Mukt Shabd Journal ISSN NO : 2347-3150

“A STUDY BOXERS PREFERENCE TOWARDS EQUIPMENT’S IN KERALA, WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO THRISSUR DISTRICT’’ Ebin Babu P Assistant Professor Department of Commerce Rajagiri College of Social Sciences (Autonomous) Kalamassery, Kochi, Kerala

Mr. Varghese Joy Assistant Professor Department of Commerce Rajagiri College of Social Sciences (Autonomous) Kalamassery, Kochin, Kerala

Mr. N K Nikhil Assistant Professor Department of Commerce Rajagiri College of Social Sciences (Autonomous) Kalamassery, Kochin, Kerala

ABSTRACT

Sports has grown out to be the one of the most earning sector in the world. India also plays a major role in sports. Boxing is one of the greatest in the sports. Now as like every sports boxing also earns money. Thrissur district is one of the hub of boxers, in Kerala. Most of the boxers in Kerala are concentrated on Thrissur District. The study is conducted with the intention to study the preference of Boxers in Thrissur district towards the equipment. It may be defined as the decision process and the physical activities individuals engage in when evaluation, acquiring and using or deposing of goods and services. The preference of study will help us to find out the exact answers. Mainly 4 equipment are selected for the study. They are Boxing gloves, , Gear and Mouth Guard. Companies like Topten, USI, Everlast, and are selected.

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INTRODUCTION

Boxing is one of the greatest game in the sports. From BC 7th onwards people usually plays boxing. In 1925, the first governing body for boxing in India, Bombay Presidency Amateur Boxing Federation was formed in Mumbai. Mostly due to the efforts of H.V.Pointon, the President of the Bombay Presidency Amateur Boxing Federation (1944–48), Indian Amateur Boxing Federation was founded on February 25, 1949. Major F.G.Baker became the first secretary at the inaugural meeting at the Governor's Pavilion of the Club of India in Mumbai. Bombay (Mumbai) became the headquarters of the body. The first National Championships were held at the Brabourne Stadium in Mumbai in March 1950. Thrissur district is one of the hub of boxers, in Kerala. Most of the boxers in Kerala are concentrated on Thrissur District. Boxing gloves, Hand Wrap, Head Gear and Mouth Guard are four equipment taken for the study

Boxing gloves are cushioned gloves that flightless wear on their hands during boxing matches and practices. Unlike the ancient citrus which were designed as weapon. Modern boxing gloves are designed to protect the hands during competitions, sparring and other forms of training have their own specialized gloves. Modern boxing gloves reduce superficial facial injuries ; However as modern boxing gloves give their user the ability to throw stronger punches to head without damaging the hands. They also increases the risk of brain damage for participants. Hand wrap or a wrist wrap is a strip of cloth used by boxers to protect the hand and wrist against injuries induced by punching. It is wrapped securely around the wrist, the palm, and the base of the thumb, where it serves to both maintain the alignment of the joints, and to compress and lend strength to the soft tissues of the hand during the impact of a punch. A hand wrap protects against several common types of injuries that are familiar to most boxers. Head gear is padded helmet, worn on the head by contestants in amateur and Olympic boxing. It effectively protects against cuts, scrapes, and swelling, but does not protect against concussions. It will not protect the brain from the jarring that occurs when the head is struck. Also, most boxers aim for the chin on the opponents, and the chin is usually not protected by head gear. Mouth guard is a protective device for the mouth that covers the teeth and gums to prevent and reduce injury to the teeth, arches, lips and gums. A mouth guard is most often used to prevent injury in contact sports.

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CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK

USI: USI means universal sports industries is run by the Chadha family who have their roots in this industry since 1920. The family started manufacturing soft leather sports goods Sialkot (now in Pakistan) and shifted to Jalandhar in Punjab (INDIA) after partition. Late Mr Hans Raj Chadha kept involved in the manufacturing of sports goods after coming to Jalandhar .In 1965,His son Late Mr Ayodhia Nath Chadha & Mr Pran Nath Chadha started their own venture with a merge sum of RS.10000. The brothers dedication and hard work lead to the growth of the company. The next 10Years were spent in setting up the product lines in the domestic market and organization of the factory in 1977,The company started exports to UK & Australia. The company grew manifold during these years. A lot of knowledge and experience was gained during these years. High quality standards were set during this set which have become the foundation of our brand.

TOP TEN: TOP TEN is a brand that has decisively shaped the history and development of contact sport and will continue to shape it. Just think of the head guard and gloves that were forward looking in the 80’s and still are today. HAYASHI a brand that has earned an excellent reputation for quality and reliability over the past few decades in traditional martial arts. Especially in the WFK karate, these products are used world wide with one brands HAYASHI and TOP TEN , functionally design and quality requirements comes first ,but with an excellent price – performance ratio, but also for MMA, a rapidly growing martial art that is finding more and more supporters. It have designed a new TOP TEN MMA line with experts and design. TOP TEN are not just a sporting gear manufacturer. We are also a big sponsor of the sports. With TOP TEN we were official equipment in boxing. Women’s boxing is now also an Olympic sport. We were the official outfitter of the World Cup Barbados. In Beijing ,the first long awaited “Sport Accord Combat Games 2010” took place under the supervision of the 10C. TOP TEN were the official equipment in wako kick boxing but also ITF Taekwondo, wako kick boxing and WKF Karate Europe and World Championships take place with TOP TEN and Hayashi an official equipment.

EVERLAST: EVERLAST is an American brand of boxing, mixed martial arts and fitness related equipment, , accessories. It markets its products World Wide. The company was founded in the Bronx and is now based in Manhattan. In 2007, the company was acquired by British relating group sports direct. In 1910 ,17 year old Jacob Golomb, the son of a tailor and an avid swimmer started the company as a manufacturer of swim wear designed

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to last longer than previously available swim suit, he guaranteed hi suits world last longer than one year and named EVERLAST. Everlast ended in to supplying a wide range of . The company first produce boxing gear in 1917 after a young asked them to supply him with gear that would last for more than 15 rounds. It subsequently sponsored Roberto Duran, Jeo Fraizzen, Larry Holmes, and in particular Muhammed Ali and become the most recognized boxing brand.

ADIDAS: In 1920, at the age of 20, avid soccer player Adolph (adi) Dassler, son of cobbler, invented spiked for track and field. Four year later Adi and his brother Rudolph (Rudi) founded the German sports company . Gerbudar Dassler OHG later known as Adidas. By 1925 the Dassler were making leather shoes with nailed studs and track shoes with and forged spikes. Beginning with the 1928 Olympics in Amsterdam Adi’s uniquely designed shoes began to gain a world wide reputation . Jesse Owens was wearing a pair of Dasslers track shoes when he won four Gold medals for the USA at the 1936 Berlin Olympics. At the time of his death in 1959 Dassler held over 700 patents related to sports shoes and other Athletic equipments. In 1978 he was inducted in to the American sporting goods industry Hall Of Fame as one of the founder of the modern sporting goods industry. In 1970’s Adidas was the top athletic shoes brand sold in the US. Muhammad Ali and Joe Faizer when both wearing adidas boxing shoes in their ‘’ Fight of the century’’. In 1971 Adidas was official supplier for the 1972 Munich Olympic Games. Although still a strong, well-known brand today. Adidas share of the world sports shoe market dropped over the years. And what began as a German family business is now a corporation (Adidas- salmon AG) combined with French Global concern solo man. In 2004 Adidas bought valley appeal company, a US company that held license for out filling more then 140 US college Athletic teams. In 2005 Adidas announced that, it was purchasing the American shoe maker , which allowed it to complete move directly with Nike in the US. But the Adidas world head quarters are still located in Adi Dassler,s hometown of Herzogenaurch. They also have an ownership stake in German Soccer Club, 1 Bayern munchen . Now Adidas have providing boxing equipment’s too.

REVIEW OF LITERATURE

The 21st century is considered as the service industry century. Service industry is growing at a rapid pace across developed and developing countries. There are many definitions of what constitute services.

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Services are deed, processes and performance ( Zeithaml and Bitner, 2003)

Broadly speaking services include all economic activities whose output is not a physical product or construction is generally consumed at the time, it is produced and provides added value in forms (convenience, amusement, timeless, comfort or health ) that are essentially intangible concerns of its first purchaser ( Quinn, Baruch and Paquette, 1987 ).

Service has been entering every part of the life from the most essential demands (such as eating, sleeping) to the other entertainment needs (such as sports, travelling, cooking and telecommunication). In other words, we readily define bank, hotel, restaurants, etc. as being service – based business. Similarly said by HUNG N BUI (2004)

Service quality: It was defined differently through the view of many researchers. Bitner, Booms and Mohr (1994) defined service quality as “the consumer’s overall impression of the relative inferiority/ superiority of the organisation and its services”. Therefore service quality is the key of survival to all servicing companies. Ronin and Taylor 1994, viewed service quality as a form of attitude representing a long run overall evaluation. Maintaining service quality at certain level and improving service quality must be life – time efforts to those companies who desire life-time prosperity in consumers heart. Parasuraman, Zeithaml and Berry 1985, defines service quality as ‘’a function of differences between expectation and performance along the quality dimensions’’. Likewise Roest and Peters 1997, held the same definition that the service quality is atavistic and cognitive discrepancy between experience- based norms and performance concerning service benefits.

Customer satisfaction: It has been widely discussed from the view of many researchers and organisations who increasingly desire to measure it. A group of researchers of the centre of the study of social policy2007, conceptualized that satisfaction is based on consumers’ experience of both contact with the organisation (the moment of truth) and personal customers. According to these researchers, satisfaction can be experienced in a variety of situations and connected to both goods and services. To another extent these researchers defined satisfaction as a highly personal assessment that is greatly influenced by individual expectation.

OBJECTIVES

To find out top preferred brand in each Boxing equipment.

* To find the factors influencing the choice of buying source.

* To study the influence of various factors on the purchase of boxing equipment’s.

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* Price

* Quality

* Brand name

* Availability of chances

METHODOLOGY

Primary data was used in the study. The number of sample is 100. The primary data was collected using questionnaires. Various statistical tools such as charts, tables and percentages were used for analysing the data. The period of the study was during the month of November 2019 - February 2020.

FINDINGS

 Based on all these tables each and every boxer purchasing boxing equipment’s for satisfying their own needs.  USI is most used boxing gloves in the Thrissur District. It is because of the safety of the boxers, In terms of value of money and Availability of boxing gloves.  Most of the boxers uses TOPTEN hand wrap because of its quality and in terms of money value too.  In Thrissur district the most available hand wrap is USI  When we in to the head gear we can see that EVERLAST head gear is the most used head gear in the Thrissur district. In terms of value of money, quality and in terms of availability also EVERLAST head gear is the best head gear that concerned by Thrissur boxers.  Most of the boxers in the Thrissur district use USI mouth guard. It is because of the brand quality, money value and availability. We can also see that in the case of availability local brands are also opted by many boxers.  USI is the best brand that is preferred by boxers in all boxing equipment’s. Because in a way USI will be first preferred brand or else in the second position. So that because of the consistency we can assume that USI is the best brand for boxers in Thrissur district.

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CONCLUSION

The purpose of this study was to find out the customer preference of boxing equipment’s with specific preferences to boxers in Thrissur district. The aim of the study was to find out the various factors that influencing the boxers buying behaviour in Thrissur district. From the study we realized many factors that are influencing the purchase behaviour. As far as the boxers in the Thrissur district the best brand is USI in the case of boxing gloves and mouth guard. In the case of hand wrap TOPTEN is the best brand. And also in the case of head gear EVERLAST is the best brand. Moreover that we can see that USI is the most available brand we compare to any other brand except local brands. Its because of the authorized dealer of USI in Thrissur district.

Discussions

Tables

TABLE 1: Age category

CATEGORY NO. OF PERCENTGE RESPONDENTS SENIOR 22 22 YOUTH 23 23 JUNIOR 40 40 SUB JUNIOR 15 15 (Primary data)

Data collected from Boxers in Thrissur District playing under various categories as shown in the table. 40% of the respondents are junior category boxers. The least boxers are from sub junior category 15%. The senior and youth boxers remains 22% and 23% respectively.

TABLE 2: Experience in Boxing

PARTICULARS NO.OF PERCENTAGE RESPONDENTS LESS THAN 1 YEAR 5 5 1 TO 3 YEAR 20 20 3 TO 6 YEAR 40 40 ABOVE 6 YEARS 35 35

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(Primary data)

Among the boxers 40% of the data are collected from 3 to 6 years experienced boxers. There are 35 % of boxers above 6 years. Less than 1 year experienced boxers are only 5%. And the remaining 20% remains boxers with 1 to 3 year experience.

BOXING GLOVES

BRAND NAME

Among the boxers the brand name they use more for their gloves are USI with 45 respondents, around half of the data. 20% of the boxers are using TOPTEN Gloves. The EVERLAST and ADIDAS gloves are occupied by 18 and 13 respectively. And at last the others are selected by 2 boxers.

SAFETY

Exactly 73 boxers prefer USI for the safety of boxers. Only 2 boxers prefer ADIDAS. 17 boxers prefer TOPTEN. And the remaining 8 prefer EVERLAST.

PRICE

Exactly 71 boxers preferred USI. At the same time TOPTEN and EVERLAST are preferred by 21 and 6 respectively. Only a single boxer preferred the brand ADIDAS. Non of the boxer preferred others.

AVAILIBILITY

Almost every boxers prefer USI, exactly by 85 boxers. Exactly 3 and 2 was prefer by EVERLAST and ADIDAS respectively. The remaining 10 was prefer by TOPTEN.

HAND WRAP

BRAND NAME

In the case of hand wrap TOPTEN is the top most used brand with 48 boxers. USI comes at the second position with 25 boxers. The EVERLAST and ADIDAS placed 3rd and 4th position with 16 and 8 boxers respectively. The others remains last with 2 boxers preference.

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QUALITY

In terms of quality TOPTEN placed in the first position and ADIDAS and OTHERS got last place. USI is preferred by more than the half of TOPTEN preferred boxers. EEVERLAST remains middle position among other brands

PRICE

In terms of value of money almost half of the boxers selected TOPTEN. Almost 30 was selected by USI, 18 boxers selected EVERLAST. ADIDAS and others were preferred by 2 and 1 respectively.

AVAILIBILITY

About the availability of hand wraps, half most boxers preferred USI. TOPTEN got around 25%. Here preference of OTHERS was more than that of ADIDAS. But EVERLAST remains with a stability.

HEAD GEAR

BRAND NAME

In the case of head gear EVERLAST is at the top with 42 boxers. In the case of USI here also around 30 boxers preferred. Here OTHER Brands were preferred by 15 boxers. And others remains next two positions.

QUALITY

From the above table it is clear that EVERLAST is the best brand in the case of quality. Brand USI is preferred by 24 boxers. TOPTEN and OTHER Brands are preferred by almost 15 boxers.

PRICE

While analysing the table we can see that most of the boxers prefers EVERLAST in the case of head gear with 61 boxers opinion. The brand USI is the next with 24 boxers opinion. The balanced brands are very poor in the case of value of money.

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AVAILIBILITY

From the above table, it is revealed about the brand preference according to availability. EVERLAST is best and easy to get. The brand USI is also at good position. TOPTEN and OTHER BRANDS are at 3rd and 4th respectively. ADIDAS comes only at the end.

MOUTH GUARD

BRAND NAME

From the table and graph it reveals that in the case of gum shield USI are preferred mostly. After USI, boxers prefer EVERLAST. After that TOPTEN. And finally, the OTHER BRANDS are at last.

QUALITY

Here we can see that 40 of the boxers prefer USI. EVERLAST was preferred by 25 boxers. TOPTEN and ADIDAS stands with 15 and 18 boxers.

PRICE

While analysing the table we can see that USI remains as the same with 42 boxers. TOPTEN is at the last with 14 boxers. EVERLAST was opted by 26 boxers. ADIDAS also scores in a good way.

AVAILIBILITY

The table represents the brand preference in terms of availability. USI is the most available boxing brand in Thrissur. Local brands are more opted in the case of availability. Other brands remain as same.

TABLE 3:

PARTICULARS WEIGHTED MEAN RANK

Brand name of the equipment played a 4.05 3 vital role in your purchase decision. Design and colour of the product come 3.33 6 in to consideration. Quality of equipment is significant. 4.57 2

Availability of the equipment is a 3.70 4 considerable factor.

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Offer and discount attracted you more 3.54 5 towards the brand. Price of the equipment is significant. 4.72 1

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