New Balance Rebranding - The Story of Warrior Football
Warrior Football is set to rebranded to mother company's New Balance brand very soon. In this article we want to take a look at two and a half years of Warrior sports in football.
Warrior Sports made its first appearance in the football market when it signed a record-breaking six-year kit deal with Premier League giants Liverpool in 2012, following on previous sponsor Adidas. Warrior Football quickly signed more teams and are now most-notably kit suppliers for Porto, Sevilla and Stoke City, besides Liverpool. Warrior Football Kits have been discussed very controversially over the years due to their untraditional designs.
Warrior Football Boots
In late 2012, Warrior Football also entered the football boots market, launching the original Warrior Skreamer soccer cleats, debuted by Warrior's first major player signing Marouane Fellaini. Currently, the second generation of the Warrior Skreamer, released in summer 2014, is being worn by the likes of Vincent Kompany and Fernando Reges of Manchester City.
In the summer of 2013, Warrior Football introduced their second boot silo, the Warrior Gambler, a control cleat. Later that year Warrior unveiled the third silo, the speed boot Warrior Superheat.
Similar to Warrior's football shirts, the Warrior Football Boots also feature very uncommon designs and flashy colors.
In fall 2014, rumors began to spread about the Warrior's exit from the football market, which quickly gained ground with the early Liverpool 15-16 Kits leak, which featured the New Balance logo.
Shortly after, several players like Samir Nasri, Aaron Ramsey and Adnan Januzaj began to wear unknown unbranded football boots. In November 2014, Aaron Ramsey debuted the all-new New Balance football boot in an European Qualifiers match against Belgium. Long-time Warrior Football ambassador Marouane Fellaini also laced up in a blacked-out version of said boots when training with Belgium.
The New Balance 2015 football boot features a honeycomb structure, similar to the Nike Hypervenom, while it also appears to follow a much more reserved coloring and branding compared to previous Warrior football boots.
Killing off the Warrior Football brand after just over two years is a very drastic action to take by New Balance, but it makes sense considering Warrior's fail to make a lasting impact, especially on the football boot market.
An interesting future lies ahead for the New Balance football brand and the more traditional approach expected to be taken by New Balance seems the right way to go if they want to challenge the likes of Mizuno, Puma or Umbro. They also have a good selection of sponsored players, while even more high-profile athletes like Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Robin van Persie appear to be out of contract and available to sign.
