Umbro History

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The Company Description of Its Time

Technically Umbro is a brand - but there is an important company history behind it, and a word of vocabulary first. In association football, as in a number of sports, 'kit' refers to the standard equipment and attire worn by players; the terms kit, strip, and - in North American English - uniform are used interchangeably.

What Umbro Makes

The Umbro range runs from team kits - shirts, shorts and socks - to training wear, rain jackets, sweatshirts, football boots such as the Speciali line, goalkeeper gloves and balls. Its drill tops, track pants and training tops long ago crossed over from the training ground into everyday street fashion, and Umbro products are sold in more than 100 countries through licensees.

From a Wilmslow Wash House to Wembley

Harold Humphreys was barely out of his teens when he started a sportswear company called Umbro from a tiny wash house on Green Lane in Wilmslow in 1924. The first deliveries were made with a handcart, but within ten years he was dressing Manchester City and Portsmouth for the 1934 FA Cup final at Wembley. By 1966, 85 percent of all British clubs were wearing Umbro, and by then Umbro was known simply as 'the football brand'.

At the 1966 World Cup, Umbro crafted 5,000 different garments to ensure players had the right gear to wear for work, rest and play during the three-week tournament. The visionary Harold Humphreys wanted to bring a tailoring touch to sportswear, to stylishly serve the practical needs of the modern, competitive athlete - an ethos the brand still claims, from Speciali boots, the lightweight revolutionary that remains a professionals' favorite in dressing rooms across the world, to its newest England kits.

Moments Woven Into Football Memory

Even a brief list of memorable Umbro moments is a trip through football history: Pele and Bobby Moore swapping shirts in sweltering Guadalajara in 1970; Alan Shearer wheeling away with his right hand in the air after all those England goals; Michael Owen slaloming through the Argentine defence in St. Etienne; Wayne Rooney's first Premier League goal - Umbro on their backs or on their feet, sometimes both.

Over time, the ever-increasing Umbro range - from trackie bottoms to training tops, rain jackets to sweatshirts - became fashion staples in the schoolyard and on the street, far beyond the professional game the company was built to serve.

Changes of Ownership

In October 2007, U.S. sportswear giant Nike agreed to buy Britain's Umbro in a deal valued at about 285 million pounds (roughly $582 million), aimed at strengthening Nike's position in the market for soccer gear; Forbes reported the offer at $582.2 million, or $3.94 a share, a 61 percent premium over the closing price the day before the approach became known. Five years later the journey continued: in 2012 Nike sold Umbro to Iconix Brand Group for $225 million, and the double diamond has remained a constant through every change of ownership since.

Photos

Fashion Company Names by Letter: Fashion Company U

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