Slinger announced recently a four-year, exclusive tennis ball partnership with Dunlop. As one of the most recognized tennis brands, Dunlop provides the official ball of the ATP World Tour and the Australian Open Grand Slam Tournament. Dunlop also supplies several WTA tournaments their official tennis balls, and its cooperation with leading individual ATP tournaments gives Dunlop the status as the NO.1 ball on tour.
“Our goal in further aligning ourselves globally with Dunlop is to provide optimum performance from the Slinger Bag launcher with the best tennis balls in the world and provide access to premium tennis balls for all Slinger Bag users,” said Slinger CEO Mike Ballardie. “Our first year of commercial partnership with Dunlop as our distributor across nine leading European regions has been a big success and we look forward to further collaboration with their international team.”
Dunlop and Slinger first announced a commercial partnership in 2020, as Dunlop International Europe Ltd. currently serves as the distributor for Slinger Bag across the core European tennis markets of Germany, Austria, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, and France. Specific to today’s news, Dunlop will be co-branding its premium FORT TR Plus balls, as well as the pressureless FORT XTRA Life ball for Slinger, with custom eco-friendly packaging aimed at reducing plastic waste.
This partnership will be serviced via Dunlop’s global sales subsidiaries to facilitate local inventories and market pricing.
“We are thrilled to take the next step in our partnership with Slinger. We share their passion and drive for innovation within the sport of tennis, and we look forward to enhancing the on-court experience for all Slinger Bag users with the world’s best tennis balls,” said Ken Yamamoto, head of tennis business for Dunlop parent company Sumitomo Rubber Industries LTD.
