The 5-year-old Boston-based boot brand Brunt wanted a way in to major professional sports marketing, so the brand stayed true to its blue-collar roots and sponsored the field crew at Gillette Stadium and TD Garden Bullgang.
“Every partnership we do, we need to make sure we are really authentic for actual tradesmen and women, blue collars workers, and not completely out of our lane,” Eric Girouard, Brunt founder, tells me. “How could we do this?”
The answer came when Girouard was meeting with officials from the NFL’s New England Patriots. He looked outside and the field crew was putting the lines down on the Gillette Stadium field, prepping for an upcoming game. “The light bulb went off,” he tells me. “Those are our celebrities, those are our athletes, wearing boots every day. Nobody has asked to sponsor the field crew in history, they don’t get as much attention. So, we thought it was the most authentic way.”
PROMOTED
What started with the Patriots in August in a multi-year deal Brunt is an official partner with the New England Patriots, Gillette Stadium and the Gillette Stadium Field Crew moved into a one-year deal with the Boston Bruins this October as an official partner of the Boston Bruins, TD Garden and the TD Garden Bullgang. Brunt also launched a sponsorship deal this September with Bruins’ defensemen Charlie McAvoy, whose father runs a plumbing and heating company and used to drive to hockey games in his dad’s plumbing van.
