The 2012–13 season was Derby County's 107th season in the Football League and their 114th overall in league football. It was their fifth consecutive season in the second tier following the previous campaign and their 45th overall.

Nigel Clough described the season as being "Frustratingly close to being in the top six (but) we were also very pleased with the level of performances, home and away." Steve Nicholson of the Derby Telegraph added that Derby's 10th-placed finish was "thoroughly deserved" and noted that only the small size of the squad, combined with injuries and a lack of signings in the January transfer window, meant that the club did not qualify for the playoffs. He also praised Derby's home form, their best in six years, and noted that "foundations are in place" for a top six finish.

Six of Derby's players featured in the Actim Index’s top 100 players for the 2012–13 Football League Championship; Richard Keogh (19), Paul Coutts (37), Jeff Hendrick (58), Conor Sammon (61), Craig Bryson (84) and Jamie Ward (87).

On 15 June 2012, Derby County confirmed that Kappa would take over from Adidas as the club's kit supplier, the deal would last until the 2017–18 season. The club's new kit designs were released later in the summer. Derby's away kit design was released on 1 July 2012, an all back design with hints of orange from the kit sponsor buymobiles.net and Kappa, the club also reverted to showing the traditional Ram on the shirt, rather than the full club logo.

The home kit design was released on 16 July 2012, earlier than anticipated due to a website error which leaked to kit designs early. Like the away kit, the traditional Ram instead of the club's logo was on the shirt with kit colours being the traditional white shirts and black shorts. The kit was first worn by the team in the home pre-season friendly against Sunderland, with kit going on general sale from 17 August 2012, a day before the start of the league season.

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