Kappa's dominance in Argentina

One of the hottest competitions in South America is about to begin, the Argentine Primera División, where all the teams will be committed to interrupting the domination of River Plate and Boca Juniors, who have been winning the title for years, alternating in a sort of relay race. But apart from the ruthless domination of two of the teams that have contributed to growing the fame of the Argentine competition in the world, this year Kappa has also managed to establish itself as the brand that sponsors more teams, confirming a special all-Italian dominance. Although Kappa has never left the city of Turin, over the years it has made a name for itself by building up a futuristic and visionary identity during the 1980s, which has evolved in recent years to embody the fortunate, in the field of style and football, antithesis between nostalgia and technology without ever leaving the confines of its mission. The particularity of the Turin brand's roster lies in the type of teams it chooses, most of which belong to small or medium-sized clubs that cannot aspire to an elite contract with a big brand, but neither do they want to settle for a standard supply. The most obvious example is Venezia, who during their sponsorship with Nike only wore standard templates for years and decided to change. The growth of the brand in South America took time and patience, and started in the summer of 2019 when Kappa decided to expand its horizons by signing more and more teams, increasing the colony of clubs overseas. And now, after the success of its jerseys made for Italian teams, Kappa is looking to consolidate its name beyond national borders, putting the classic little men logo back-to-back on the jerseys of Club Atletico Union, Aldosivi, Tigre, Racing and Velez. 

South America is a very particular market, where the big brands such as Nike and adidas are not as present as they are in Europe. In the last few years Nike has been moving away from the market and, as is also happening in Italy, has lost more and more teams each year, this year only with San Lorenzo. adidas, on the other hand, has secured two of the capital's teams, Boca and River, confirming its desire to invest more and more in South America. More generally, Argentine football is experiencing the same trend as the major European leagues, where the share of national brands is well below 50%. 

Among the five jerseys produced by Kappa, the most interesting is undoubtedly the first one of Racing Club de Avellaneda, freely inspired by the one worn by Milito and his teammates in 2001, when the Argentinians won the Apertura championship. The blue jersey is a more or less faithful reproduction of the one that Topper made twenty years ago, the only two differences being the sleeves which have been changed in colour and the pattern added by Kappa to make the jersey more attractive. 

Then comes the Velez shirt, with the inverted Brescia-style stagger, one of the most recognised and original templates in football, perhaps less used than the vertical and horizontal stripes but equally rich in history and tradition. The Velez shirt with the inverted shield is unique and, over the years, has always offered fabulous versions, which in that V, the initial of "victory", encapsulated the club's past and its successes. The list is completed by newcomer CA Tigre, for whom Kappa has created a gradient blue first jersey with a red horizontal band reminiscent of another Italian, Fiorentina. Five different jerseys for five teams, demonstrating that after conquering the Serie A with its designs and templates, Kappa is ready to take on the Argentinean league as well, increasing its dominance outside of Italy year after year.