A Century of Umbro and the Aesthetic of Sporting Englishness

Well before the advent of Adidas, Puma and Nike, English firms branded themselves through sport. However, this has been virtually neglected in the field of costume history.

This one-day free symposium, funded by the Pasold Research Fund and British Society of Sports History will bring together leading inter disciplinary researchers to examine:

1. How an English sporting aesthetic was developed, marketed, and sold,

2. Particularly with regard to football which was undoubtedly pioneered as an international professional spectacle by the Football League after its foundation in 1888.

Formed in 1924, North West firm Umbro helped to evolve professional football as an industry through technical and sartorial innovation that gave an ‘English’ look. Players were still held captive by the Football League’s ‘retain and transfer’ system where clubs, not individuals, held their registration documents. Players were also restricted to a modest, capped wage of £4 per week until the early 1960s. Whilst many 1920s stars wore heavy, functional boots and kits, Herbert Chapman at Arsenal changed this with his own branded items in a self-consciously ‘modern’ style. Most players were, like the fans, considered part of the aristocracy of manual labour. Indeed the great Sir Tom Finney, one of the first footballers to be knighted, was known as ‘the Preston Plumber.’ The largely working-class fans’ only option to experience live football was by watching games in person, but the advent of radio in the 1920s drew new audiences, especially women. Writers created a dichotomy between the lighter ‘continental’ styles and English trends. In contrast to the conservatism of English governing bodies pre-1950 who largely discouraged international competition, the modern English game is now truly international with global representation in domestic and international competition through owners, players and fans. Having been banned for fifty years by the FA in 1921 shortly before Umbro’s foundation, the growth of women’s professional football in today is a key feature of the transformation of the domestic game and its audiences.

Like Adidas, Umbro’s business model began as a family firm, and in many cases such as the development of the replica kit industry as child’s toys in the 1950s, Umbro led what would be global change when adults began to ask for their own replica shirts. Shirt wearing is now a fan monoculture, with nuances of high fashion collaborations and nostalgia. Therefore we aim to use the company as a lens through which to assess the development of the modern English game as a globalised product. We interrogate ‘Englishness’ ‘Britishness’ and national identity, as expressed through a sporting uniform, the football kit, which has become an item of leisurewear, and now a site of high fashion collaboration. Intersecting these ideas with gender, class and race, we examine what constitutes an English football aesthetic, and how this has been developed and reinscribed over time.

Schedule and Speakers (all sessions in second floor room 2.08 in IoS Building)

11:45-12:00 - Welcome

12:00-12:40 - Prof. Andrew Groves and Dr Danielle Sprecher (University of Westminster) – Tailored by Umbro: Football, fashion and the construction and reconstruction of Englishness

12:40-13:10 - Alex Ireland (Author, Pretty Poly: The History of the Football Shirt and Double Diamond: 100 Years of Umbro) - Umbro: Innovating the Iconic

13:10-14:10 - Lunch and discussion

14:10-14:40 - Prof Jean Williams (University of Reading) - Chris Waddle’s Mullet: Umbro and changing celebrity of English footballers

14:40-15:10 - Dr Liza Betts (London College of Fashion) - Casual Class Resistance

15:10-15:40 - Break and discussion

15:40-16:10 - Jacqui McAssey (Liverpool John Moores University) – Football Catalogues and Male Fashion

16:10-16:40 - John Devlin (Author, True Colours book series) - The football shirt: How Umbro established and maintained identities on and off the pitch

16:40-17:00 - Closing remarks and depart

Food and refreshments

No catering is provided as part of the symposium, but there is a hot drink machine (contactless payment) on the ground floor of the building and two coffee shops and a Tescos within 100m of the venue. Food and drink can be brought into the venue.

The organisers would like to express their gratitude to Pasold and BSSH for their financial support.

Host or Publisher Alex Ireland