Admiral Sportswear
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| Private company | |
| Industry | Textile |
| Founded | 1914 Leicester, United Kingdom |
| Headquarters | Manchester, United Kingdom |
| Products |
Sportswear Footwear Accessories |
| Website | admiralsportswear |
Admiral Sportswear is a British internationally recognized football, cricket and sportswear brand. It reached the peak of its success in the 1970s and early 1980s through a series of prestigious football team sponsorships.
The Admiral trademark was created in 1914 by Cook & Hurst Ltd, a Leicester-based company, manufacturing quality underwear and, subsequently, items of sportswear. When England won the World Cup in 1966, Bert Patrick, the owner of Cook & Hurst Ltd, commenced manufacturing and marketing football kits.The kits sales were aimed at the juvenile market and through selling connections in the sports retail trade. Bert Patrick believed that the advent of coloured television would enable him to persuade football clubs to accept personalised kits which his designers would produce and then register them under the Design Copyright Act. There was stiff opposition to his ideas from all sections of the public.
Through its connection with Leeds United, Admiral pioneered the introduction and development of the replica kit market in the UK. In the 1973–74 season, Leeds United wore the first visibly branded kit in the English top flight.
Realising the potential of the replica kit market, Admiral brokered a deal with the Football Association in 1974 to produce the first commercially available England shirt that featured a sportswear manufacturers logo. They agreed a five-year contract for a starting payment of £15,000 a year or a 10 per cent royalty.
Admiral signed up other big clubs alongside Leeds United, such as Manchester United, Coventry City, Portsmouth, Tottenham Hotspur, Southampton, and West Ham. It also developed outside England, signing up Aberdeen, Dundee and Motherwell in Scotland, Yugoslavian club Red Star Belgrade, Bundesliga outfit Eintracht Frankfurt, the Italian clubs Bologna and Bari, the Swiss club Servette, Swedish giants Malmö, in addition to the national teams of Belgium, Saudi Arabia and Wales. Admiral also produced kits for many of the NASL teams during the late 1970s and early 1980s, and had a replica licensing deal with some clubs, and for two seasons produced the uniforms for every team in the MISL.
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Wikipedia