The 1970s

A survey of kits worn around 1970 reveals a picture of drab uniformity.  During the Seventies a reaction gradually set in as clubs began to assert their individuality once more.  In 1969, the manager of Aston Villa, Tommy Docherty, introduced a radical redesign of the club’s traditional strip featuring a collar with V inset. Within a few years almost every League club was wearing similar collars. 

It was Leeds’ manager Don Revie who first understood the commercial potential of distinctive club strips. He entered into a deal with a brand new kit manufacturer, Admiral, who produced the first branded kits that could be sold to fans at a premium in 1975.  These featured a new club badge as well as the manufacturer’s logo.  The established manufacturers, Umbro and Bukta, quickly followed suit and logos began to appear all over the place. 
Rapidly a market was created. Instead of having to buy three or four sets of kit each season, leading clubs found that manufacturers were queuing up to offer free kits and a share of the profits from the sale of replicas. The new kits had, of course to be distinctive to be saleable. 
These commercial considerations drove a new wave of innovation in kit design. It became desirable for clubs to register copyright on their badges and to feature these on their shirts.  Manufacturers competed to produce new designs that displayed their own logos to best effect.  Admiral led the way and were quickly followed by Umbro and Bukta who all introduced kits that featured sleeve trim with their distinctive logos.

Towards the end of the 1970s there was increasing pressure on clubs to feature sponsor’s logos on player’s shirts, pressure that was resolutely resisted by the football and broadcasting authorities.  Derby County landed the first English deal with Saab in 1978 but the sponsored shirts were never worn after the pre-season photo shoot.  It fell to Liverpool a year later to wear the first shirts to carry a sponsor’s name in the Football League in 1979.