Nike to Sell Umbro
Umbro, the UK-based football brand is to be divested by its parent company Nike.
Umbro was bought by Nike in 2008 and almost immediately rebranded with the Tailored By range. Cited as inspirational in the football kit evolution towards more understated designs from the rest of the "big four" (Puma, adidas and Nike), Tailored By was lauded by sports fashion commentators and quickly built up Umbro's credibility, which had been lagging in previous years.
However, despite increased expenditure and high-profile marketing campaigns - including England shirt launches employing stars of other sports and music - revenue in 2011 was lower than back in 2006 and ongoing losses have led Nike to the conclusion that they should focus on the core brand and other better performing areas such as Jordan and Converse.
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What the future holds for Umbro may be a sale to another manufacturer, such as adidas, or it may be that Umbro can somehow return to being self-sufficient - in line with reduced funding from Nike. Other scenarios are worryingly bleaker.
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Comments
Warrior get a respected name and avoid all the 'mickey mouse brand' rubbish that's been going around. They also would (probably) get the likes of Aitor Throup and all the good design/tailoring/atmosphere of Umbro.
Umbro get the kind of financial backing that chucks £25m at a kit deal with LFC.
It would work quite well, no?
Apart from the most recent England kit, the umbro 'Tailored by' range has been fantastic and its a real pity that Nike don't think that it has been worthwhile. If Warrior were to buy umbro then we would see two brands who understand and care about the history and heritage of the clubs that they supply join forces. Both brands are capable of something unique, unlike adidas and Nike who churn out limited, uninspired crap over and over again.
That's one conspiracy theory.
Maybe another manufacturer will buy the rights to the brand like JD did with Fila and Canterbury.
Goes to show you are an idiot and do not know how the buisness world works
Yes, Nike are in it to make money. Umbro is not making money.
England have had Admiral as a shirt sponsor as well as Umbro
Then Nike bought Umbro, and things hit rock bottom pretty quickly.
Ultimately, Umbro being bought by another brand (that isn't Adidas or Puma) or going out of business is better than staying in Nike's grubby mits.
Buy up a competitor. Produce really expensive kits for a handful of clubs with comparatively small fanbases.
Make them a fancy new website after extensive, expensive rebranding. Don't actually allow people to buy any of your products from the website.
Produce stunning kits for Peruvian clubs most people have never heard of. Do not distribute said kits outside of Peru.
Allow all of their contracts with English clubs to lapse.
Release a hugely expensive range of "concept wear" - entirely in grey.
Bring out a new England kit every 9 months, but reduce the price so that retailers can sell them for £10 each after a couple of months, ensuring nobody buys them at full price when they are released.
Only sponsor players with extremely limited appeal such as Michael Owen and Darren Bent.
In the midst of a revival in interest in vintage football shirts only re-release old England and Manchester City shirts. Do not attempt to target a wider audience with their products.
Sign up Umbro's most successful club to Nike.
Announce with mock surprise that your business model for Umbro has not been financially viable and that you are about to sell.
Hmm. It's almost as though Nike wanted Umbro to fail...
It was rhetorical mate, i'm quite aware of Nike's dirty deeds.
Nike simply didn't give Umbro enough market share to be successful. They needed to merge more fully and then transfer a bunch of big sponsorships to re-establish the brand. They should have given them one of their top English club teams (Arsenal or Man U, or even Aston Villa or Everton), a big South American team (like Santos, Corinthians, or Boca Juniors), a club in Russia, another couple clubs in France, a handful of German clubs, and a few more competitive national sides. They also put almost 0 effort into their boot line, which should have been completely revamped to match the Nike line in terms of quality and diversity.
Nike seemed intent on leaving Umbro as a 2nd or 3rd tier brand, below Puma, Adidas, and themsleves, when they should have been building the company to match those others
All in all, it's really sad because Umbro has been putting out some QUALITY kits for their marquee clubs and countries in my opinion, and I don't want to see them go to shite again.
first off we may view Nike as the villain here but ever since they bought Umbro the Tailored By brand has revolutionized the football design world. its almost if not is mainstream to design a polo shirt and call it tailored. it really was a fresh air that we havent seen in Umbro before 2008. so for that i give Nike thanks for pumping some class back into Umbro by doing a complete overhaul of the brand
however i competley agree with Sloth the name of the game is money. Who is wearing your shirt and who is promoting it. and i dont want to basically repeat Sloth's point but its very true Umbro didnt have too much room to play in. they basically only had England and Man City. and something that i noticed was that Umbro wasnt to revolutionary when it came to technology. i dont know how much autonomy Nike gave to Umbro but when it came to the kits Umbro focused to much on the tailored look and cotton comfort but nothing else that really put Umbro up on par with Nike and adidas. and when it came down to the boots they are basically Nike boot chasis with Umbro designs. dont get me wrong Nike/Umbro's boots are the best i am a proud owner of a pair of Umbro GT II and they are by far the best boots i have ever worn (i didnt think the nike t90 stud layout was going to work on a speed boot but it does the job very very well). but there was nothing that really set Umbro apart from Nike cleat wise. it kind of reminds me here in the states we have Ford and we have Lincoln all lincoln is is a ford with wood trimming, thats it.
i think Nike genuinely tried to make Umbro work i mean what company would buy another company just for it to fail? and side note the nationality of a brand has nothing to do with whether a company succeeds or fails. look at adidas and reebok, reebok shrunk from making football kits to just making athletic equipment. and guess what adidas is german. anyways idk i hope Umbro can get some funding from Nike and start up again as a independent. if Umbro can combine the Tailored by approach with the same technology know how that umbro had before the take over im sure they'd be a great brand. but unless nike can give umbro a second chance i hope Umbro doesnt fall into the hands of another brand be it adidas or puma.
There was a time from the end of the 80s until the mid 90s when Umbro were great. Plenty of innovation and a proper brand leader in kit design. They need some of that magic back.
And its not about respect (or lack of) from Nike. The fact is Umbro don't have the assets (players or teams) to leverage sales.
Tho have had countless Umbro classics.... The tailored by gear was decent too tho not many clubs in the stable
Absolutely fantastically summed up.
Let' s hope they find financial stability and keep on pruducing their great tailored by kits but remember, the "panels" concept was already there [see England Away 2009], Umbro has always been technically and aesthetically superior even before the "new course". A retro flavour was always kept even in the modern designs pre-"tailored by"
If Nike kill them off that's 88 years of history down the pan, and that's a crying shame.
Sorry but in addition to supreme aesthetics there is also much thought study and technology in Umbro kits.
Or do you think technology means employing "politically correct" plastic bottles to make kits that absolutely DO NOT DRY ("dri fit" my feet...)? (see Barcelona & other complaints last year).
I am glad you recognise your Umbro boots are the best, let me remind you that the Umbro Speciali line has an Italian name because they had it hand made in Italy with Italian leather, and theu were the first to do so, so forget the Ronaldinho Nike boots and all that rubbish, which in the least has come with 20 years delay. The template, if there is one, is Umbro' s and not the other way around. Umbro have simply followed with class in the new fashion of multicolour "space boots" with diagonal laces etc. but with their distinctive trademark and quality.
Umbro now just need to find stability and manage to fit in the few spaces agressive nike puma adidas are leaving (only because clubs just look at the packfuls of money they are being offered for sponsorships), the way joma, errea or macron are doing with contracts aboroad and starting even from small teams. I mean, the latter is Italian and relatively new, and if even Diadora managed to sponsor Scotland, it can' t be that difficult!!!
But I do not see another way to go... Situation is complicated, but maybe tight cost control and investment should allow them to break new markets, even though we would be back to pre-2008, when Umbro for example "discovered" futsal and beach soccer, only to be soon followed by our friend Nike who barged in also there with shedfuls of banknotes. There is almost no escape, the big ones will simply wait for you to find something new and then come in and kick you out, but maybe also starting from basics in "obscure" or less heard of countries might help creating a good base so as to wait for the big shot at some big club at the end of previous contracts.
Shame.
http://www.scotsman.com/the-scotsman/business/mike-ashley-s-sports-direct-makes-play-for-kit-maker-umbro-1-2336945
Possible rebranding as SportsDirect.com Tailored By Umbro can't be far behind.
NIKE É UMA MERDA AQUI É ADIDAS PORRAAAAAAAAAA
O BONDE DAS 3 LISTRAS!!!!!
ESPANHA NÃO PASSA DA 1ª FASE DA EURO!!!
VAI DAR SUÉCIA NESSE CARALHO, PQP!!!!!
The 'Tailored by' range was a breath of fresh air and kind of made football kits fashionable. The other brands then seemed to latch on to the retro theme with their kits.
Nike should look at their own brand. Their kits are horrible this year. Arsenal have have really nice Nike kits but the last two kits (2011/12 + 2012/13) have been awful, especially the 2011/12 away kit.
Just home Umbro can survive as it has so much history and as i've said is my favourite kit manufacturer.
Never really been a fan of Nike kits.
They did give umbro Santos