BARCELONA
Barcelona could make their own jerseys: Nike, Puma, Hummel interested in kit deal
The Catalan club’s agreement with Nike is up for renewal and various brands want to offer cash-strapped Laporta a lucrative deal. But there is another idea.
Barcelona president Joan Laporta spoke out about the club’s contract with kit suppliers, Nike, the brand that has designed and provided sportswear for the Catalan club since 1998. One may think that at that point in such a long-term relationship, every argument has been had and the agreements can be reached with nods of heads and high-fives.
Unfortunately, at the LaLiga club, that’s rarely the case. Nike’s contract with the club runs out in 2028 yet despite this, there is one huge money hole to be filled at Camp Nou. As it stands, the relationship between Nike and Barça is not at its strongest, and the wobble in happiness has seen other brands start to circle.
Barça’s kit situation ‘not desirable’
“We have a situation that is not desirable, because they don’t restock our material; and because our competitors pay us double what Nike pays us. As soon as we told them that the market pays us much more, they made an effort, and we thank them for it, but it’s not enough.” Joan Laporta raged a few weeks ago regarding the bidding to provide for his club without worrying, at least on the surface, that the blaugrana have a contract signed until 2028.
It was in 1982 when Meyba stepped in to take over the design and manufacture process of Barcelona’s playing materials, and they provided kits and training wear for them until 1992. They won their first European Cup wearing Meyba’s now famous orange away kit against the blue of Sampdoria. After that, Kappa took over and created kits for the club until 1998, placing the famous Kappa sleeve print down the shoulders on classic Barça colours.
Puma were the strongest bidder to replace Nike as the brand that designs the kits for the Catalans. In addition, as announced yesterday by Jijantes’ Twitter channel, the Danish company Hummel were an alternative that Barça have on the table. However, things have all changed overnight...
Joan Laporta also opened up the possibility of Barcelona operating with their own brand. This news was broke late on Thursday night ahead of Barcelona’s game against Athletic Club, when Catalan media outlet Sport published that this was “the winning option” for the club after a series of meeting with Nike that didn’t have “A good feeling”.
The decision could come in March or as soon as next week, as the logistics to manufacture kits are not simple. The report says the club would manufacture the garments through BLM, a company that provides and distributes their non-sporting clothing.