Macron

Macron began in Bologna in 1971, not as a design house but as the Italian distributor for MacGregor USA, bringing American baseball equipment into the domestic market. Three years later, in 1974, the company acquired Record Sports and widened its distribution into volleyball, basketball and baseball kit for professional teams. Through the 1980s Macron shifted from pure distribution into manufacturing, producing apparel under contract for established sports brands including Champion, learning garment production before building anything of its own. Its own branded line followed in the 1990s, still alongside continued third-party manufacturing work. The company's move into football came in 2001, when it signed its first kit-supply contract with a professional club, Bologna FC, in its home city. International licensing expanded from 2005, and in 2007 Macron began producing rugby and handball apparel, entering a category where it would later become a significant supplier. In 2013 it signed its first national-team rugby sponsorship, with Scottish Rugby. From a baseball-equipment importer, the company grew into a technical kit supplier now under contract to more than a hundred professional clubs, national teams and federations across more than twenty-five countries, still headquartered in Bologna.