Despite criticism, new kit keeps São Paulo’s winning debut streak alive | OneFootball

For the fourth consecutive time, São Paulo debuted a new home kit with a victory, defeating Grêmio at Morumbi in the Brazilian Championship. This research comes from the São Paulo Historical Archive.

Thus, the club remains unbeaten when wearing for the first time the white models from its current supplier, New Balance, with whom it has had a contract since the beginning of 2024.

In total, the unbeaten streak now stands at nine debuts of its main kit, with the last defeat coming in April 2017, when that year's version, manufactured by Under Armour, saw a 2-0 loss to Cruzeiro in the Copa do Brasil, being worn for the first time.

In the 35 debuts of the home shirt this century, Tricolor has achieved 23 wins, five draws, and seven losses.

The new kit sparked major controversy due to the way the crest was placed, with a white border that interrupted the horizontal stripes, which have been present in all versions since the club's founding in 1930.

The shirt's description in the club's bylaws was invoked by some board members, mentioning that the stripes must be “entirely covered by the emblem,” but this has not happened consistently in any of the white shirt versions the team has worn this century.

The fact that the material was produced on a large scale would make any initiative to change the layout of the pieces or the schedule unfeasible. Both São Paulo and New Balance refused to comment on the controversy.

For the players, however, there was no problem. “(The shirt) debuted with a win,” celebrated Lucas Moura. “It was a great game for our team, with three more points. I liked the shirt. The São Paulo shirt is beautiful, (but) I’m biased to say so. I hope we have a lot of success with this new shirt.”

Marcos Antônio also approved the new kit: “I liked it. We started well with it.”

Finally, Calleri was the most emphatic and the only one to mention the controversy: “I saw a lot of controversy, but I liked the shirt and the details. Of course, I don’t know anything about the bylaws. I just focus on playing football and scoring goals.”

The shirt is already on sale online, through the New Balance virtual store and São Paulo’s e-commerce. Sales in physical stores begin this Thursday (12th). The kit prices range from R$ 399.99 for the fan version to R$ 599 for the player version.

PROMISED DRAMA

As soon as some Tricolor influencers received the kit through a New Balance advertising campaign, they made a point of photographing the uniform and leaking it on social media. Employees of sports stores also helped to reveal the shirt in advance.

The reaction was immediate. And it was as negative as possible. At first, many adjectives disapproving of the kit.

But things escalated.

Influential São Paulo board members and associates also took to social media to draw attention to one fact: the new shirt would not comply with what is stipulated by the São Paulo Statute.

One of the most outspoken voices in opposition to former president Julio Casares and certainly one of the best-known board members (also due to his role as a sports commentator on TV), Marco Aurélio Cunha was the first to warn of the alleged infraction.

The central point of the controversy is that the model would not strictly follow article 157 of the Statute, especially regarding the position of the crest and the way the red, white, and black horizontal stripes are arranged on the chest.

According to leaked photos of the new kit, New Balance got creative and kind of interrupted the horizontal stripes on the chest, forming a sort of outline. In images leaked last month, there was no such innovation.

For Cunha and other board members, the new version mischaracterizes Tricolor’s traditional main kit.

The São Paulo Statute determines that the main white shirt must have three horizontal stripes, in the colors red, white, and black, in that order, completely covered by the club’s emblem. It also specifies the width of the stripes: 5 centimeters for the red and black stripes and 2.5 centimeters for the white stripe.

According to the portal ‘Globo Esporte‘, president Harry Massis was warned by board members that there could be a motion in the Council to block the kit if it is confirmed, it is important to note.

Such changes could only be made to a third kit, which clubs usually use to break away from the traditional patterns of the home and away shirts.

The new shirt is, so to speak, a legacy of Casares, since the new model, according to the website, received a positive legal opinion in July of last year, still under the former president’s administration.

The document, signed by lawyer Guilherme Salutti, cites article 157 of the São Paulo Statute and states that a “literal and extremely restrictive interpretation is not the most correct” and that the image presented as a model in the statute is “merely illustrative” and reveals that the “emblem does not need to fully cover the stripes, with margins above and below.”

PARTNERSHIP

São Paulo has reached an agreement with New Balance to renew the contract for supplying sports material to the club until 2032.

According to AVANTE MEU TRICOLOR, the agreement was already supposed to have been officially announced, but ended up being postponed due to scandals that led to the removal of two directors from Julio Casares’ administration.

At first, it is another commercial partner of Tricolor that guarantees its stay at the club until 2030, the year in which the centenary will be celebrated. Other sponsors, such as Superbet, have already extended their contracts.

The agreement between São Paulo and New Balance began in January 2024 and is set to last until the end of 2027.

If the renewal goes through, the agreement will have a total duration of nine years, consolidating one of the longest relationships in Brazilian football in this segment. As for São Paulo, if the new contract is fully honored, New Balance will be the company that has supplied the club’s kits for the longest consecutive period. Reebok (2006-2012), with seven years, is the current record holder.

Since the start of the partnership, New Balance has been responsible for producing the kits for São Paulo’s men’s and women’s teams, covering all categories, from youth divisions to the professional squad. The contract also includes the development of licensed products and joint commercial actions.

It is worth remembering that this year the American brand will no longer serve São Paulo exclusively. It will also supply Grêmio’s kits, which in practice means that the one-year exclusivity period for Tricolor, stipulated in the contract, will never be fulfilled (the Morumbi club allowed New Balance to continue supplying Bragantino until the end of last year’s Campeonato Paulista).

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇧🇷 here.