's women's captain Linda Clement was involved in the design phase of the new kit.
"Kukri have provided us with kit which is suited to our sport and is not only comfortable but looks good as well. The people at Kukri were very accommodating, they offered a lot flexibility in the design phase which resulted in a final product we are really happy with," she said.
"Kukri is fantastically proud to have been chosen as a key partner of Scottish Hockey. Our design team have created some really innovative designs and we look forward to kitting out all the Scottish Hockey fans as they support the teams," Commercial Director for Kukri Sports, Philip Morris, said.
"We are delighted to be working with Kukri Sports to design and market a new range of kit for hockey. We have been working closely with their talented design team and have come up with an initial range of kit which is of the highest quality both in terms of design and performance,” Scottish Hockey CEO Brent Deans said.
Kukri will also be involved in supporting the development of the sport through a successful SPORTSMATCH application.
Matching part of the value of the sponsorship has secured a further £8000, which will be used to support youth activities throughout Scotland.
The funding will not only support the development of players through a new U16 youth competition, the Boys U16 Cup Final to be held on 9 April 2006, but will also assist aspiring young coaches and officials to become qualified.
