The Sharks yesterday announced yet another sponsorship deal, with Kyocera set to join the family as of January next year. The Kyocera logo will apparently feature on the back of the Sharks playing jersey.
The Sharks’ release follows:
Kyocera Document Solutions South Africa is entering the sea of SA Rugby with the sponsorship of The Sharks Rugby Team.
The agreement kicks off from January 2014 and will bring the company’s tailor-made document management solutions closer to potential customers, not only within Southern African, but also across the world of Super Rugby.
The Kyocera logo will be the brand millions of people see on the back of the new official jersey.
Says Wayne Holborn, general manager at Kyocera Document Solutions South Africa, “To use the words of the founder of Kyocera Corporation, Kazuo Inomori, we have always “possessed a challenging spirit” and we believe The Sharks mirror our approach. We are excited about our partnership with The Sharks and see great synergy and potential, not only from a marketing perspective but also as a way to associate ourselves with a global winning team.”
The Sharks brand is recognised across the globe as a sporting brand market leader – in innovation, match day activation and brand communication.
“Kyocera is also a global brand known for our tailor-made document solutions. This means that we provide our customers with a perfect blend of premium products, software solutions and professional services. We consistently strive to increase an organisation’s workflow efficiency, enhance employee productivity, minimise environmental impact and significantly reduce operating costs,” says Holborn.
Kyocera Document Solutions will be in association with The Sharks to embrace Jake White’s vision of “turning potential into purposeful ambition”.
“We strongly believe in the ability of sports to empower, to energise and inspire people to be the best they can be and use that challenging spirit. We’ll be ensuring that we bring our own ethos into play alongside that of The Sharks to bring us closer to our current and potential customers,” says Holborn.
The Sharks CEO, John Smit said: “We are delighted to partner with Kyocera Document Solutions South Africa and look forward to a mutually successful partnership which is based on excellence and foresight.
“Our vision is to take The Sharks brand to new heights and we are delighted to align ourselves with one of the world’s leading manufacturers who share our vision and values.
“It is a unique opportunity when two leaders in their respective fields can come together in a partnership such as the one we are announcing. We are thrilled to have their logo adorn the back of our jersey from 2014,” added Michael Ablett, The Sharks Marketing Manager.
The value of the contract has not been disclosed.

not being funny but too many sponsors on a jersey makes a jersey really look fugly… Look at the UK jersey’s , its a platter of sponsors and it looks terrible.
@Uli (Comment 1) : I knew you were going to say that
@Uli (Comment 1) : That’s one of the reasons why they can afford to poach so many of our players.
@Uli (Comment 1) : Well, we have BLK, Cell C and now Kyocera. Three is not bad!
More sponsors means more money and in these times we are lucky to have the sponsors we do. Some unions are struggling financially, its a good position for the Sharks to be in. 🙂
Well done John Smit! The Kyocera logo is red and white, while the lettering itself is black. It shouldn’t look out of place on the jersey.
@Caratacus (Comment 5) : fantastic position! $$$ buys the Whiskey! Sponsors falling over their feet to get in early. They realise whats happening, and once we win a cup or two it will be very expensive to get your name on that jersey.
JS is proving to be awesome at creating excitement around his brand.
I like that all our sponsors colors are black, white and red. But if it had to be some weird color or even full of sponsors, that would also be fine, if it meant we keep more players and upgrade our stadium.
But I think sponsors may sign bigger deals if they know they won’t share the jersey with a 100 other sponsors, so I don’t think we’ll get that much more if any.
Bring on the sponsors!! I dont care if the kit looks like a F1 racing outfit. The money sponsorship money means the less they Union has to recover from ticket sales – so lower ticket prices. Although season ticket prices for next year have already been set so doesnt affect me but does affect those buying single match day tickets hopefully.
@West Indies Cricket Board (Comment 8) : In my little wonderland John Smit proves to be a smash hit in the boardroom, replaces Regan Hoskins and reinstates Jake W as Springbok coach.
@SheldonK (Comment 10) : preach
Still room for another sponsor’s name on the shorts.
in fact, the Sharks are one of the few SA team to have only one sponsor’s logo on the jersey….
Cheetahs: Toyota/PVM/Bizhub
Bulls: Vodacom/Oasis
Stormers: DHL/Vodacom
Lions: MTN/Redefine
@robdylan (Comment 13) : ah wait – just noticed we actually have Growthpoint on the back of the shorts.
@robdylan (Comment 15) : Hi Rob,
Any idea when the new jersey will be launched?
@MikeVS (Comment 16) : all I’m told is “in time for Christmas”
@robdylan (Comment 2) : And I knew you were going to say that too 😉
@robdylan (Comment 15) :
@PTAShark (Comment 4) : What about Supersport?
Congrats!! To the sharks, money talk.
@robdylan (Comment 17) : now I’m told “early January”
In time for my birthday then 😛
Early January… The sales team really stuffed that up! Who in their right mind decided they should bring out the New Jersey AFTER the bountiful Christmas season?
I’m guessing waiting for the Kyocera deal resulted in them missing the Christmas deadline
@CS (Comment 22) : im geussing we were also going for a camo strip and the bulls just sent us back to the drawing board 😀 😀
@West Indies Cricket Board (Comment 23) : That must have been it… We’ll have to go for a black and white Zebra strip now 🙂
@CS (Comment 24) : Guess so. Damn Bulls!
Zebra stripe home kit and cheetah spot away kit?!?!
Well, whilst sharksworld has gone to sleep, sharksrugby hasn’t.
Finally an online ticketing system has been launched.
At this rate, we might well see two new stadium screens able to put that monstrous Queensland screen to shame (I’ll remain hopeful). 😀
@FireTheLooser (Comment 27) : hey…. respect the fact that I’m two hours behind you, perhaps?
@robdylan (Comment 28) : Don’t take it so personally Rob, it was said tongue in cheek.