Zimpapers Logo

Sikhumbuzo Moyo, Senior Sports Reporter

HIGHLANDERS will now enjoy an extra year of generating revenue from the sale of the OTB Looks manufactured replica jerseys after the sports apparel company said the deal effectively kicks off this year.

The sportswear makers said although they entered into a three-year agreement with Bosso last year before the Covid-19 pandemic, both parties did not enjoy the value of the deal because of the absence of football activity.

As a result, OTB Looks takes 2021 as the first year of the deal. OTB Looks also “defended” Bosso’s continued use of NetOne branded jerseys in official matches, saying when NetOne pulled the plug on its sponsorship after they had already concluded the designs and hee kit had gone to print.

“By the time the club told us that their relationship with NetOne had ended, we had already concluded the designs and the kits had gone to print and we couldn’t reverse anything. That is why Highlanders are using that kit branded NetOne,” said OTB Looks chief executive officer Peter Chiveso.

The deal, which will see OTB Looks supplying Bosso with home and away playing kit, including a third optional kit, tracksuits, caps, training kit and travelling bags, is worth US$300 000.

“We signed this deal just before Covid-19 last year and obviously we went through the whole Covid-19 situation and at some point, the deal wasn’t gonna go through because of all the changes.

“In Zimbabwe football has taken an awful long time to come back and there was not even a hint when football would be resuming. We only managed to do the launch right at the end of the year and from that point we don’t count last year as a ‘year’ because there was no football, no trading; there was essentially nothing so, everything just rolled forward to 2021. This is like our first year of the deal because of inactivity last year which resulted in no commercial activity,” said Chiveso.

He said his company will start designing a new kit midway into the season after consultations with the Johnfat Sibanda-led executive committee.

“We have not done any designs on the new kit; it’s still early days, the actual season hasn’t started so we will only do that maybe halfway through the season and it’s a section that we will want to discuss with the club on how they want us to proceed. Right now we are focusing on bringing in the third kit as part of the options,” said Chiveso.