Yuzuru Hanyu: Water Bottle Collection!

Yuzuru and his water bottles!! This is such a simple detail that probably started out very innocently by Mama Hanyu.  It was quickly noticed by his fans and it totally sets Yuzu apart from the rest.

I can’t say exactly when this started but the earliest evidence i can find is during the 2011-2012 season.  For Yuzu’s original Romeo and Juliet program, Mama Hanyu created this adorable water bottle cover!!  I love the fuzzy material that was used!!  The way it matches the costume is super cool!!  Here’s Pooh keeping an eye on the water bottle.  : )

    

I finally found the water bottle that Yuzu had for Etude in D-Sharp Minor.  This was the hardest one to find!!  Such rich colours in this costume, nice to see the water bottle to match!

The cute water bottle covers were not a one season, one hit wonder!!  In the following season (2012-2013), Mama Hanyu made a new black water bottle cover to match the original Parisian Walkways costume.  Again, I’m  loving the fuzzy material!!

    

What I love about the bottle covers is that no matter what warm up jacket you see Yuzu wearing, you will always know what program he is about to skate or what costume he is wearing underneath the jacket based on the water bottle cover.

During the same season, for his Notre-Dame de Paris program, we got to see this new knitted water bottle cover.  How original and creative is Yuzu’s mom, not to mention talented!

Next up, Parisian Walkways v2 and Romeo and Juliet v2.  Mama Hanyu did not disappoint Yuzu or his fans in this season (2013-2014) either!  For PW, we got to see an updated version of the black fuzzy bottle, this time with blue fuzz!  Both the PW (black and blue) water bottle covers are my favorites!

   

For his long program, a new knitted water bottle cover made it’s debut, and this one matched all the way down to the little shiny stones on the sleeves.  The attention to detail is wonderful.

    

In the current season (2014-2015), we did see another 2 new water bottle covers.  Yet, as everyone knows with this season, it’s been a strange one.  Yuzu started out with a knitted water bottle cover to match his Chopin costume.  This was at the Cup of China.

Then, later during the Grand Prix series, there was a switch to a new Chopin water bottle cover, which apparently a fan made for him.  This fan posted the picture of the water bottle she made on her twitter/instagram (I can’t recall where I saw it).  This new Chopin bottle cover was sewn with fabric and stones glued on to give Yuzu’s water bottle a “bedazzled” look!  I think this is the first time (and maybe the only time) we will ever see Yuzu use a non-Mama Hanyu water bottle cover.

For his original POTO program, we saw a signature Mama Hanyu water bottle cover.  I found it a bit odd that we didn’t see red and black on POTO water bottle cover.  But it was still pretty cool and unique.

After the Cup of China when the original POTO costume was replaced with the current POTO costume, we no longer saw a water bottle cover.  I figured at the time that Yuzu could have re-used the white and gold bottle cover since that cover would also match his new POTO costume, but he didn’t.  I’m wondering if Yuzu is a bit superstitious because anything to do with the original POTO costume is gone.

Perhaps Mama Hanyu didn’t have the time to create a new masterpiece?  Or, has Yuzu started to endorse WOX water?  Or, maybe it’s as simple as the fact he likes the flavour of WOX water and it helps him recover quickly, as it claims to do?  I suspect that he simply likes the water brand because otherwise we would have seen Yuzu’s face all over in commercials and pictures/signs for the WOX water.

In every sport, you will see water or drink products used by athletes, and product placement and brand messaging is key!  Is Yuzu no longer allowed to cover the water bottle itself in order to showcase the brand/logo?  Your guess is as good as mine.  I guess we will have to wait and see what he shows up with at the World Championships in March!!

Here is the link to the WOX site:  http://www.woxo2.com

Anxiously waiting for Worlds…..stay tuned!!