New Balance will supply Celtic's kit, training wear and equipment from the 2015/16 season onwards.
Celtic will join a growing number of New Balance-sponsored clubs from the world’s top football leagues, including Liverpool, Sevilla and Porto.
While the club backs New Balance’s vision to build on its global presence, the Scottish Champions will be helped in their international growth aspirations through access to New Balance’s extensive global network of retail outlets.
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Speaking at today’s launch at Celtic Park, Peter Lawwell said: “I’m absolutely delighted to announce that New Balance will be our new kit sponsor and partner. Everyone at the club is thrilled about it.
“This is a fantastic global brand that will sit along perfectly with Celtic. It will be our biggest kit sponsorship deal ever, and we believe it’s the biggest in Scottish football history. We're bound by commercial terms of the values but safe to say, it’s a multi-million pound deal over five years
“It’s a fantastic achievement and I would like to thank Adrian Filby and our commercial team who have worked tirelessly to bring this together.
"We had a very good partner in Nike for the last 10 years and I would like to take the opportunity to thank them.
“But as time goes on, circumstances change and we went out to the market and found New Balance, and we are delighted to join Liverpool, Sevilla and Porto – great football brands.
“In challenging times for Scottish football, it does show the esteem and regard that Celtic are still held in throughout the football world. It’s a great announcement. It’s great for Celtic and Scottish football and extremely positive.
“There is some degree of negativity around at the moment in terms of the league and with this deal we have shown there is still a real degree of positivity around – and positivity around this club.
“Celtic are still regarded as a first-class top European football club, a global football club, and this aligns itself to that. New Balance are a global brand with global aspirations, the same as Celtic.”
New Balance have recently made a major move into the football world, sponsoring some of the most famous teams and players in European football.
And Richard Wright, General Manager of New Balance Football, described the partnership with Celtic as a momentous moment in the global sports giant’s history.
He said “I am delighted to formally announce the partnership between New Balance and Celtic but delighted is probably an understatement – I’m really proud.
“We are about 20 years younger than Celtic, but we still have a century under our belts. We have only just announced a month ago – February 4 – our move into the sport of football, the world’s biggest sport. It was a huge decision for the brand.
“We launched in London, Sydney, New York and Tokyo to show our global aspirations in the sport. Today it was rounded off by this announcement, which is a big day in the New Balance brand history.
“Our goals are well aligned. Celtic’s desire to grow both domestically and globally are entirely in line with what we want to do. We are a worldwide athletic brand, and after about a year working together in the relationship, designing and developing products and marketing campaign, I believe we have a great relationship already.
“For us as a brand, Celtic are regular contenders in the Champions League, the Europa League and of course, domestically – this is where New Balance wants to be.
“We want to be on the European stage and also the global stage, which is truly important to us. Lastly, but certainly not least, Celtic fans are everywhere in the world, and we as a brand we want to be with them and the club hand-in-hand going forward.”
Manager Ronny Deila also attended the launch event, and the Chief Executive paid tribute to the Norwegian’s tenure of the team since his appointment last summer, with the Hoops still on course for a domestic treble.
Peter Lawwell added: “We are delighted. Ronny has come in and changed things. It’s a year of transition for us which we all expected.
“It takes time for people to get used to change. We haven’t won anything yet and have a long way to go but we are really delighted with the progress and we are looking forward to having him here for a long time, developing Celtic and creating a fantastic team we can all be proud of.
“Everything at Celtic is around your budget and this will help provide finance for Ronny and the team. It’s a complicated business, and it’s our job to increase the top line to make sure we take the football team as far as we can.”
