The map of English sportswear brands From London e Manchester to Leicester and Nottingham
The 2025/26 season highlights the Premier League as the most international it has ever been, with 70.7% of players coming from abroad. The league is cosmopolitan not just on the pitch but also in terms of partnerships: only a quarter of Premier League clubs have an English kit supplier, with the adidas-Nike duopoly dominating the scene, supplying 11 out of 20 clubs. Yet, the British suppliers’ market is showing signs of a modest recovery after a low point in the early 2010s, reaching its nadir in 2013/14, when only one Premier League club wore an English brand. To find a season dominated by English aesthetics, one must go back to 1992/93, when 19 out of 22 clubs had domestic kit suppliers. The golden era of English sportswear brands seems largely behind us, though there was a time when iconic labels built a strong English tradition in the sports textile industry.
Umbro reigned supreme for decades, supplying kits to nearly every professional English club from the 1940s to the present, becoming the quintessential UK sportswear supplier. From the 1970s to the mid-1990s, Bukta, founded in 1879 in Stockport, was a leading player. During the same period, Admiral Sportswear, based in Leicester, achieved immense popularity with its unforgettable jerseys. The 1980s saw a brief but explosive boom for numerous brands, some of which no longer exist. In the first half of the decade, Osca led the charge, later succeeded by Spall, Scoreline, and Ellgren.
In the early 1990s, brands like Matchwinner (originally Scottish), Influence, Ribero, and later Super League, along with Avec, emerged, enjoying short-lived successes. The sports footwear giant Reebok, American since the 1980s but founded in Bolton, supplied many clubs around the turn of the millennium, as did Lonsdale between 2004 and 2007. Up until 2019, brands such as Carbrini, Vandanel, and Sondico remained active in the lower leagues, while today new names like Castore, SUDU, Reflo, and Oxen are gaining traction both in England and abroad.
It is rare for clubs to maintain a long-term partnership with a brand from their own city. A notable exception is the enduring relationship between TAG Sportswear and Burton Albion, ongoing since 1994. Looking at the origins of these English sportswear brands, the textile identity of the North West is evident. Cheshire, Lancashire, and especially Greater Manchester have a centuries-old tradition in the sector. Alongside the North West is Yorkshire and the Humber, followed by specific cities known for sportswear: Leicester and Nottingham in the East Midlands, and, of course, the capital London.
