The news that New Balance would dress Athletic from next 1 July, a secret from months ago, it spread like foam on social media in the afternoon of yesterday. The us firm has its headquarters in Boston wrote three tweets, two of them in basque, before the club, several hours after the first of these, made official what was already intuited. Waiting to offer more details on dates to come, the redtube reported that wear New Balance the next six seasons. An agreement that the Athletic, was finalized long time ago, and expect to report revenues in excess of 2.5 million euros per year that it has received from the hands of Nike and Umbro, the latter two firms that have made their t-shirts.
New Balance will thus become the sixth brand to view the red and white set from Adidas made the first t-shirts of Athletic in 1982. The German multinational gave way to the Italian Kappa (1990-1999) before re-signing an agreement with the groups (1999-2001). Between 2001 and 2009, the club opted for its own brand, the so-called Brand, Athletic, and committed with the Umbro between 2009 and 2013 before Nike, which bought the british company, designed the t-shirts rojiblancas of the last four campaigns.
Another prestigious club
In their eagerness to explore new dimensions of market New Balance landed in the football world in 2012 with its subsidiary Warrior, also with headquarters in the united States, and gave the final step in the summer of 2015. Then it was the parent brand and took on the contracts of Warriors and teams of renowned prestige such as Liverpool, Celtic, Porto, Seville and Lille were the first to sport the logo of the N and the B in Europe. All of them will be wearing New Balance also the next course and it is possible that the Celtic one, as the Athletic, to the group.
The american multinational, which saw the light in 1906, has reached agreements with various players in recent times. In this way, names like Jesus Navas, Alvaro Negredo, Samir Nasri, Aaron Ramsey, Marouane Fallaini or Vincent Kompany are related to the brand. In the Athletic only Mikel San Jose, who even a few months ago, went to the opening ceremony of the store that New Balance has in a central street of Bilbao, is sponsored by the brand, although it is possible that following the agreement reached between the club and the multinational are several players who follow in their footsteps.
Boycott in the U.S.A.
Several days after Donald Trump won the presidential elections in the united States, New Balance was the victim of a boycott, or at least an attempt to do so, as a result of the words of one of the directors of the company, who said that “the Obama Administration made us deaf ears and, frankly, with the president-elect Trump believe that things are going to move forward in the right direction.” That comment is not liked to a part of american society and there were many who showed their discomfort for it. To the point that they used social networks to try to viralise the burning of the shoes of the brand. The company came out fast in his defense and noted that “as the only major company that still manufactures athletic shoes in the United States, New Balance has a unique perspective on the trade in the that we want to do more shoes in the united states, not less.”