Marketers more commonly associated with basketball hoops than hoop skirts are rushing to put their sponsorship dollars into an unlikely arena: fashion shows. The list includes United Parcel Service,
Motorola and Miller Brewing's Peroni beer, all of which have signed on to sponsor fashion week events staged in cities worldwide. Much of the activity is being generated by IMG, the sports-management
giant best known for representing stars such as Tiger Woods. In recent years, the company has acquired the rights to produce fashion weeks throughout the world and is adding a host of new cities to
its growing list of show locations. The theory--and it seems to be working--is that many blue-chip marketers, regardless of whether their products or services relate to fashion, want to be associated
with the cachet attached to the fashion industry. "Fashion, like sports, is global. It's not bound by geography or language," says Charles Bennett, IMG senior corporate vice president. In September
2005, UPS handpicked 10 emerging designers to showcase their wares under a UPS-branded brown tent. "You wouldn't put UPS and fashion together," says Karen Cole, a spokeswoman for UPS. "We wanted to
put ourselves in a more modern light." UPS plans to be at September's New York Fashion Week.
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