New Balance x Athletic Bilbao
Our photographer and product expert started the journey with the New Balance crew at San Mamés, which is the home of mighty Athletic Bilbao, before the Athletic player bus picked up the participants and drove them to the club’s training pitch, where the big action was about to begin!
When our guys arrived at the training pitch, the New Balance team awaited them, and they had prepared fresh new New Balance training clothes and the new Furon v5 and Tekela v1 for them to test out, some sweet stuff! New Balance had set some courses up, where the participants could test their #unstoppable speed or their #untouchable playstyle, with the New Balance football boots. But it wouldn’t be the same without the Athletic Bilbao coaches, no offense New Balance you did great during the day, so they also hooked the participants up with two coaches from Athletic Bilbao’s second team.
Athletic has a unique approach to recruitment. A player has to be born locally or trained locally within the Basque region to represent the club, with the vast majority of players coming through the Club’s Lezama academy. For the past five years running, at least two academy players have graduated to the first team EACH YEAR. In total, 85% of the current first team have come through the academy. Now that's what we call an impressive youth academy!
After some hours on the pitches, creating magic and loads of fun, the participants packed their stuff and headed back to San Mamés, where a tour at the iconic stadium awaited them. The trip gave a lot of knowledge about the club in general, and insights to the Athletic Bilbao kit history. The tour also included pitch-side access, sitting on the benches and visiting the players’ locker room.
Read more about the new Furon v5.
Continued below.