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Group celebrates first game for 2019 AFLW season

13th February, 2019

The Group has long standing and strong ties with local AFL team, the Geelong Cats as an official partner. The Group is also an official licensee of the AFL with the launch of an exclusive range of fashionable AFL fan gear in March 2018. When the opportunity arose to support the AFLW as the sole apparel partner and continue our commitment to the Australian community through the AFL it was an easy decision.

At the time of the partnership launch Group CEO, Peter Johnson said,

“The AFL is an elite sporting code but is also a leader in the community and a powerful force for change. We are extremely proud and excited to be working with the NAB AFL Women’s Competition to develop contemporary, innovative, technical apparel for the players and supporters of the new competition.”

“At the Cotton On Group, 77 per cent of our 20,000 team members around the globe are women, while a similar percentage of our customers are women and young girls, so the decision to support the women’s competition was a simple one for us. We are really excited about the opportunity this partnership creates for our team, our customers and all supporters of the AFL.”

The Group and its team members were incredibly proud to see its hometown team take to the ground with many attending the game which saw the Cats team take the win by a single point as both their first game as part of the competition and on home soil, too.

The Group has prided itself on designing and producing high-performance sportswear for the Geelong Cats on and off the field since 2016, and this commitment to deliver the best quality elite product has extended to all the AFLW clubs and continues to be an innovative offering.

Utilising the Group’s agile approach to business it is able to create opportunities to develop unique product to meet teams’ needs. This includes accommodating requests from each team such as the Brisbane Lions, who recently approached the Group with a specific request to deliver gear to suit team’s needs and preferences.

After Lion’s player, Emily Bates had several melanomas removed prior to the 2019 season, her team were adamant of incorporating sun smart long-sleeve guernseys into their playing apparel for the season. This was an opportunity for the Group’s Community and Corporate Partnerships team, who design products from our Global Support Centre in Geelong, to create a sun smart guernsey using yarn that holds a UPF rating of 30+, an important factor to consider with the competition played in summer.

Campaign shots from the AFLW 2019 pre-season photoshoot and team guernseys (designed by the Group) currently line the main entrance of the AFL House in Docklands, Melbourne which perfectly displays the quality design of each team’s apparel, a proud moment for the Group’s Community and Corporate Partnerships team.