Has the Portuguese Football Federation warned Supreme?

As usual, in mid-February of this year, Supreme New York released the lookbook for the new season on its website and Instagram: outerwear of all kinds, the most imaginative accessories, and, as always, plenty of items inspired by the sports world, including the recurring collaboration with Umbro, which focuses on the aesthetic of terrace culture. Among all the items, a tracksuit stands out, featuring the Portuguese national team’s colors, with the crest applied to the upper area of the jacket and pants. A tracksuit inspired by the color blocking sported by the Portuguese team in various years: 1997, 1998, 2002, to name a few. Furthermore, even the outline of the design, clearly highlighted by a gold trim visible on the 2002 Home shirt, has been literally copied.

In short, Supreme played its game, a brand that since 1994 has made irreverence and bootleg culture the cornerstones of its identity. On the other side, there’s the tendency to draw inspiration from football: despite its strong connection to the world of skateboarding, football is another driving force behind Supreme New York’s items in every collection, a common modus operandi also characteristic of Palace Skateboarding, Aimé Leon Dore; in short, all American brands where football – both European and otherwise – exerts an extremely magnetic allure.

Well, after presenting the lookbook with the items inspired by Portugal, Supreme New York later updated the images of the tracksuit on the website, which, to clarify, have not yet been released on the market. In the new version, the Portuguese national team’s crest was replaced with a custom logo created by the New York-based brand: a red outline, gold and blue details inside, a logo that appears on all colorways of the tracksuit. So, if Supreme replaced the logo, something must have happened between the two parties. The simplest explanation suggests that the Portuguese Federation allegedly accused Supreme, sending a formal warning to have the logo removed before taking legal action.