Tiger Woods will have his own brand of sports drink next yearunder an endorsement deal announced Tuesday with Gatorade that marksa couple of firsts for the world's No. 1 golfer - his first U.S.deal with a beverage company and his first licensing agreement.
Gatorade said it will introduce 'Gatorade Tiger' in March, withmore products to follow. Woods even picked out the flavors himself,with the drink available in a cherry blend, citrus blend and grape.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed, although Golfweek magazinereported last month it was for five years and could pay Woods asmuch as $100 million, moving him closer to the $1 billion mark incareer endorsements.
'There have been some licensing elements to things we've done,'said Mark Steinberg, his agent at IMG, who cited video gamesproduced by EA Sports as an example. 'But everything he does withGatorade is going to be creating new products. It's something Tigerand I and our licensing business has been looking at for some time.'
The deal has been in the works since the summer, and Golfweekreported earlier that it came down to Gatorade and Vitamin Water. Itbecame obvious who won out when Woods began drinking from Gatoradebottles during the final month of the PGA Tour season, even when theGatorade product wasn't available at certain tournaments.
'Gatorade has been part of my game plan for years, whether I'mtraining or competing, so this is an ideal match,' Woods said in astatement. 'I'm eager to launch my first signature product in a fewmonths and look forward to developing additional sports performancebeverages with Gatorade in the coming years.'
Woods, with 61 victories on the PGA Tour and 13 majorchampionships, joins a stable of star athletes at Gatorade -including Michael Jordan, Derek Jeter, Peyton Manning and Mia Hamm.None of those athletes has licensing deals, which also is a firstfor Gatorade, a division of PepsiCo.
'His iconic nature resonates everywhere he goes,' said JeffUrban, senior vice president of Gatorade. 'Bridging that iconicnature with his will to win, those things make this a big deal forus.'
Urban said it was too early to say how Gatorade would marketWoods and his new product line, especially since the drink will notbe available until the spring.
The company released video of Woods going through sweat analysistesting with the Gatorade Sports Science Institute, which testedsuch things as his sweat rate and energy needs .
Woods has endorsed everything from sports equipment and apparel(Nike) to financial services (Accenture) to automobiles (Buick) toshaving products (Gillette).
'We wanted to get away from a straight endorsement deal in thebeverage category,' Steinberg said. 'We thought this would be thebest fit for his first licensing deal. It's authentic to what Tigerdoes every day, as hard as he works out every day.'
