World Business

After losing without to Speedo’s high-tech LZR Racer swimsuits, Japan’s sportswear company is eyeing its country’s most present sport: baseball

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Japanese sportswear company Mizuno makes the uniforms for Japan’s Olympic baseball team. Mark Dadswell/Getty Images

by Ian Rowley

With couple more gold medals in Beijing, Japanese Olympian Kosuke Kitajima is on his way to becoming the world’s greatest breaststroke swimmer. After bagging sum of two units golds in Athens four years ago, the 25-year-old from Tokyo on Aug. 14 won gold in the 200-meter breaststroke in Beijing, and that was on top of a world record-breaking swim on Aug. 8 for 100 meters.

Yet while Japan rejoices at Kitajima’s success, executives at Japanese sportswear company Mizuno (8022.T) may have mixed emotions. After all, in June, Kitajima called on the Japan Swimming Federation to allow its swimmers ditch Mizuno swimsuits (BusinessWeek.com, 6/8/08) in favor of British Speedo’s high-tech LZR Racer dress. (BusinessWeek.com, 4/14/08), which has been credited during helping U.S. star Michael Phelps and other swimmers break world records this year. Kitajima got what he wanted: His couple golds were both achieved while he was wearing the high-tech Speedo swimwear. Just in the manner that galling, before the launch of Speedo’s LZR Racer line in 2007, Mizuno canceled a licensing contract it had with the British company—separate years forward.

Still, a felicitous Olympic campaign for Japan’s extremely rated baseball team, nicknamed Hoshino Japan after coach Senichi Hoshino, could be obliged Mizuno executives smiling again. The Osaka-based association, which has suffered a 20% drop in its stock price this year, makes the Japanese team’s uniforms and, with baseball the biggest sport in Japan, a strong performance by the Japan team could structure up for some of those lost swimwear sales. "If Hoshino Japan wins, most amateur baseball teams will likely copy the similar vertical-striped uniforms," a Mizuno source told the Sankei Shimbun, a Japanese daily, before the Olympics got under way.

According to pundits, Japan’s baseball team has a great chance of taking gold in Beijing. That’s despite a disappointing 4-2 beat in their opening amusement Aug. 13 contrary to Cuba. Recent history suggests they have reason to be confident: Japan won bronze in Athens (Cuba took gold), and the current squad includes five members of the team that won the inaugural World Baseball Classic in 2006.

What’s more, among the newer faces is superstar pitcher Yu Darvish. The gangly 21-year-old starts for Japan’s colorfully named Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters, and in 2006 helped the team win its primary Japan Series since 1961. Already on the radar of several Major League teams, Darvish—who stands 6 feet 5 inches, has an Iranian endow or supply with a father, and is connubial to each actress—has sufficiency asterisk quality to make up for the ruin of Major League stars in the manner of Daisuke Matsuzaka of the Boston Red Sox or the Seattle Mariners’ Ichiro Suzuki.

A gold medal in favor of the Japanese team would catapult Darvish to fable status and give Mizuno welcome publicity. Still, Darvish has some work to do. "He was not in good form today," coach Hoshino complained after the Cuba loss. "He did not do his job today."

Even if the Japan team turns things around, Mizuno would be wise to ramp up its swimwear efforts in time for London in 2012. As things stand, Beijing be inclined be the last Olympics to feature baseball; the International Olympic Committee voted baseball out of the London Games.

To close the gap on Speedo, Mizuno is planning new, faster swimsuits of its own and emphasizing that its swimwear line rivals LZR Racer for lightness and freedom of movement. "We will have enough of opportunities, such as the world swimming championships next year in Rome, to boost our brand figurative expression," Mizuno President Akito Mizuno told the Nihon Keizai, Japan’s principal pursuit daily, in July. "Athletes and businesses have one thing in common—we cannot win every single game."