New York City, United States of America, 1982

Although the market was enormous, Benetton was still only a tiny presence in the United States. No amount of advertising in the present style would help them gain the market share they wanted. This only came with the success among American college students of a football sweater.

It was a simple sweater, in blue and white, with long sleeves and the Benetton name and logo on the front. Students shopping in New York City first bought it and took it back to their colleges in the fall. That winter and the following spring, all these young customers and future opinion-makers wanted to be seen in Benetton.

The success of this single product introduced the Benetton range and the Benetton name to the American market. By 1983, more stores had opened in Manhattan and then in other cities across the country. They all had the Benetton name. The stores were opening faster-four a week-than in any other country, and their average size of between 250 and 300 square meters was larger than the stores in Europe. This increase in sales and stores changed the Benetton management in New York into a national operation with bigger offices in the General Motors building. Here, store owners and people who wanted to own stores came from all over the country to talk business and see the twice- yearly collections.

Traveling enormous distances, Luciano visited every new site and store owner. He seemed to hold the whole business in his head. The foreign media reported his activities. The Benetton name was known from coast to coast, and further west. In Japan, four stores opened and twenty more were planned.

Advertising, which helped this movement around the world, was expensive. The most widely-spread method of communication across rich and poor countries was television, but the cost was high and there was no guarantee that people would watch it in large enough numbers. Luciano observed that there were very few occasions when millions of people around the world sat down and watched television. Sport was one of these occasions.

The most expensive, exciting, and dangerous sport was Formula 1 car racing. The Formula 1 season lasted seven months and moved around the world from place to place. Luciano agreed with Gilberto that for US$4 million, they would sponsor the Tyrrell Formula 1 racing team.