Manchester City’s players wore modified training gear for their pre-match warm-up on Sunday following a High Court trademark infringement claim from fashion brand Superdry.
It emerged last week that City are being sued for damages over the use of the words Super Dry — a type of beer sold by one of their main sponsors, Asahi — on their training kit.
Some immediate implications have become apparent: up until Wednesday, January 3, the day Superdry’s claim was first reported by Law360, City’s players have worn bibs, sweatshirts and coats that bear the words ‘Asahi Super “Dry”’ in training and before matches.
Since the middle of last week, however, and including for the warm-up before their FA Cup match with Huddersfield Town on Sunday, the players’ clothing has been changed to ‘Asahi 0.0%’. City wore training tops without the ‘Super “Dry”’ branding at the weekend
But with Superdry, the UK-based clothing brand, also seeking an injunction and financial damages, and even the option to ‘destroy’ City’s ‘Super “Dry”’-branded training gear, there will be more developments to come.
Here, The Athletic explains what we know so far and what could come next.
What does Superdry want and why?
Superdry alleged City “benefit unfairly” from “riding on the coattails of… well-known Superdry registrations” and argues its own brand could be “tarnished” by poor quality clothing items sold by City.
It also claims there is potential for its brand to be affected by “negative perceptions or preconceptions of Manchester City Football Club in the minds of e.g. supporters of rival football clubs” and says the club’s use of Super “Dry” branding could do “damage to the reputation of Superdry”.Superdry submitted that “the appearance of the (training) kit is liable to deceive a substantial number of members of the UK public into believing that the (training) kit is clothing designed or sold by (Superdry)”.
The value of City’s training kit sponsorship with Asahi was not made available publicly, although it was reported the club’s previous partner, OKX, paid $20million (£18.5m) for the 2022-23 season and therefore speculated that the new agreement would fall in a similar bracket. City’s players wearing the Super “Dry” training gear at the end of December
Superdry claims City have “profited very substantially” from the sponsorship deal related to the branding on the training kit and that they have “engaged in… infringing activities knowingly and/or with reasonable grounds for knowing that Superdry was a well-known clothing brand” that had not given its permission.
In documents submitted on December 15 — and seen by The Athletic — Superdry sets out to highlight its popularity as a brand, highlighting its 98 UK stores, several well-followed social media pages and awards won, as well as listing celebrities such as David Beckham, Neymar Jr and Kylie Jenner to have worn its clothing.
City announced in July that beer brand Asahi Super “Dry” would feature on both the men’s and women’s training gear throughout 2023-24.
There is no set date for any further court hearings and it is unknown when there will be a resolution.
Superdry, Asahi and Manchester City all declined to comment.
GO DEEPER
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