Robert Griffin III Partners with Protective Gear Company

Washington Redskin’s new hot prospect, Robert Griffin III, has brought in another sponsor in the shape of protective gear company Evoshield.

Justin Niefer, Evoshield’s director of product development, said that RGIII was wearing Evoshield since his freshman at Baylor, thanks to a relationship the company had made with the football team’s equipment managers and trainers.

With more people than ever before paying attention to preventative protection on the field, companies in the sports protective gear space have seen sales skyrocket. Niefer says that Evoshield’s revenues have doubled every nine months for the last couple years.

“In the past, no one wanted to wear protective gear until after they got hurt,” Niefer said. “But that has changed. “Schools, teams and now players themselves are finally realizing that their body is their biggest investment. Guys like RGIII have worn our stuff not after he got hurt, but to protect himself from getting hurt.”

The company liked the speedy RGIII to be its first football endorser to help them shed the stigma that protective gear has to be bulky. 

As a growing company, Evoshield has spent the majority of its marketing dollars traveling around talking to athletes, trainers and equipment managers. Over the last two years, the brand has flourished in baseball.

Niefer said that the company will advertise its relationship with RGIII mostly through social media, videos and good old public relations. RGIII, who joined Twitter on April 3, already had more than 217,000 Twitter followers.

Said Niefer: “We talk to the shoe and apparel companies on a regular basis. It’s what drives us to gain more and more market share. We want to be in a position so that if they try to copycat us, our brand means more. That’s one of the reasons we’re doing this deal with RGIII.”