67

French sports equipment manufacturers were founded during the Belle Époque and the inter-war period. The rationale for their creation was both to commercialise products manufactured in Great Britain and to replace them with articles that were made in France. These companies were based in the Paris region, in regions where hosiery was manufactured and in the West of France. They focused on innovation and sought to create brands linked to sporting excellence by attaching their names to those of well-known soccer players, initially in France and then internationally.After the difficult years of the German Occupation and reconstruction, the revenues of French sports equipment manufacturers grew significantly. Their products were appreciated and foreign markets sales grew to represent 20 to 30 % of production. The market in France expanded with increasing purchasing power and growing numbers of members of the French Football Federation. In addition to these 1,4 million registered football players in 1980, there were many other sports organizations (school, religious or political) and growing numbers of occasional soccer players.These family businesses, however, did not become international groups capable of competing with the German firm Adidas, whose Alsatian subsidiary opened in 1959. In the first half of the 1970s, the football equipment industry in France was weakened by internal tensions, reduced capacity for innovation, over-ambitious investment, the devaluation of the pound and the floating dollar, as well as competition from Asia. Two of the leading French equipment manufacturers, Hungaria and Le Coq Sportif, ended up being acquired by Adidas. Hungaria became a simple subcontractor to Le Coq Sportif, who developed a range of balls and shoes, and some factories were offshored. Since the early 2000s and the sportswear boom, the fortunes of Le Coq Sportif have been revived. Hungaria and another French football equipment firm, Patrick, have been acquired by investors and are, once again, supplying European soccer and rugby clubs.