West Ham United has secured a long-term partnership with New Balance, ending speculation about a possible future with Castore and bringing their decade-long relationship with Umbro to a close.
The new deal, set to begin with the 2026–27 season, will see New Balance become the Premier League club’s official technical partner in a five-year agreement that replaces Umbro, who has supplied West Ham’s kits since 2015.
After a formal tender process, West Ham’s commercial team selected New Balance over Castore, delivering a setback to the UK-based sportswear brand. Castore had been positioning itself for a deal under its 2024 agreement with GL Dameck, the current Umbro licensee, giving it first rights to negotiate with Umbro-sponsored clubs once their existing contracts end.
Despite this arrangement, West Ham opted to go in a different direction, bypassing Castore’s right “to seek to work” with them and instead committing to a fresh partnership with New Balance.
Umbro currently outfits a handful of Premier League sides, including AFC Bournemouth, Brentford, and West Ham, though the latter will leave that group at the end of the 2025–26 season. Ipswich Town, another Umbro club, will also depart the top flight following relegation.
Meanwhile, Castore's presence in the Premier League has dwindled. After the 2023–24 season, the brand lost all three of its top-flight contracts, with Aston Villa moving to Adidas, Newcastle United making the same switch, and Wolverhampton Wanderers signing with new UK entrant Sudu. Castore will remain in the league only through Burnley, which returns to the Premier League for the 2025–26 campaign.
For New Balance, this is more than just a new signing — it's a re-entry into Premier League kit sponsorship after a controversial exit in 2020 that ended in court. The West Ham agreement also follows a similar move in Germany, where Bayer Leverkusen broke ties with Castore a year early and will adopt New Balance kits from 2025–26.
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