Famed Singapore football club Lion City Sailors (LCS) recently broke away from the big cat to partner apparel rivals, adidas, as their kit sponsor for the upcoming season in the Singapore Premier League.
Lion City Sailors were looking for partners that didn’t just provide a lovely kit, but one who could help them expand their brand further. It’s hard to not look past adidas, who have been most active with their works with the sporting community in Singapore.
adidas have been no stranger to nostalgia, with the Sailors’ kit sporting Teamgeist-inspired design, and we can even expect a collaboration soon with Milo, the popular chocolate malt drink.
At the heart of this, is Ruiyuan Chen, adidas Singapore’s country manager. We find out from Ruiyuan on why working with the Sailors is a major coup for adidas, and his favourite football boot of all time.
BOOTHYPE: What about Lion City Sailors attracted you to work with them on this partnership?
Ruiyuan: Before we get into LCS, I’ll just talk a little bit more about Singapore football. I’m a big football fan myself. I was probably 10 years old when my uncle brought me to watch one of those Malaysia Cup games in the National Stadium. That’s the first time I fell in love with local football and then it came to the S-League (now rebranded as the Singapore Premier League). I was in my late teens. And when you go to watch the match, there were probably 30 uncles holding their betting slips in here.
But now, it’s totally different. You can get 1000-2000 people, many of them young fans. They all want to associate themselves with our local sporting pursuits, so it’s a great moment for local football. And I want to really bring back the passion for local football.
And then we need to acknowledge the Lion City Sailors. We are no stranger to the successes the team has had ever since Mr Forrest Li took over. The management walks the talk. We were blown away when we visited their training facility. The physio rooms, gyms and even the analysis rooms. They even have study areas for their academy trainees and beyond that, the efforts into nutrition and conditioning – all of that is amazing.
It’s been a joy working with this (LCS) team. Very high levels of professionalism and we’re confident of this partnership working out.
BOOTHYPE: adidas is the new partner for the Elite Youth League. Tell us more about adidas’ involvement and vision for that
Ruiyuan: We’ll be title sponsors and what it aims to do is to bring the nation’s top youth teams to come in and perform and compete at the highest level for their age groups. And you’re talking about age groups from under 10 to under 16, and all these will be professionally run with 360 games a year.
It’s designed with best practices from the European academies. There’s a real developmental focus, and no tournament fee to lower the barrier to entry. It’s a pure way to really want to uncover the nation’s top prospects.
And at the same time, besides giving the platform to the youth, we also want to make sure that we drum up the awareness and it needs to feel exciting also for the youth, so we will also have strong media presence with weekly highlights.
All aimed at showcasing the next generation of Singapore football.
BOOTHYPE: Do you have a favourite LCS player?
Ruiyuan: They have many outstanding players, I love them all. But if I had to pick one, that’ll be (club and national team) captain Hariss Harun. adidas just signed him up last year too.
I’ve spent personal time with him and you can see he’s incredibly steady. A very good head on the shoulders. A calming leadership force in the team.
BOOTHYPE: Do you have a favourite adidas boot of all time?
Ruiyuan: I could go back to talk about the history of the adidas Predator, with players like Zidane, Gerrard and Beckham playing in them. Great boot but perhaps, when I was a kid some of us couldn’t afford it at that time.
I will go with the classic Copa Mundial. It’s a boot that is a timeless icon. It was first designed and launched in 1979, and it’s still relevant today. You have to put your feet in to feel those levels of comfort. It’s amazing how a boot can last the test of time. It’s even older than me!
