Sports Industry growing in Romania

Romania, one of the Southern-Eastern countries in Europe, is famous for a triad of sportsmen: Nadia Comaneci, Ilie Nastase and Gheorghe Hagi. Sports are a national reason to celebrate, to feverishly live a moment in time, but as well sports in this country need to be supported by different sponsors, providing incomes to sportsmen and professional equipment. As any other former communist satellite, Romania is a country of contradictions: unmatched performance was made in severe conditions, even today sportsmen find it difficult to properly train or purchase their complete equipment.

A perfect 10 in gymnastics, great players in tennis and a genius footballer, this is the image of Romania during the last decades, a positive image that omits the reality of performing sports. Before 1989, the moment when communism was denied in this country, all equipment for major sports practiced such as gymnastics, football, tennis, handball, oina (a sport similar to baseball), cycling, canoeing or auto racing was producing by a single company, using materials of questionable quality, since the regime was determined to make savings at any cost.    

Being a democratic country, Romania had to face an increasing demand for quality equipment, since performance in sports was a constant element. During the 1990s few local companies decided to manufacture equipment, such as Metropolis, but the majority became bankrupted. In order to fill this void, most of Romanian sports clubs chose to buy equipment produced by famous brands such as Adidas, Puma, Nike or Kappa, more expensive than local versions.

Among the few local companies manufacturing professional equipment, Metropolis is one of the reliable brands, creating sport goods for football, basketball, handball, volleyball or auto racing. Tributary to old tradition in equipment creation, Metropolis preserves even today the embroidery technique, in order to highlight the logo of a team. Artimex attempted to cover a whole range of needs in sports, starting with 1990s. Currently, the company manufactures equipment and accessories for basketball, gymnastics, football, hockey, table tennis, oina, as well as seats and benches for stadiums. 

 

In order to reduce costs, local companies providing sporting goods are mostly focused on a single level, for instance manufacturing football equipment, such is the case of Riviani Sports manufacturing and selling exclusively football equipment under Zeusport`s franchise. The concept of franchise was a life buoy for active companies in this area, willing to continue their activity. By accepting it, those local companies had the warranty they will continue to produce sporting goods, in addition they obtained the prerogative of selling famous brands, such as Kempa in the case of Sport Suport, a local business focusing on handball equipment. The list can be continued by Legea, Givova, Macron, Patrick or Maxsport, one of the few brands available on Romanian market, under franchise. 

As any other business in an era of mobile communication, Romanian sports equipment manufacturers developed online stores, where items can be viewed and ordered, with the benefit of important discounts. 

Since in Romania, famous brands find cheap work labor, they implemented a local department, promoting the business in South and Eastern Europe. It`s the case of Irishgreen, promoting football, basketball, rugby or bowling equipment.