The encyclopedia · Strategy & Leadership · Strategic decision · 1953–2004
'Ocupar, resistir y producir' — Gatic lost Adidas after 34 years, then lost everything
Argentina's sportswear giant rode one licence for 34 years; when Adidas left, $340M of debt stayed — and workers answered with 'Ocupar, resistir y producir'.
Gatic
HearsayWidely repeated, and we cannot show you a document for it. Read it for the lesson, not as fact.
What it means today
When one partner is 70 percent of revenue, the contract is the company. Gatic lost its licence, its plants and its name in that order; the workers who occupied the ruins priced the concentration the board never did.
What happened
Eduardo Bakchellian, born in Buenos Aires in 1930, founded Gatic in 1953, aged 23, in an 80-square-metre shed in San Martín with eight employees, copying an Italian rubber-soled shoe. The factory grew exponentially; in 1969 came the prize: Gatic became Adidas's licensee in Argentina, the first in Latin America to take the brand. It dressed Argentina at the 1974 World Cup; Huracán, Bakchellian's own club, first wore the logo in mid-1975. At its height Gatic held nearly every major sports brand and gave work to 8,000 people — a whole town employed by him, as his obituary put it.
The 2001 crisis broke the model. On 9 October 2001 Gatic, still the country's principal maker, filed for concurso with a debt of 340 million dollars; sales forecast at 160 million against 210 million the year before. Three factories closed, 2,900 laid off; imports had tripled since 1991. In December sales fell between 50 and 70 percent. Then, after 34 years, Adidas did not renew: 3,200 suspended without pay across its five Buenos Aires and two La Rioja plants. A cautelar let Gatic produce for a while; in December 2002 a ruling gave Adidas its reason — the licence was 70 percent of revenue.
On 15 September 2004 commercial judge Gutiérrez Cabello decreed the quiebra: the 1953-founded company, 19 plants and some 6,000 workers, owed 177.7 million dollars plus 33 million more; main creditors the AFIP and three public banks; the trigger: 4.5 million owed to the employees. A sale to the consortium Indular died with the ruling. At Pigüé managers abandoned the plant around September 2003; workers entered late that year under Ocupar, resistir y producir. On 12 August 2004 they were evicted by hundreds of police; the cooperative, founded that February, won expropriation in December.
The telling is the cooperative itself. By 2014 it had settled the creditors' debts and expropriated the factory; by 2024 it counted 180 workers, and a second Gatic plant had become Cooperativa Unidos por el Calzado. A 2014 book kept the first ten years of the recovery; on the 22nd anniversary, in 2026, the workers wrote that the ghost of what happened with Gatic revives with macroeconomic policies copied from the 90s — an agony of almost ten years, and the fate of 8,000 workers. Bakchellian died in July 2022, past ninety, having never missed a day at his San Martín factory.
Why it happened
- One licence was the business: 70 percent of revenue came from Adidas, so the 2002 non-renewal was not the loss of a brand but of the company.
- The debt outran every rescue: 340 million dollars at the 2001 concurso, 177.7 million plus 33 million at the 2004 quiebra — and the Indular sale died with it.
- The workers kept what the owners abandoned: the managers left Pigüé in 2003; the occupied factory outlived the company that owed its own people millions.
The lesson
A licence can be the whole business. Gatic rode Adidas for 34 years and gave work to 8,000; when the licence left, only the workers who occupied the ruins kept the name producing.
Sources
- La Nación — Gatic se presentó en concurso de acreedores (10 October 2001: filed 9 October; debt of US$ 340 million; the country's principal sportswear manufacturer; licences for Adidas, L.A. Gear, Arena, Le Coq Sportif and Asics; three factories closed and 2,900 laid off; 2001 sales forecast at US$ 160 million against 210 million in 2000)
- La Nación — Gatic ya no tiene la licencia de Adidas pero sería la proveedora (6 February 2002: 'Después de una relación de 34 años, la compañía alemana Adidas-Salomon y la local Gatic no llegaron a un acuerdo para renovar el contrato de licencia'; December 2001 sales fell 50 to 70 percent; 3,200 workers suspended without pay since mid-December; five plants in Buenos Aires province and two in La Rioja; sector imports practically tripled since the 1991 opening; an estimated 15,000 direct jobs lost in the decade)
- La Nación — Gatic perdió la licencia de la marca Adidas (6 December 2002: 'Gatic tenía la licencia de Adidas desde 1969'; 'el 70% de su facturación corresponde a productos de Adidas'; the week's court ruling gave Adidas its reason and bars Gatic from operating the licence; the bankruptcy judge had accepted a cautelar ordering no innovation in the rescission, temporarily authorizing Gatic to keep making the German brand's products)
- Diario Judicial — Tres tiras quebradas (15 September 2004: commercial court N°7, judge Juan Gutiérrez Cabello, decrees the quiebra of Gatic S.A.; founded 1953; 19 plants nationwide; around 6,000 workers; debt of 177.7 million dollars plus 33 million more since the factory closures; main creditors the AFIP and the banks of the Nación, the Ciudad de Buenos Aires and the Provincia; the failed sale to Indular Manufactura S.A.; workers' amparo alleging fraude al Estado; the petition caused by a 4.5-million-peso liability to the employees)
- Infocalzado — Despiden a Eduardo Bakchellian, creador de Gatic S.A. (15 July 2022 obituary: born Buenos Aires 1930; began gluing shoe soles; founded Gatic 23 years later in 'un pequeño galpón de apenas 80 metros cuadrados en la localidad de San Martín y con solo 8 empleados'; 1969 first Adidas licensee in Latin America; dressed the national team at the '74 World Cup; Huracán, his club, first wore the logo in mid-1975; 'Llegó a darle trabajo 8.000 personas, un pueblo entero teniendo empleo gracias a él'; past 90 he never missed a day at the San Martín factory)
- Idelcoop Revista — Resistencia hecha fábrica: entrevista a Francisco Martínez, asociado fundador de Textiles Pigüé (nº 217, November 2015: Gatic 'llegó a emplear a 8.000 personas en todo el país y a tener cinco fábricas en la provincia de Buenos Aires'; 'llegó a deberle a bancos, a los trabajadores y a la AFIP cerca de $1.000 millones... A los trabajadores solos, les debían más de 300 millones'; managers abandoned Pigüé around September 2003; occupation late 2003 under 'Ocupar, resistir y producir'; eviction 12 August 2004 by 250 police; expropriation law 22 December 2004; cooperative founded 20 February 2004; 220 workers at closure, 150 in 2015)
- Cooperative.co — Cooperativa de Trabajo Textiles Pigüé (93 workers occupied and kept the machines running almost a year; evicted in 2004 by 300 police; government reversed course; 'finally in 2014 settling creditor debts and expropriating the factory for the workers'; doubled to 180 workers by 2024; a second ex-Gatic plant became Cooperativa Unidos por el Calzado; cites the 2014 book Cooperativa Textiles Pigüé: historia de la recuperación de una fábrica de Gatic, Ruggeri et al.)
- Ansol / elDIARIO de la región — La empresa recuperada Pigüé cumplió 22 años (23 February 2026: 'Textiles Pigüé celebró el 22° aniversario desde que fue recuperada por las y los trabajadores, en 2004, cuando cerró de forma definitiva el gigante textil Gatic'; 'una agonía de casi diez años... el destino de 8 mil trabajadores'; 'el fantasma de lo ocurrido con Gatic revive con políticas macroeconómicas calcadas de los 90')
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