Mexican Taekwondo Federation gives “pirate” Adidas jerseys to Poomsae national team in Chuncheon

Chuncheon, autumn 2026. At the World Taekwondo Poomsae Championships, held from September 16 to 20, I watched a small group of Mexican athletes stand in a corridor, carefully pressing patches printed with the word “poomsae” over the Adidas logo on their shirts. The shirts were not official Adidas products. They were replicas of the jersey worn by the Mexico national football team during the 2026 World Cup. The right chest carried a Mexican flag below the three Adidas stripes. The left chest displayed the words “Taekwondo México” instead of the Mexican Football Federation crest. The sleeves carried the World Taekwondo logo and the FMTKD institutional mark. The Mexican Taekwondo Federation, known as FMTKD, had distributed these counterfeit shirts to the national Poomsae team as part of their travel and identification kit. According to the original Spanish-language report, FMTKD bought and distributed non-original Adidas garments, a decision that violated intellectual property rules and World Taekwondo regulations. To avoid possible administrative sanctions, the federation ordered the athletes to cover the Adidas logo with patches printed with the word “poomsae.” The move caused discomfort among team members and staff traveling with the delegation. The official competition uniform, the dobok, remained unchanged, but the travel kit itself became a public sign of weak management. The federation is currently operating without financial support from Conade, Mexico’s National Commission for Physical Culture and Sport, because it lacks the Registro Único del Deporte, or RUD. This means FMTKD has to fund itself through affiliation fees and event income. Financial hardship can explain why an organization looks for cheaper apparel, but it does not justify using counterfeit goods. There are many lawful ways to save money. A simple shirt without a sponsor logo would have been safer, cheaper and more honest. The athletics did their part despite the chaos. Miguel Ángel Moreno won a silver medal in the individual under-17 freestyle event, and he also took a bronze medal in the pair freestyle event alongside Sofía Lee. Their results prove that the athletes themselves are not the problem. The problem is the system around them. A federation that cannot provide compliant travel apparel is a federation that has failed a basic governance test. The deeper issue here is not one jersey. It is the absence of quality control, the absence of accountability, and the absence of a culture that treats athletes with dignity. When an athlete is handed a fake shirt and told to cover the logo with a patch at a world championship, that athlete learns that they cannot rely on their own organization. Over time, that feeling erodes confidence and undermines performance. A single rhythm does not make a piece of music; one match does not create a football career. Likewise, one counterfeit shirt may not destroy a taekwondo team, but it exposes how far the organization is willing to go to cut corners. This is a lesson for every sports federation, not just in Mexico but around the world. Sustainable success is built on honest preparation. The moment a federation chooses a quick fix over a correct fix, it places its athletes at risk. The federation may cover the logo, but it cannot cover up the truth. The question now is whether the leaders of FMTKD, and the wider Mexican sports system, are ready to look at what happened in Chuncheon and change the way they do business.