History
Topper was founded in Argentina in 1975, as a subsidiary of Alpargatas. During its first decade of existence, Topper launched its canvas shoes, 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.
During the 1980s Topper became one of the most important sportsbrads 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 has 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.
In 2012 Topper brought a lawsuit against club Estudiantes de La Plata for $13 million. 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. Adidas and Estudiantes had signed for US$3 million for 3 years. 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.
Read more about this topic: Topper (sports)
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