After France’s victory in 2018, it took several months to easily obtain a France team jersey with two stars. If the Blues win on Sunday, it could be the same.
In the preamble to the World Cup final between France and Argentina on Sunday, the coach, Didier Deschamps, summarizes the issue in his own way: “There will be one of the two jerseys that will have a third star.” This third star is a dream for fans of two camps whose tunics are sponsored by the giants of sports equipment who are waging a merciless war: Nike for the France team and Adidas for the Argentina selection. If the Blues were to win, a question could burn all French lips: will there be jerseys with a third star under the Christmas trees?
This question is all the more relevant since the equipment manufacturers Nike and Adidas are expected to reduce their production rate by 30 to 40% during the year 2023. Contacted by Release, the sporting goods distributor Intersport, which has more than 600 stores in the territory, explains that it cannot commit to a date for the release of a possible three-star jersey. “Discussions are ongoing with Nike,” specifies the sign.
To understand this caution, you have to go back to 2018. Twenty years after their first world championship title, the France team beat Croatia (4-2) on July 15. Fans who then dreamed of donning the two-star jersey, announced for the summer of the same year, had to wait: the updated jersey arrived in dribs and drabs and only became widely available at the start of 2019. The signs which market the products of the tricolor selection have it bad. Faced with a significant demand that they cannot meet, they complain about the loss of earnings that this shortage represents. Distributors believe that the American giant is neglecting the French in favor of other sports, such as basketball.
Lionel Sirieys, manager of the Foot-Store store in Paris, who also fears that the jerseys will not be available soon, explains Nike’s caution. “Nike’s approach is explained by the fiasco of 2014, during the World Cup in Brazil, he reminds. They had planned a large stock of six-star jerseys which they had to destroy after the humiliation inflicted by Germany in Brazil: 7-1 in the semi-finals. Burned by the episode, the comma mark limits risk-taking. A Nike partner in France confirms that for the firm, France was not one of the favorites for the 2018 World Cup, and that the equipment manufacturer has again expressed reservations this year following the cascading injuries (Benzema, Pogba, Kanté, Nkunku…) who touched the French selection before their first match against Australia. “To the question, “will we have 3-star jerseys under the trees in the event of victory?”, the answer is no, tranche Lionel Sirieys. Taking into account the slowdown in global production, we can imagine that Nike produces jerseys in Morocco, to be ready, in the best case, for next spring. And if there is before, it will be a dropper.” In 2018, this shortage of swimsuits had delighted counterfeit sites which sold fake tunics at around fifteen euros.
Nike briefly put on sale this Friday the French jersey branded with a third star on its official website. Quickly corrected by the equipment manufacturer, the error was still widely relayed on social networks.