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ith the start of the 2021 Suncorp Super Netball season drawing closer, here’s the latest in commercial partnership news from around the league in the past seven days.

The Sunshine Coast Lightning announced a new partnership with Skins, with the sports compression clothing company set to become the official compression partner of the club.

Lightning head of performance, Brian Hopley, said the partnership and use of compression clothing in sport is backed by research and technology.

“At Lightning we endeavour to be cutting edge in everything that we do and partnering with Skins certainly aligns with that approach,” Hopley said.

“As a brand they strive to consistently improve, to not only be better than their competition but to also develop and evolve their own product offering and we see similarities with our Lightning group.

“Adopting Skins as our official compression partner guarantees our athletes are supported by industry leading compression garments every time they hit the court,” he said.

Elsewhere in Super Netball, expanding on the ‘Witness Fearless’ campaign from 2020, the Melbourne Vixens have launched their new campaign for 2021, ‘Fearless’.

With the hope of encouraging the Victorian community to “play, lead and witness Fearless’, the campaign will feature throughout 2021 across Netball Victoria’s social channels, as well as at all Melbourne Vixens home games and across the grassroots netball community in Victoria.

The 2020 campaign was successfully supported by the Vixens’ commercial partner, PUMA, and saw the focus of engaging current fans to “lift the lid on inequality” relating to women’s sport.

Netball Victoria CEO, Rosie King, said the focus of the new campaign is to turn supporters into fans, fans into members, and increase the club’s connection with existing members and the local netball community.

“We all know 2020 was tough, and we saw not only our fearless Melbourne Vixens overcome the challenges to win the Suncorp Super Netball championship, but our entire netball community adapt and take on new ways of delivering and engaging in the sport,” King said.

“Netball is more than just a sport – we want our community to live and breathe the fearless ethos in their lives.

“At the elite level, we already know this is how our Vixens operate, and the fearless ethos continues throughout the grassroots netball community whether you are a player, coach, official or volunteer,” she said.

Melbourne Vixens co-captain, Kate Moloney, said: “We want to empower the community and the Vixens are taking charge to be fearless in 2021.”

“Netball is fearless, and netballers are fearless athletes.

“Fearless is about disregarding the doubts and driving forward in the pursuit of what we believe in,” Moloney said.

The 2021 Suncorp Super Netball season is set to begin on May 1.