Patrick (sportswear company)

History

Patrick, originally Patrick-Chaussures Techniques, was founded by Patrice Beneteau in 1892. The shoes were manufactured in a small factory in Vendée, France.

Sportsmen who wore Patrick for notable events include Jacques Anquetil winning the Tour de France for the fifth time in 1964, and Michel Platini lifting his third Ballon d'Or in 1985.

The English footballer Kevin Keegan was also notably sponsored by Patrick, before such advertising deals were commonplace, and Patrick football boots became a fashionable brand for English schoolboys in the 1980s. However, in his 1997 autobiography, Keegan later claimed that he was unimpressed with the boots and only wore them for the money.

In the 1990s, Patrick stepped back from football in the face of the sponsorship battles between Nike and Adidas.

Since 2008, Patrick has been part of the Cortina Group.

Frank De Bleeckere, a famous Belgian football referee, collaborated with Patrick in 2009 to promote a shoe especially for referees.

Patrick has become also the official supplier of the referees associations like: Union Nationale des Arbitres de Football, in Belgium and in so many others leagues

Patrick's slogan is L'esprit du sport ("the spirit of sport"). It sponsors White Star Woluwe F.C., Mouscron and Zulte Waregem in Belgium, NEC Nijmegen and PEC Zwolle until 2015/2016 season in the Netherlands; EA Guingamp and Clermont Foot, also US Boulogne (since the 2014/15 season) in France, and FK Sloboda Tuzla in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and in that last year also Chrobry Głogów, Poland and in the last FK Šiauliai, in Lithuania, KF Drita in Kosovo, FC Minsk in Belarus; in this last year Patrick Suppling Sporting San Miguelito (until 2015/16 season, and Tauro F.C. in Panama and C.D. Victoria in Honduras and also USM El Harrach in Algeria.

Products

Patrick manufactures football shoes, running shoes, cycling shoes, basketball shoes, tennis shoes and rugby shoes.