Topper (sports)

Topper is an Brazilian sportswear brand owned by "BRS Comercio e Industria de Material Esportivo SA", headquartered in São Paulo.[1] The company has business in South America, mainly in Brazil, Uruguay and Argentina, where it manufactures a wide range of products from footwear to clothing, with sports equipment for football, basketball, futsal, rugby union, tennis and volleyball.

Topper
TypeSubsidiary
Industry
Founded1975 (1975)
FounderAlpargatas Argentina
Headquarters
São Paulo [1]
,
Brazil
Area served
South America, Asia
Products
ParentBRS [2]
Websitetopper.com.br

In Argentina, Topper is still owned by the local Alpargatas Company.[3]

History
Racing Club jersey made by Topper and gifted to former Argentine President Néstor Kirchner

Topper was founded in Argentina in 1975, as a subsidiary of Alpargatas, the leading textile manufacturer in the country that had been established in 1885.[3] During its first decade of existence, Topper launched its canvas shoe, a model of casual footwear which would soon reached not only a huge success but also became the most representative product of the firm in Argentina, and being considered a real "classic" since then.[4]

During the 1980s Topper became one of the most important sportswear brands of Argentina, signing deals with clubs such as Independiente, Ferro Carril Oeste and Estudiantes de La Plata. Most of those teams won several championships (not only in football but in basketball) during that era.

In recent years, Topper supplied garments for the basketball and volleyball national teams. The company also signed new contracts with former teams Independiente and Estudiantes and made new agreements with football teams Racing and Newell's Old Boys and rugby union clubs San Isidro and Hindú.

The brand was also the official supplier for the Argentina national rugby union team (known as Los Pumas) from 2000 to 2004.

In 2007 Alpargatas Argentina was sold to São Paulo Alpargatas (owner of Topper in Brazil), a Camargo Correa group company.[5][6]

In 2012 Topper brought a lawsuit against club Estudiantes de La Plata for $13 million.[7] The brand accused Estudiantes of "breach of contract" due to the club had switched to German company Adidas in 2011, while the deal with Topper was still active.[8] Adidas and Estudiantes had signed for US$3 million for 3 years.[9] Topper alleged that there was a clause stating that Estudiantes was forced to continue being sponsored by Topper if other brands offered the same amount of money to be their uniform supplier.[7]

In 2018, Alpargatas Brazil sold the brand Topper to "BRS Comercio e Industria de Material Esportivo SA" for a total of R$ 40 million.[2] BRS is a holding company composed by a group of investors led by Carlos Martins. The contract signed included the license for the use of the brand "Topper" in the US and China.[10]

Products

The following chart contains all the product lines by Topper in Argentina and Brazil.[11]

Rugby union and association football balls manufactured by Topper
Sport Range of products
FootballKits,[note 1] balls
BasketballFootwear, balls
FutsalBalls
Rugby unionBalls
TennisBalls
VolleyballBalls
AccessoriesBags, Caps, pumps
ApparelT-shirts, shorts, hoodies, leggins, flight jackets
Notes
  1. Football equipment include jerseys, shorts, socks, boots, goalkeeper gloves, shin guards.

Sponsorships

The following teams, associations and players are sponsored by Topper:

Associations

Clubs

Players

Rugby union

Tennis

References
  1. BRS Comercio e Industria de Material Esportivo SA profile on Bloomberg
  2. Alpargatas conclui venda de fatia na Topper by Paula Selmi on Valor (Económico), 4 Dec 2018
  3. History of Topper on Alpargatas Argentine website Archived 2010-02-10 at the Wayback Machine
  4. Denme una zapatilla de lona y moveré el mundo on Argentine Marketing blog, 3 Apr 2006
  5. Brasil ya manda en seis sectores clave de la economía argentina, Clarín, 2007-02-26
  6. Camargo Correa relanzará Topper on Infobae Profesional, 2008-01-25
  7. "Topper demanda a Estudiantes por 13 millones de pesos", Diagonales.com, 28 September 2012
  8. "Demanda millonaria de Topper contra Estudiantes", AreaCapital.net Archived 2013-04-13 at Archive.today
  9. "Topper demanda a Estudiantes por el cambio a Adidas", ArteySportweb
  10. ALPARGATAS CONCLUI VENDA DA TOPPER E RAINHA PARA CARLOS WIZARD MARTINS by Estadão Conteúdo, 3 May 2016
  11. Accesorios on Topper website (ARG), 4 Jul 2019
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