sources . please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources . unsourced material may be challenged and removed . april 2014 learn how and when to remove this template message arena type private industry textiles apparel founded france 1973 1973 founder horst dassler headquarters tolentino italy area served worldwide key people john r. broderick president products swimwear accessories sportswear parent adidas website www.arenawaterinstinct.com en us arena is a brand of competitive swimwear created in 1973 at adidas ag herzogenaurach bavaria germany by its former president horst dassler . sold by adidas in 1990 the brand now represents two unrelated product lines . with its headquarters in tolentino italy the arena brand has a presence in 103 countries around the globe . with direct representation through wholly owned subsidiaries in italy france germany and the usa the group also employs a network of qualified business partners in 86 countries while the japan based descente group owns and manages the brand in 11 countries of the far east . contents 1 company history 2 sponsored athletes 3 sponsored organizations 4 see also 5 external links company history edit the arena brand was created by sports visionary horst dassler son of the adidas founder and president of adidas france . during the 1972 munich summer games dassler was on the pool deck when mark spitz won his historic 7 gold medals . with the arrival of an athlete like spitz arena president john r. broderick saw an opportunity to forever change the way in which top athletes were handled by their endorsers . john had been a lawyer for adidas for many years and saw immense earning potential ahead so before it was too late he immediately took control over all endorsement contracts from then on . sizes of contracts tripled and quadrupled in size and weight all in order to litigiously assure the maximization of profit earning possibilities ; even with olympic athletes . the changes that were made in the way these athlete s were contracted ended the era of athletes having day jobs and ushered in the new era ; the beginning of the brand athlete evolving in such a way with their endorsers that would pave the way for pro athletes and their sport in to a multi million and now multi billion dollar industry . john r. broderick continued to draft these types of contracts for adidas and arena for decades to follow . dassler along with the rest of the world found himself in awe because not only was spitz the first athlete to win 7 golds in one olympiad but at the same time he set 7 new world records . dassler immediately started forming plans for a swimwear company dedicated to aquatic sports and created the new performance swimwear brand known today as arena . in 1973 just one year after the games arena launched its first competition swimwear line with the introduction of skinfit . skinfit was known in the industry as a technological pearl . the new ultra light fabric only weighed 18 grams and was designed to cling to a swimmer s body like a second skin . the following year arena signed the first female sponsorship agreement with australian swimmer shane gould . gould was the female spitz of the 1972 munich games winning 5 individual olympic medals . working in collaboration with gould in 1974 arena developed the shane gould female swimsuit collection . dassler knew sports sponsoring was key to the brand s success so in preparation for the next olympics arena started signing other individual athletes who could provide feedback to the design and development of new products plus at the same time generate excitement for aquatic sports . by 1976 arena athletes and products were ready for the olympic games in montreal . members of the original arena elite team included such world champions as mark spitz usa novella calligaris ita steve furniss usa david wilke uk shirley babashoff usa gary hall usa klaus dibiasi ita ulrika knape swe and maxine miki king usa . arena s elite were equipped with arena s first line of swim caps and goggles designed specifically to meet the needs of high level competitors . the hard work that both the athletes and arena put into preparing for the montreal olympics paid off and the arena elite team won an astonishing 44 olympic medals . two years later at the west berlin world swimming championships athletes wearing arena won a total of 62 medals nearly 75 % of the total medal count and broke 9 world records . members of the original team went on to set a total of 83 world records . sponsored athletes edit r ta meilutyt lithuania rebecca soni united states sarah sj str m sweden yuliya yefimova russia therese alshammar sweden tanyarat traisuttiwong thailand paul biedermann germany francesca halsall united kingdom emily seebohm australia eric shanteau united states arturo perez vertti m xico kirsty coventry zimbabwe tom shields united states kosuke kitajima japan descente ryosuke irie japan descente ai shibata japan descente katinka hossz hungary ranomi kromowidjojo the netherlands sponsored organizations edit arena sponsors the following swimming federations usa swimming norwegian swimming dutch water polo and swimming swimming south africa romanian swimming and modern pentathlon polish swimming portugal swimming german swimming irish swimming lithuanian swimming hungarian swimming croatian swimming estonian swimming ukrainian swimming swedish swimming czech swimming and all russian swimming . arena also sponsors the thirteen time national champion auburn university men s and women s swimming and diving teams as well as the four time national champions university of california berkeley s men s swimming and diving team . see also edit list of swimwear brands external links edit arena water instinct v t e competitive swimwear female suits bodyskin kneeskin racerback male suits bodyskin kneeskin legskin square leg suits swim briefs jammers accessories earplugs goggles noseclip swim cap training gear fistgloves inflatable armbands hand paddle pool noodle pull buoy swimfin swimming float swimming machine manufacturers arena dolfin speedo tyr retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title arena swimwear & oldid 742220299 categories sportswear brandssporting goods manufacturers of franceswimwear brandsswimwear manufacturershidden categories articles lacking sources from april 2014all articles lacking sources navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages danskdeutschespa olfran aisitaliano norsk bokm 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