Keep'n It Reel, manufacturer of the popular line of custom apparel predominantly for fresh and salt water fishing and soon for the hunting industry, has signed a partnership agreement with Key Motorsports as the NASCAR Craftsman Truck and Nationwide Series race organization's Official Apparel Provider.

Based in Huntington Beach, California, KIR will use its new-found NASCAR format as a means to brand its company and product line. KIR is best known for it's extremely realistic, action-packed and magnificently colored designs that grace most of its apparel.

The company was founded by current CEO Vince Saiki and President Jason Wood who both grew up around the fishing business - Saiki in the Pacific Ocean in his native Hawaii and then Los Angeles, and Wood in the Delaware Bay in the Middle Atlantic Region of the U.S. Both are avid fishermen who saw a need to develop a company that would address conservation, help protect the world's sport fishing water sheds and promote the beauty and zeal of outdoor sport like fishing and hunting.

"Most of us sport fish for leisure and that's what Keepnitreel is all about," said Wood. "I'd just rather be fishing than working. But I would like to make a greater impact on the industry by helping organizations like the California Coastal Commission," added Wood, who as a kid embarked on a letter writing campaign that got the Core of Engineers to stop the dumping of batteries that would contaminate his favorite fishing spot.

When Wood and Saiki, a successful businessman who is now the KIR CEO, met and teamed together to form Keepnitreel, Saiki also imagined using the company as a vehicle to help promote sport fishing while helping Wood follow his vision.

"I love the sport and enjoy putting out product that sport fishermen can enjoy like I do," said Saiki who said that he helped establish KIR for the love of the sport and not the money. "I see KIR as an open-ended business opportunity with nothing getting in the way of our success. There is a lot of junk out there with no love behind it," Saiki says of the kind of sport fishing and hunting products out there and around which the KIR line has been established. "For us, this is a passion play," he added.

Wood and Saiki both see the partnership with Key Motorsports as the first step in using the relationship to help build their brand through NASCAR and to target all of those outdoorsmen who love to fish and hunt that also are NASCAR race fans.

"Fishing and hunting are just as much a passion to many NASCAR fans as sport fishing is to us, and we believe that the quality of our products will be something that fishermen and hunters who follow NASCAR would like to have," Wood exclaimed. "NASCAR fans have long been known to be amongst the most loyal of all sport's fans, and if they can buy high quality products that fulfill a need, are appealing to the eye and help preserve outdoor life, we believe that they will continue to buy these products," he added,

Having members of the Key Motorsports team wearing KIR apparel will be the initial step for the company in working to achieve its goals.

"We're excited and privileged that KIR has seen fit to select our race organization to help its company achieve its goals in NASCAR. We will do everything we can to help KIR further its cause and to capture the imagination and trust of all those fishermen and hunters that also follow our sport," said Rich Rubenstein, Vice President of Operations at Key Motorsports.

Now in its third consecutive season of full-time NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series competition, Key Motorsports is also returning to NASCAR Nationwide Series action in 2008 after a 10-year absence by planning to enter one of its four #31 Chevrolet Monte Carlo race cars in the Circuit City 250 at the Richmond International Raceway on Friday night, May 2. Veteran driver Jeff Green, who tested the car at RIR last month, is expected to be behind the wheel of the #31 Chevy in the first of several NNS races this season that Key Motorsports is to enter.