Slipstream Sports and Garmin Welcome Sharp As New Co-Title Sponsor As Team Gears Up for the Tour de France

“In the year Sharp celebrates 100 years of creating unique technologies and products that bring genuine benefit to society, we are delighted to become Technology Partner to the most exciting team in one of the world’s most beautiful sports, which perfectly showcases the convergence of technological and human achievement. Sharp has a strong focus on developing its brand presence globally, and this offers us the opportunity to put ourselves in front of a significant, new, world-wide audience. Sharp is dedicated to its founding ideals of sincerity and creativity, and with their clear commitment to ethical innovation, Slipstream are the perfect fit.” said Paul Molyneux, CEO of Sharp Europe. “The rapidly-growing consumer Health and Wellness market offers tremendous potential for Sharp and with this team and the partners involved, we have a world-class platform to develop real technological benefit in a highly-focused, performance-based environment. We will challenge ourselves to use new and existing Sharp technology to help this amazing group of athletes go faster, recover quicker and continue their inspiring journey to the top of their sport, looking to create new products that help people live in a healthier, more enjoyable way.”

The official UCI-registered name of the team will be Garmin-Sharp (GRS), just in time for start of 2012 Tour de France. Barracuda Networks will continue as an important co-title sponsor, and team materials and the website will refer to the team as Garmin-Sharp-Barracuda.

“Sharp shares our passion and commitment to the best innovations in technology,” said Jonathan Vaughters, CEO of Slipstream Sports. “We are incredibly excited to partner with them to together develop technologies that will help our riders do what they do every day, even better.”

Slipstream has a long history of partnering with best-in-class companies to not only develop technologies that help cyclists, but also in developing future champions in the sport – a shared goal of Sharp, which began its association with cycling through sponsorship in the UK of Continental team Rapha-Condor-Sharp and UCI 2.1 race, The Tour of Britain.

“Working with the team provides Sharp with an outstanding opportunity to showcase its technology in its most important markets across Europe and around the globe,” said Matt Johnson, President of Slipstream Sports. “It also gives them access to some of the best athletes in the world to develop products for the future.”

In addition to collaborating with the team on new technology, Sharp will also outfit the team with its leading Aquos LCD screens, audio products, solar panels, air purification systems, microwave and steam cooking equipment, refrigerators and multifunction printing devices. 2012 marks the centennial year for the company.

Garmin continues to provide the team with technology the riders use every day while training and racing, including the Garmin Edge 800 with its leading touch-screen and advanced mapping capability and the Edge 500, a lightweight, compact GPS enabled cycling computer. All team vehicles will also use Garmin’s sleek nϋvi GPS navigators to keep them on track throughout the world.

The new team kit by technical clothing sponsor Castelli, will be revealed on Thursday, June 28th at 10am at a Tour de France press conference at the Eurotel in Lanaken, Belgium.

The post Slipstream Sports and Garmin Welcome Sharp As New Co-Title Sponsor As Team Gears Up for the Tour de France appeared first on Garmin Blog.