Tiger Rags book – Features (This page)
Contents: From the author, Pre-City kit history, The white shirts myth, Suppliers and brands, A brief history of sponsorship.
Tiger Rags book – Primary kits
Tiger Rags book – Change kits
Tiger Rags book – Third kits

From the author

In September 2013, I was at an NFL game in Chicago between the home-town Bears and the visiting Cincinnati Bengals. While making my way back to my seat with a hot dog, I heard a man shout something…“HULL CITY SUCK!”

Turning to see who shouted, I saw a grinning man wearing a Chicago Bulls basketball vest, pointing to his arm and a Manchester United tattoo.

Sure, I didn’t appreciate the man’s sentiments much, but I did like that some 3900 miles away from home, in a city with a fine sporting heritage that names Michael Jordan, Walter Payton, Ernie Banks and Bobby Hull amongst its icons, this guy knew where I was from and who Hull City were. Why? Because he recognised what I was wearing, a 2008/09 Hull City primary shirt by Umbro, in long sleeves no less.

‘Azure’ (a light but rich blue) and ‘pale or’ (light gold) may be the official colours of the city of Kingston upon Hull, but for sports fans from Shanghai to Whangarei, São Paulo to the Windy City, amber and black became the recognisable colourway of our seaport on the Humber, when the Tigers were cutting a swath through the Premier League in early 2008.

That experience confirmed for me that a club’s colours, and its wardrobe in general, have real cultural significance, so I used that anecdote when I pitched the ‘Tiger Rags: The fabric of Hull City AFC’ exhibition to the organisers of the UK City of Culture 2017 festivities.

Thankfully they agreed to my proposal, and a three month celebration of the colours and clothes of the club I love took place at the Streetlife Museum on High Street. Culture isn’t just paintings and sonnets, it’s what people do, and for myself and many others for many years, that’s cheering on the team who usually wear amber and black.

Thinking about it, my love of Tigers apparel began before I’d even seen my first game. My brother Darron helped me to levy a spare change tax on anyone who came into the family home, until I could exchange that coin bundle for a 1982/83 home shirt by Admiral, that being the first season real replica shirts were available (yes, Arco sports used to sell approximations of the Europa and adidas home shirts, but I’m talking about a real replica, featuring a club crest and maker’s mark), some months before my first time inside Boothferry Park in late January 1983.

A moment that perhaps confirmed my kit geekery came in the 1989/90 season, when I peered through the soon to be removed fence at the front of the South Stand as City prepared to defend a corner, noticing that the Jacquard weave pattern on the Tigers’ shirts had changed from a chequerboard pattern to repeating parallelograms between the last home game and this fixture, dating that memory to November 1989.

This book is the culmination of a supporting lifetime worth of such kit observations, and though I was in terrace chant terms ‘not fit to wear the shirt’ in any footballing capacity, I hope, dear reader, that you find me fit to catalogue the club’s kit history. After all, since players come and go, it’s really the laundry that we support.

Les Motherby, July 2025.

Pre-City kit history

By the time Hull City AFC came into being in 1904, football kit had gone from caps and sashes used to distinguish two competing sides to a more refined look of jerseys or shirts, below-the-knee knickerbockers and stockings.

In between there had been co-opted cricket whites, the creation of the Football Association Challenge Cup (1871) to popularise the laws of the game drawn up by Hullensian Ebenezer Cobb Morley (1863), the FA assuming responsibility for sourcing England shirts for players who previously wore their own, the formation of the Edward Buck and Sons firm (1879) who would become Bukta and drive many innovations in kit design such as dye-fast colours and printed stripes, the start of the Football League (1888) and their mandate that clubs adopt and register distinctive colours (1891).

The expectation that no two teams would register and wear the same colours became impractical with the formation of a Second Division of the Football League (1892), creating the need for ‘change shirts’, white in most cases and worn by the home side so that the guests could wear their first choice colours, a custom that remained until 1921.

A month before Hull City’s founding in June 1904, the mere notion of amber and black as potential club colours, and indeed the right of any side to choose and register club colours, came under threat: at the Football League’s 1904 Annual General Meeting, the secretary of Liverpool proposed that all home sides should wear red shirts, with away teams dressed in white shirts.

Thankfully the motion was dismissed, twice ultimately, as Liverpool tried again in 1906, but League clubs were evidently loathe to give up their right to wear claret and light blue, old-gold, black and white, and indeed amber and black.

There was one proposed change to kit regulations that passed in 1904 however: it was no longer required that ‘knickerbockers’ cover the knees. The inexorable move towards ‘shorts’ was underway.

Goalkeepers did not need to wear distinctive jerseys when Hull City joined the Football League in 1905, that change didn’t occur until 1909, so for the first four league campaigns of the Tigers’ existence, the men between the posts wore the same shirts as outfield players and were sartorially identifiable only by flat caps. Numbers on shirts? They were a few decades away for Football League clubs.

Hull City’s choice of shirts with vertical stripes, the amber and black colourway of which inspired the Tigers nickname, reflected a relatively new but fashionable innovation in shirt design, one that became intrinsically associated with association football. Horizontal stripes, or hoops, were in favour when the FA Cup began, indeed the first seven finals featured at least one team in hooped shirts.

Oxford University’s navy and white ‘quarters’, or shirts with half and half front and back panels with contrasting sleeves, appeared in four of the first nine finals and evidently popularised the look we now know as halved shirts, with Clapham Rovers, Old Carthusians and Blackburn Rovers wearing the style in finals between 1879-1886.

The first vertical striped shirts appeared in an FA Cup final in 1886, sported by West Bromwich Albion. Evidently not easy to make, the style nonetheless became hugely popular and horizontal stripes were largely left to rugby clubs.

An 1887 newspaper feature about the football jerseys of a Bolton firm lauded an innovation: “For a long time there has been a demand for the stripes lengthways instead of round the body, but this was to be had only by sewing the material in the form desired. Now, however, a machine can be set at work by which the stripes can be knitted in the required direction, and it is expected to effect quite a revolution…The machine – the only one of its kind – is the property of the Rothwell Hosiery Co., Market-street, Bolton, who can safely guarantee not only a handsome but a perfect fitting article.”

For the first season of the Football League, 1888/89, four of the twelve teams wore striped shirts, with five teams in ‘Quarters’ and just three sides wearing solid tone jerseys.

White or navy-blue knickerbockers were the norm before the founding of the League, but the addition of black as an option was taken advantage of by Albion’s precursors West Bromwich Strollers in 1880, and other sides followed: Everton (1881), Wolverhampton Wanderers (1883), Sunderland (1888), Derby County, Stoke and the oldest professional club Notts County (1890).

There was much experimentation with colourways and styles in those early years, with several teams temporarily adopting a look that would become Hull City’s staple style. Small Heath Alliance, the club that would become Birmingham City, had very thin amber and black stripes on their shirts between 1885 and 1888, Stoke wore that colourway in the League in 1891/92, and Burnley tried several distinct amber and black striped designs between 1891 and 1897.

A kit clash with Sunderland in 1890 prompted Wolves to register ‘old gold and black’ as their colours in 1891, and after several seasons in diagonally halved shirts, they switched to striped shirts, a style they retained until the 1920s when solid gold shirts became the preference.

By the start of the twentieth century, most sides had settled on the colours and kit styles they are recognisable by now, and a few established their permanent looks not long before Hull City were founded on 1904. Everton began sporting royal blue in 1901, and Newton Heath became the red, white and black clad Manchester United in 1902.

In Hull, long considered a stronghold for rugby football, Association football was gaining in popularity, as evidenced by the formation of the East Riding of Yorkshire FA in May 1902. The new entity brought together the jurisdictions of the Hull and District FA and the Scarborough and East Riding FA.

A year prior, the Hull Comet FC club had elected to become Hull AFC, and for 1902/03 they changed name again, becoming the first ‘Hull City’ club.

The Hull City amateurs, who played in green and white kit, won the Hull Times Charity Cup in April 1903 with a side that featured several men instrumental in the creation of the professional Hull City AFC in 1904, namely Mark Andrews, Ben Frost and Fred Levitt.

The white shirts myth

Some people believe that Hull City played their first game in plain white shirts paired with black ‘knickerbockers’ and stockings, rather than the black and amber stripes which inspired the nickname of the Tigers.

Prominent in this belief is a photograph of two teams, one wearing white shirts and the other in Notts County-like black and white striped jerseys, surrounded by dignitaries and posing alongside a smiling woman holding a large floral tribute. This image is often captioned as depicting the pre-match formalities of the club’s historic first game on the 1st of September 1904, but does it?

A quick analysis of the image casts doubts over that assumption, from the presence of the captain of rugby side Hull FC in the ‘Whites’ line-up, to the absence of any readily identifiable City players, or for that matter Notts County players. So, if we’re prepared to accept that this photograph wasn’t taken on the day of City’s first game v. Notts County, then what game is it from?

In January 1906, The Hull tug Star sank in the Humber, leaving two men, James Atkinson and Walter Brammer Ferndale dead. In response, local politician and former Hull City director Sidney T. Smurthwaite used his energy and contacts to organise a fundraising game at the Boulevard for the families of the deceased.

Through Smurthwaite’s connections, he got future City manager Fred Stringer to referee the game and Tigers trainer Bill Leach to run the line. At this time City were playing on the Circle cricket ground but still had a lease to use the Boulevard. Their own Anlaby Road ground was nearly ready and would open in the March of 1906.

The resulting fixture was a match between a ‘Cyd Smurthwaite XI’ and the ‘Lady Madcap’ Company team. This unusually named side were representing the theatrical company appearing in the musical comedy “Lady Madcap” at Hull’s Grand Theatre and Opera House on George Street.

The undoubted star of the company was Marie Studholme, who was described in a local paper as “the famous musical comedy actress, the most photographed woman in the world and generally considered the loveliest woman on the English stage.” Studholme spent the entirety of 1904 performing in the United States.

It was she who kicked the game off at 2.30pm on Thursday the 22nd of February 1906 and who features at the centre of the commemorative postcard by RC Garside, flanked by Smurthwaite in the white shirt. Next to him is Harry Taylor.

Taylor would have needed no introduction to the city’s sporting public as captain of Hull FC, and in this game was playing in goal. Other players representing the ‘Whites’ were Goodin, Stather (captain) Reid, Carney, Hopper, Bolton, Norman, Smurthwaite, Harper and ‘A. Special’.

Matthew Carney and Walter Goodin were fringe players for Hull City that season. Carney played as centre half at Denaby in an FA Cup qualifying game on October 28th, and Goodin played as full back in the final league game of the season at home to Lincoln City. ‘A. Special ‘, possibly another City player, scored a hat-trick in a game that ended 3-3.

After the game, Smurthwaite expressed gratitude in a letter published in the Hull Daily News: “We must thank the football club for the free use of their ground, the courteous secretary of Hull Football Club (Mr Charlesworth) for his great help, the Hull City club for the loan of goalposts, ball etc. We heartily thank Miss Marie Studholme for not only putting the ball in motion but for her enthusiasm on the fund’s behalf ever since the charity match was mooted; to the members of the ‘Madcap’ company for their whole-hearted support.”

Considering also that on the 24th of August 1904, in announcing the formation of the club the Hull Daily Mail wrote: “The Hull City team, we are informed, have decided to play in black and amber vertically striped shirts.” it can be concluded that the photograph assumed by some to show the pre-match scene at the Tigers’ inaugural game, the basis of the erroneous belief about the first primary kit, in fact depicts a charity match that took place some 18 months later.

Suppliers and brands

A chance encounter between a former Hull City player and the owner of an underwear brand turned sportswear producer in 1973, would have far reaching consequences, changing forever how professional football clubs sourced their match kits and training apparel, made supplier branding conspicuous, and set up the replica kit market.

Bert Patrick of Admiral Sportswear, the Leicestershire firm that grew out of the Cook and Hurst underwear concern, had an unsuccessful meeting in Leeds with mail order outlet Kays, where he and his colleagues had tried to get them to stock tracksuits and leisurewear. While in the city they stopped to eat at Sheila’s Café, opposite Elland Road.

Since Leeds United trained on pitches next to the stadium, Patrick and colleagues went to watch them in action, and found themselves in conversation with Don Revie, a Tigers’ player between 1949-51, an FA Cup winner with Manchester City in 1956, and in 1973 the manager of Leeds.

Bert Patrick proposed making a new kit and paying Leeds for the privilege. Revie agreed to Admiral supplying a new change kit and tracksuits, but the home kit was to remain the same. Soon after they supplied a striking yellow away kit with white and blue trim and Admiral branding, an effectively bespoke outfit in an era when template kits ordered from a catalogue in a sports store was the norm. Revie’s side became league champions, and kids could wear a shirt just like the players wore.

Before that impromptu meeting which led to a permanent deal, the companies who made playing kits had little to do with the clubs or national sides that would wear them. Between them were independent local sports shops that acted as agents and distributors for sportswear manufacturers.

Jack Sharp Ltd, for example, the ‘expert sports outfitter’ of Whitechapel in Liverpool, supplied Everton, Liverpool, Burnley and the Wales national team. The Sportsman’s Emporium of St. Vincent Street in Glasgow outfitted Celtic and the Scotland national team, and the Geo. Elsey & Son sports shop on the Tottenham High Road provided playing kit to Spurs. These shops, official stockists for many brands, would often add their own labels to shirts, underneath the manufacturer’s tags on the inside neck.

In Hull, that role was fulfilled by the Asbestos store on King Edward Street. That name might provoke surprise nowadays, since the silicate mineral once used for fireproofing buildings called Asbestos was found to cause lung diseases, and its use was subsequently banned in many countries.

The sports shop was so-called because it was run by the Asbestos & Rubber Company Ltd. The firm adopted the more marketable moniker of Arco in 1980, and its focus switched from materials to safety equipment and workwear.

Asbestos took out a large advert in the Wednesday 3rd May 1933 edition of the [Hull] Daily Mail, just after the Tigers’ first ever promotion: HULL CITY ARE AT THE TOP AND GAIN PROMOTION – WE SUPPLIED HULL CITY WITH EVERYTHING, JERSEYS, KNICKERS, STOCKINGS, BOOTS, FOOTBALLS AND TRAINING GEAR. YOU TOO CAN ENSURE A SUCCESSFUL SEASON IF YOU GET YOUR SUMMER OUTFIT AT ASBESTOS – KING EDWARD ST., HULL. INTERNATIONAL SPORTING OUTFITTERS SINCE 1884.

The original Asbestos shop on King Edward Street was destroyed in the Second World War, so the firm set up new premises on Jameson Street in 1955. Throughout the 1960s, match programmes carried a circular advertisement for ‘Asbestos – the centre for all sportsmen’ in the middle pages, where the predicted starting XI and formation of each team was shown.

Modern contracts signed with kit suppliers stipulate exclusivity, players should only be seen in playing kit and warm-up gear displaying the branding of the ‘Technical Partner’ on match days, but back when clubs bought kit from local sports shops who had relationships with many sportswear firms, no such notions existed.

It’s entirely possible that Hull City had home kits made by Umbro and change strips produced by Bukta, or vice-versa, we have only photographs of kits with no external branding to go on, as not much original kit from that era has survived the passage of time. We do know, however, that the Tigers used Umbro and Bukta branded kits, possibly from as early as the 1920s and until the early 1970s, when maker’s marks appeared on shirts and kit brands began negotiating directly with clubs.

Bukta

Founded as E.R. Buck & Sons in 1879, the company that became Bukta was the first mass maker of sportswear in Britain.

Their initial business was making silk underwear and twill shorts for British soldiers fighting in the First Boer War in Southern Africa, but they soon turned their attention to sportswear and made shirts for Nottingham Forest in 1884. The company also became readily associated with Lord Baden Powell’s scout movement, providing uniforms and camping tents.

The firm was run by the triplets Robert, William and Edward Stanley Buck, three of founder Edward Robinson Buck’s 13 children, after he passed away in 1912. The first factory was in Poynton, five miles south of Stockport, but when this was outgrown, new premises were built in Brinksway, Stockport in 1938.

It might be quicker to list the clubs in England that haven’t worn the Bukta brand than those who have, but the company was always quick to point out when they’d outfitted FA Cup winners in their catalogues, such as Aston Villa in 1957, Bolton in 1958 and West Ham in 1964, and the England team wore Bukta kit between 1960 and 1965.

Those catalogues advertised several versions of the same template shirts, with varying weights of cotton, such as ‘KIX’ (economically priced), ‘FORUM’ (medium weight) and ‘ZEEBUX’ (heavy quality, worn by many First Division and International teams), or as synthetic fibres became more prevalent ‘BUXLON’ (S-T-R-E-T-C-H Bri-Nylon).

Hull City’s 1965-69 jerseys which they wore in the 1965/66 Third Division title winning campaign were the ‘TWIN TRIM’ design in ZEEBUX, catalogue number Q28, and the 1972-75 shirts were made of ‘BUXLON’ Bri-Nylon.

Examples of those shirts still exist, but sadly evidence of who made jerseys from other years remains elusive. Back then shirts were recycled after first team use, by the reserve and youth teams, and later as training jerseys, and finally in the last stage of their usefulness, they would have been cut up to use as boot cleaning rags.

A 1920s Bukta advertising card shows black and amber jerseys with drawstring necks (given code D27 on the card) that could be what the Tigers used during that decade, which would mean that City wore Bukta kit over a century ago. Alas, we have only supposition, and no but proof.

Members of the Buck family were still involved with Bukta until 1982 when a consortium led by Sir Hugh Fraser, founder of the House of Fraser department store chain took over, but the brand was on the decline. It periodically pops up under new owners, such as when Crystal Palace were FA Cup finalists in 1990, when Diego Maradona played for Sevilla (1992-93, though sometimes that kit was Front Runner branded, with Front R on the chest in the same cursive text Bukta used) and Millwall in 2009/10.

Umbro

Harold Humphrey, one of the founders of Umbro, had worked as a salesman for Bukta in Stockport before going into business with his brother Wallace in 1924. Working from the back room of the Bulls Head pub in Mobberly, Cheshire, the Humphrey Brothers quickly gained a reputation for producing high quality football kits, and shortened the name of the brand to Umbro, using a logo of a solitary diamond containing “Umbro” in a gothic script.

Within ten years they were supplying both teams, Manchester City and Portsmouth, in the 1934 FA Cup final, offering clubs ‘insuperable British quality, heaviest possible tested yarns, reinforced to withstand roughest treatment’. Umbro’s main selling point was their ‘Tangeru’ fabric, made of Peruvian pima cotton that was shrink resistant and quick drying.

The company’s fabulously named ‘Umbrochure’ exploited the cup final success, stating their wares were ‘the choice of both teams in the Wembley final’ on the front of the 1935 catalogue. This publication showcased a new logo which had the capitalised name stretched to fill a diamond, a mark that would serve the firm for four decades.

After the Second World War, Umbro were at the forefront in trying out synthetic materials, such as Rayon, the ‘artificial silk’ now known as viscose, which was used by teams in the 1950s when floodlit games were being trialled. Hull City were among these sides, playing floodlit friendlies in Rayon shirts against Dundee, Fenerbahçe and Admira Vienna.

England first played in Umbro shirts in 1954, though back then playing kit was sourced from sports shops rather than directly from the manufacturer, and in this case, it was Playrite Sports of Streatham Hill in London supplying the FA.

Manchester United manager Matt Busby became an ambassador for Umbro in the late 1950s. After working with them on a range of training-wear, his signature appeared on neck tags along with the slogan ‘Choice of Champions’. Busby introduced Real Madrid sporting adviser Emil Östreicher to Umbro, who placed several orders.

Keen to exploit such an endorsement, Umbro named their new crew-neck jerseys ‘Real’, in honour of the then five-time European Champion Clubs’ Cup winners. These ‘super combed Tangeru cotton fabric’ shirts were ubiquitous throughout the 1960s and early 1970s, by which point they’d been renamed ‘Aztec’ (in reference to the 1970 World Cup in Mexico) with ‘Worn by the World Cup winners 1966’ stated proudly on the neck tag.

In addition to the 1966 England team, this style of shirts was worn by Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales, West Germany and Brazil, and many club sides including Celtic, Liverpool, Manchester United and of course Real Madrid.

The double diamond motif that the brand is renowned for was introduced in 1974, as maker marks started appearing on shirts. The logo appeared on the kits of Scotland and Australia at the World Cup in West Germany that year. Constantly testing the limits of what would be permitted, kit brands introduced sleeve ‘taping’ in 1976, and for Umbro that meant repeated double diamonds within white lines across the shoulders of shirts for Bristol City, Derby County and Everton in the First Division.

In 1984, Umbro reclaimed the England contract after ten years of Admiral supplying the Three Lions, and this proved to be a most fruitful collaboration that lasted 29 years. The playing kits, training and leisurewear produced for the 1990 World Cup is considered iconic over three decades later, including a pale blue third shirt that saw no match action in Italy, but which featured in the video to England’s official tournament song ‘World in Motion…’ by New Order and several England players.

The Nineties were huge for Umbro, a decade that saw the creation of the Premier League, England host the European Championships in 1996, and the rise of double diamond attired Manchester United who won the Premiership, FA Cup and UEFA Champions League in 1999. Against this backdrop, replica shirts transitioned from being just for kids to becoming an essential part of the wardrobe of adult football fans.

In 2008, the brand was acquired by American giant Nike, looking to bolster its presence in the football market. This led to some tremendous output, such as the much loved ‘Tailored by Umbro’ range which married classic styling with innovative design, but when Nike decided to offload Umbro in 2012, taking with them the England and Manchester City contracts, some feared for the brand.

However, current owners Iconix, who also own the Pony, Starter and Ecko Unltd brands, have kept Umbro relevant and in 2023/24 they produced the most Premier League kits, supplying five teams.

Europa

The town of Wigston Magna, situated four miles south of Leicester, has a long and proud tradition of producing and trading textiles that goes back to the Middle Ages.

Hosiery manufacture became a specialty in Wigston, with a multitude of firms operating such as Wigston Co-Operative Hosiers, Two Steeples, Holden and Brown, William Holmes and Son Ltd. and Humphreys and Sons.

These latter two firms partnered with Hull’s own Arco to form Europa Sports in 1974. The company’s vaguely anvil shaped logo was the first maker mark to appear on a Hull City kit in 1975/76, with ‘EUROPA’ added underneath an enlarged logo in subsequent seasons.

Approximations of these shirts, not strictly replicas as they lacked the H.C.A.F.C. monogram and supplier logo on the chest but featuring Europa neck tags, were available in Arco’s shop at the intersection of Savile Street and Jameson Street. The deal with the Tigers seems to be Europa’s only foray into professional football, which they left to another Wigston firm Admiral, but Europa made kit for Rugby Union’s Leicester Tigers for many years, and loose replicas of Hull’s Rugby League sides were sold at Arco Sports.

adidas

After a fall out with his brother Rudi and the dissolution of the Gebrüder Dassler sports shoe company, which had supplied running spikes for the American sprinter Jesse Owens at the 1936 Berlin Olympics, Adolph ‘Adi’ Dassler founded adidas (which is consciously rendered in lower case) in 1949 in the Bavarian town of Herzogenaurach.

A shoemaker by trade, Adi was always sceptical about his firm producing textiles, although he did produce some tracksuits in the 1960s. His son Horst was the driving force behind the licensing of apparel for the 1972 Munich Olympics, and expansion into the apparel market saw them buy German mark Erima and French firm Le Coq Sportif in 1976.

Early outwardly branded adidas shirts featured collar tags with both the adidas and Erima logos, as they were made at the latter’s factory. Inroads were made into the English leagues in 1976 and 1977, with Queens Park Rangers, Nottingham Forest, Ipswich and Fulham among the first to have the ‘trefoil’ logo that was introduced in 1972 on kit, prior to that adidas were known for their football boots (Umbro were UK distributors of adidas footwear from the 1950s and most of the 1966 World Cup winning England team wore boots with the trademark three-stripes).

Though a trademark of adidas, the use of three-stripes on shoes and apparel originated with other companies. The Finnish brand Karhu had already registered three-stripes, but some old school negotiation led to adidas buying the trademark in 1952 for two bottles of whiskey and the equivalent of £1300.

In 1980, adidas took a case to the Irish High Court alleging that O’Neills, the Irish sportswear firm founded in 1918, were “passing off” as adidas by using a three-stripe motif on football, hurling and Gaelic football kits. O’Neills fought back, arguing that they’d used three-stripes on sportswear since 1965.

The court ruled in favour of O’Neills, stating that consumers were not being misled, but adidas took the case to the Supreme Court. Again, O’Neills won, they could continue to use the three-stripes, so long as they were being used in Ireland.

Hull City first wore adidas in the 1979/80 season, pairing shorts carrying the trefoil logo and socks featuring three-stripes with shirts made by Europa, but at the start of 1980 the Tigers went all-adidas and wore ‘Die Marke Mit Den Drei Streifen’ until 1982.

In 1986, New York rappers Run-DMC released ‘My Adidas’, which perfectly illustrated how sportswear was moving from the pitch, court and gymnasium to become everyday fashion.

A year later, Horst Dassler died aged just 51, and soon after adidas was no longer a family company, it was a publicly traded equity. The brand with the three-stripes almost fell into bankruptcy in 1992 while under the ownership of Bernard Tapie, the French businessman, politician and owner of Olympique de Marseille, and Robert Louis-Dreyfus took the helm in 1993.

A year later the Predator boot was launched, based on a prototype by the South Africa born Australian player Craig Johnston, a five-time First Division champion with Liverpool. The range of boots, featuring the ‘Performance’ logo which replaced the trefoil, made their mark on three decades worth of World Cup tournaments, and Champions League finals.

Hull City wore the three-stripes for a second time between 2010-2014, taking in a first automatic promotion from the Championship to the Premier League in 2012/13, and a first FA Cup final at the end of 2013/14.

Kit technologies introduced over the years include Climalite 2000 (1985-1991), Equipment (1998-2001), Climacool (2002-2005), ForMotion (2006-2014), TechFit (2010-2013), Adizero (2013-2016), Climachill (2018-2020) and HEAT.RDY (2020-2026).

Admiral

Founded in 1914 by underwear manufacturer Cook & Hurst in Wigston, Leicestershire, Admiral began making and marketing football kits after the 1966 World Cup. Owner Bert Patrick set out to create distinctive designs that could be protected using the Copyright Act, 1968, first producing a Leeds away kit that had the first outfield player shirts to carry conspicuous manufacturer branding.

Admiral pioneered the marketing of children’s replica kits, and their relationship with Leeds manager Don Revie paid dividends when he took on the role of England national team boss, facilitating a deal with the FA. In the 1970s Admiral signed deals with Manchester United, Leicester, Tottenham Hotspur, Coventry City, Southampton, West Ham and national sides Wales, Belgium and Saudi Arabia.

Admiral’s business model of paying professional sides to wear their brand rather than just being a vendor sourced through local sports shops was ultimately their undoing, despite holding the England contract, one of the world’s most lucrative deals, and creating kits for the 1980 European Championships and 1982 World Cups that are considered classics to many, Admiral was declared bankrupt in 1982.

Petrol station magnate Peter Hockenhull bought the brand, and the second iteration of Admiral began supplying teams in 1983, striking deals with Notts County, Bradford City, Cardiff City, Crystal Palace, Swansea City, Wrexham and Hull City. In the 1990s Admiral supplied Leeds, Southampton, Middlesbrough, Charlton Athletic, Wimbledon, Hearts, Motherwell, Rangers, Dynamo Kyiv and Partizan Belgrade.

Matchwinner

Matchwinner of Scotland, founded by the Links brothers Brian and David in Rutherglen near Glasgow, signed their first professional football kit deal with Birmingham City in 1986. Though the designs for the Blues were relatively tame, the firm soon became known for some experimental and eye-catching styles, taking advantage of advances in dye-sublimation and electronic Jacquard weave machine technology.

They quickly captured a raft of other English clubs, including Bolton Wanderers, Notts County, Stoke City and in 1988, Hull City. They also had a stable of Scottish sides, notably Dundee, Kilmarnock and Motherwell, and venturing into Rugby League, both Hull Kingston Rovers and Hull FC wore Matchwinner, giving them a clean sweep of the city’s professional sport clubs.

Some of their 1990s kits are the stuff of hallucinogenic nightmares, while others are stone cold classics. Arguably, some fit both descriptions. Take Stoke’s 1992/93 change kit, featuring a shirt with two-tone purple hoops that are evidently rendered by a seismograph during an earthquake. Or Greenock Morton’s 1993/94 tartan print home and away shirts. The daddy of Nineties Matchwinner excess though is of course, well, you know.

The firm stopped producing own-brand items around 1995, instead manufacturing other brands such as Le Coq Sportif. By 1997 the brand was owned by a company called Dunegold, who changed their name to Matchwinner Limited and ran a shop in Bolton offering Nike, Joma, ProStar and Stanno teamwear, as well as embroidery, printing and trophy engraving services.

In 2023 the brand was picked up by the Fourex Clothing Group of Dewsbury, who have partnered with clubs to re-release classic Matchwinner shirts, and in December 2024 they recreated the iconic 1992/93 tiger stripe shirt for Hull City.

Pelada

Like phosphorous, Melton Mowbray based Pelada burned bright but fizzled out quickly as a supplier to Football League clubs. Named after a kickabout style of football played in Brazil, Pelada favoured yellow and green branding and would sometimes sneak those colours onto the trim of training-wear, whether it fit well with the colours of the teams the garb was for or not.

In 1993/94. Pelada produced kits for Blackpool, Mansfield, Barnsley, Reading and West Brom. They also agreed to make kits for the Tigers, who’d fallen out with Matchwinner, but it took time to produce two new kits at short notice, so City wore the Matchwinner kits from 1992/93 with the previous maker’s marks and sponsor patched over. Pelada delivered new home shirts in November 1993 and a new away kit in the December.

Both have become classics, but in different ways: the replacement tiger stripe shirt seemingly owes more to the fur pattern of leopards than tigers, and from a distance the amber and black merge together creating a copper hue and is subjectively the worst Hull City shirt ever made. In stark contrast, the jade with white stripes and black trim change shirt is a beauty, and keenly sought after by retro shirt collectors.

The two kits were retained for 1994/95, only with huge Needler’s Sweets patches obscuring the previous season’s sponsor. There was one new Pelada shirt in 1994/95, as the club produced a limited-edition leisure shirt in the run-up to Christmas 1994, only 1000 went on sale. By 1995/96, only Reading remained in Pelada in the Football League.

Super League

Founded by former Burnley player and manager Frank Casper, in partnership with Burnley’s commercial manager Joyce Pickles, Super League began operations in 1992. In 1993/94, they supplied kits for Huddersfield Town, Rochdale and Stockport County.

The Tigers went with Super League in 1995 and spent three seasons outfitted by them. During that time Bury, Brighton, Chesterfield, Lincoln City, Macclesfield, Plymouth Argyle and Torquay United became kit make stable mates.

Home-town club Burnley finally signed up in 1999, and wore Super League throughout 2001/02, despite the brand having been sold to The Fielding Group of Bedfordshire, who made kits under the simpler moniker of TFG Sports. They’d previously supplied Crystal Palace, Dundee United and Kilmarnock.

Olympic

In 1995, two British and two Portuguese entrepreneurs purchased the United Kingdom licence for a brand that supplied Benfica and the Portugal national side (who wore Olympic at Euro ’96). The licensee’s wares were worn by Dundee United, Gillingham, Hearts, Rushden and Diamonds, Leyton Orient, Southend United and the Northern Ireland national side.

In Hull they supplied both City and Rugby Leaguers Hull Sharks (nee Hull FC), at the time owned by former Tennis pro and health club operator David Lloyd, who merged the retail arms of both clubs into the Frankenstein entity known as Tiger-Sharks Inc. The wider company floundered in 1999, and in 2000 the name was picked up by Marcel Lismond, the former Sint-Truidense player who established Olympic as a Belgian teamwear supplier.

Avec

Established in 1993, Spennymoor based Avec first produced kits for Sunderland in 1994/95, adding Sheffield United the following season, 1995/96. The consortium that bought Hull City in November 1998 included former Sheffield United commercial manager Andy Daykin, bringing with him an existing relationship with Avec, who used Claremont Clothing (the manufacturer of Marks and Spencer branded school clothing with a factory in Newton Aycliffe in County Durham) to produce kit.

The Tigers wore Avec kit in both 1999/2000 and 2000/01, with the primary kits for those campaigns being voted for by fans given a choice of four kits illustrated in match-day programmes each time.

The brand is owned by Just Sport, supply partners to Nike since 2004, which explains why Crystal Palace continued to use Nike branded bench-wear when they’d switched from Nike to Avec kit in 2012, and why Sunderland had a retro Avec range in 2023 despite being a Nike club.

Patrick

In 1892, the shoemaker Eugene Bénéteau opened a leather footwear factory in the town of Pouzauges in western France. Later, his footsteps were followed by son Patrice, who begins producing shoes for football, basketball, athletics and cycling, changing the name of the factory to Manufacture de chaussures sports Patrice Bénéteau.

To strengthen shoes two stripes are sewn on from 1932, a feature that later becomes more of a design motif than a technical feature, and in 1945 the brand becomes ‘Patrick’ as the new name works in all languages as the brand becomes exported worldwide.

Like many companies that started with footwear and later added apparel production to their repertoire, Patrick moved into football kit production, supplying Southampton in 1980/81 (which coincided with them signing Patrick boots endorser Kevin Keegan) and soon after Derby County, Swansea City, Birmingham City and AS Roma.

Driffield based Dewhirst held the Patrick licence in the UK when Hull City kit featured the stylised-P branding, which also appeared on garb worn by Sheffield United, West Brom and Wigan Athletic. JD Sports sold the Focus Brands company to Sri Lankan firm Hela Brands in 2024, transferring ownership of the UK licence. The Patrick brand owner has been the Cortina Group of Oudenaarde, Belgium since 2008.

Diadora

Hiking boots were the first product by Diadora, which was founded in 1948 by Marcello Danieli in the Italian town of Caerano di San Marco. Winter sports shoes were the primary focus of the firm until they diversified into tennis and athletics shoes in the 1970s.

Endorsements helped raise the brand’s profile, particularly in the case of Björn Borg, the Swedish tennis star who won five straight Wimbledon championships, and his signature shoe, the kangaroo leather Borg Elite was a favourite of casuals on the football terraces.

In football, Diadora sponsored Il Divin Codino, the ‘Divine Ponytail’ Roberto Baggio, as well as Gianluca Vialli, Marco van Basten, George Weah, Roy Keane and Antonio Cassano.

After supplying match kit to Zico’s Udinese in 1985/86, Diadora pulled off a coup by landing the Italian national team, even if their marks could not appear on match kit, an edict that remained until 1998. Still, they supplied some iconic branded anthem jackets and leisurewear that were used at Euro 1988, and the 1990 and 1994 World Cups.

In club football, Diadora’s peak was in the late 1990s and early 2000s when they supplied AS Roma, Bologna, Fiorentina, Napoli and the officials in Serie A, and in England Aston Villa, Sheffield Wednesday and West Bromwich Albion wore Diadora branded kit.

As with Patrick, the UK licence for Diadora was held by Driffield’s Dewhirst Group in the 2000s, so when Hull City made the Patrick to Diadora switch, so did West Brom (though with a season in own-brand ‘The Baggies’ in between).

Kappa

Back in 1916, Abramo Vitale set up the company named Calzificio Torinese with Guglielmo Marengo and Ettore Gaetano Donn in Turin, Italy. Initially the company made only socks, but knitwear was later produced, using the Aquila (Eagle) trademark from 1939. A merger with Manifattura Tessuti Maglierie, owned by Abramo’s father Davide Vitale, changes the company name to Maglificio Calzificio Torinese in 1955. The Kappa trademark is born in 1958, appearing on socks and underwear.

Maurizio Vitale, Abramo’s son, inherits management of the company in 1968, and a year later, the ‘Omini’ logo of a man and woman leaning against each other back-to-back in silhouette is created, a happy accident stemming from a bathing suit photo shoot.

The Turin firm moved into the sportswear sector, and in December 1978, a deal was done with local side Juventus that saw I Bianconeri wear ‘Omini’ embellished kit for the rest of 1978/79, which ends with Coppa Italia triumph. La Vecchia Signora, The Old Lady, remain with Kappa until 2000, winning the Coppa Italia another three times along with seven Serie A titles, two Supercoppa, one European cup, one Champions League, a Cup Winners Cup, two UEFA Cups, two UEFA Super Cups, and two Intercontinental Cups.

Kappa’s sponsorship of the United States track and field team for the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles raised global awareness of the firm, but also some eyebrows when they unveiled Apollo 11 inspired apparel. NASA scientist Lawrence Kuznetz worked with Kappa to produce silver garments that reflected light and worked to regulate the body temperature of athletes.

Applying the logic of 1960s astronaut spacesuits, three layers of fabric were overlaid on some garments: the first a synthetic fibre that is permeable, a second is hydrophilic and absorbs sweat, while the reflective silver outer layer disperses solar heat. Perhaps of more long-term significance was the popularisation of the ‘222 Banda’, the ‘Omini’ logo repeated along the arms and sides of garments.

In the 1980s and 1990s, Kappa outfitted some of the finest teams in Europe: AC Milan, Ajax, Barcelona and Sampdoria, and at the 1998 World Cup, Jamaica and South Africa sported ‘Omini’ branded classics.

Kappa’s release of the Emanuele Ostini designed ‘Kombat 2000’ range in 1999 was epoch shifting, inspiring a move away from the baggy kits that defined the Nineties. Italy’s run to the Euro 2000 final showcased the form fitting nature and high-elastane stretchiness of the Kombat kits, though early on players needing convincing and sized up, but by the 2002 World Cup the Azzurri were on board.

Hull City were issued an iteration of Kombat Pro kit numbered in the twenties when they signed up to wear the ‘Omini’ brand in 2023, but unusually they were supplied by Kappa Türkiye rather than the UK licensee, since the Turkish licence was held by Hull City’s owner Acun Ilıcalı.

A brief history of sponsorship

Advertising and football – the pair have practically been bedfellows for as long as the game has existed. In the Victorian Era, adverts made the cost of printing match programmes significantly cheaper, for example the 1897 FA Cup final programme contains adverts for ‘Bertram Blend’ Scotch whisky and Elliman’s Embrocation (for aches and pains!).

Later came company names painted onto the stands of stadia, when the Tigers prepared to face Arsenal in the FA Cup semi-finals in 1930, they posed for a photograph stood in a line in front of a stand at Anlaby Road that bore the legend CHAS. H. ROSS, “THE” PORK BUTCHER, drawing attention to their saveloys, sandwiches, pies and polonies.

That it took until the 1970s for these adverts to reach the garments of players seems quite surprising now, but for a long time the shirts were deemed sacrosanct. The first side to test the resistance of the game’s lawmakers was amateur side Kettering Town.

In 1976, Derek Dougan, a League Cup winner with Wolves, now chief executive of the Southern League side, brokered a deal with Kettering Tyres. That name appeared on their shirts when they faced Bath City, but the ‘Poppies’ quickly drew the ire of the Football Association. Indeed, just four days later the FA ordered the removal of the firm’s name from the shirts, which Dougan kind of complied with, removing some letters to leave Kettering T. The FA were not amused and threatened a £1000 fine, so Kettering complied, albeit reluctantly.

Similar battles were going on around the continent: in 1973, Bundesliga outfit Eintracht Braunschweig were paid handsomely to feature the stag and crucifix logo of Jägermeister, the liqueur drank for its effect rather that its flavour, on their shirts. In Italy, Udinese bypassed shirt sponsorship restrictions by having the name of their owner’s ice cream firm Sanson applied vertically on the team’s shorts in 1978.

The game’s authorities tried to close the stable door, but many horses were bolting. Derby County and Bolton Wanderers petitioned the FA to permit shirt advertising, with Derby claiming they could sign a £300,000 deal with Swedish carmaker SAAB, and in 1977 the governing body relented. The Football League, however, needed more convincing, and the SAAB sponsored Rams’ shirts were never used in competitive action.

It was Liverpool in 1979/80 who became the first English side to wear a sponsored shirt in the Football League, with Japanese electronics firm Hitachi paying £50,000 for the privilege, but their name only appeared if the game wasn’t going to be televised. The BBC’s Match of the Day programme showed highlights of two games on Saturday nights, but the eleven ITV regions each had their own highlights shows, such as Yorkshire TV’s The Big Game.

For the first time since 1960, live Football League games were aired in 1983/84, with the BBC and ITV broadcasting five games each. Sponsors could now feature on shirts worn in televised matches, so long as they were half the size of the usual advertisement. This stipulation was removed for the 1986/97 season.

Hygena

The commercialisation of football shirts began in earnest when kit suppliers made their logos visible, opposite a club crest on the chest or on the sleeves, having previously only had their branding on neck tags, which couldn’t be seen when a shirt was worn. Europa was the first supplier to make their marks conspicuous on Tigers’ kit in 1975, and as this became the norm, adidas and Admiral followed. Kit suppliers tend to be described as ‘Technical Partner’s nowadays.

The first branding to appear on a Hull City shirt that wasn’t related to a sportswear manufacturer is that of Hygena, the fitted kitchen manufacturer. The company was founded in Liverpool in 1925, but by 1982, when under the control of the Norcros Group, it had ceased trading. The brand was jointly purchased by the MFI Furniture Group and Humber Kitchens, owned by Malcolm Healey, the Hull born entrepreneur who later founded Wren Kitchens and Ebuyer. In 1987, MFI bought out Healey’s interest in Hygena, but they retained their presence in Hull and the East Riding, operating factories on Oslo Road, Freightliner Road and Carlton Street in Hull until 2001.

The circumstances of the kitchen firm appearing on Tigers’ shirts was unusual, and more an advertisement than a true sponsorship. The 29th of November 1983 edition of the Hull Daily Mail explained: “City are to be involved in a novel kind of shirt sponsorship with Hygena, the Howden kitchen and bedroom manufacturers. Hygena are to have their name emblazoned across the Tigers’ shirts in return for providing the first prize of a fitted kitchen for a club competition. Announcing this at the Tigers’ annual general meeting, City chairman Don Robinson explained that the club had tried to tie up a normal sponsorship but were not successful, so had decided to advertise Hygena because, besides giving the kitchen, “they are a local firm who employ a lot of people.”

Hygena’s name was applied to home shirts in block capitals directly under the crest and maker’s mark from December 1983 until the end of 1983/84, but it was absent on the white away shirts.

Arrow Air

Arrow Air was a passenger and cargo airline based at Miami International Airport until it ceased operations in 2010. It was founded by George E. Batchelor in 1947 while he lived in Compton, Los Angeles County, a city now known for hip-hop music and a high crime rate. Batchelor had Native American ancestry, that could explain the name of the airline, which he moved to Florida in 1964. Having largely been a cargo transporter, Arrow added scheduled passenger services in 1982, which included the Tampa-London route.

Before City began advertising the Hygena brand on their shirts in 1983/84, they’d “tried to tie up a normal sponsorship”, which was discussed in the Hull Daily Mail in late January 1983: “Hull City hope to be sponsored for the first time next season – by an international airline. Tiger’s chairman Don Robinson revealed today that the club are currently having talks with the airline – which he does not want to name yet – and described the negotiations as very promising. If a deal is finalised, the company will have its name on the front of the Tiger’s shirts from the start of the 1983/84 campaign. In addition, the airline will fly City to America at the end of the season for a tour.”

All of this came to pass, but a year later than initially envisaged. The Tigers played two games against North American Soccer League (NASL) side Tampa Bay Rowdies, who were coached by Rodney Marsh. The first game was played at Boothferry Park in April 1984, and though the Tigers won 3-0, it is probably best remembered for City chairman Don Robinson circling the pitch on horseback while wearing a Stetson hat, armed with a six-shooter!

Arrow Air transported the Tigers to Florida in June 1984 for the return match played at Tampa Stadium (which five months earlier hosted the NFL Superbowl contested by the Los Angeles Raiders and the Washington Redskins). Although City lost 1-0 on the night, they won the ‘Arrow Air Trophy’, a silver plane attached to a wooden plinth, winning 3-1 on aggregate.

The airline’s wordmark was on City’s shirts throughout the 1984/85 season, which resulted in promotion from the Third Division.

Twydale Turkeys

The Tigers were without a shirt sponsor for the entire 1985/86 season, and started the 1986/87 campaign with unadorned shirts, but that changed when a deal was done that knocked the stuffing out of previous sponsorship arrangements.

In September 1986 the Driffield Times announced: “Twydale Turkeys of Driffield are to sponsor Hull City Football Club for the 1986/87 football season. The five-figure deal represents a major development in the promotion of the Twydale name, which will feature on the Hull City shirt.”

“The partnership of a major East Yorkshire company and the region’s premier football club will give us the opportunity to associate turkey, the healthy meat, with the healthy sport of football.” said Mr. Raymond Twiddle, Twydale’s chairman and managing director.

The entrepreneurial Twiddle sold vegetables from a wheelbarrow when he was 12, later buying turkey eggs and rearing poults in his home in Kilham, near Driffield. This led to the foundation of Twydale Turkeys in 1956, and a factory on Wansford Road in Driffield supplied all of the major supermarkets.

The Hull Daily Mail specified the “five-figure deal” to be worth £25,000, and to publicise the sponsorship, several players were pictured playing football with a giant, anthropomorphic turkey mascot wearing a Tigers’ hat and scarf, and Don Robinson and player-manager Brian Horton posed for photographs with a live fowl. ‘TWYDALE’ was applied in white text onto the black chest band of the home shirts and first seen during the 3-2 win over Birmingham on Saturday 20th of September 1986. It was absent on the change shirts, however.

Mansfield Brewery

Alcohol sponsorships were legion in professional football in the 1980s and 1990s, but they have disappeared from the front of club shirts, despite there being no legislative decision on such advertising. That’s because in 2008, the representative body of alcohol producers known as the Portman Group recommended that drinks company logos should not appear on replica shirts, though they conceded there was “no evidence” linking underage drinking to alcohol endorsements on sports shirts.

In 1985, Mansfield Brewery bought the North Country Brewery from Northern Dairies. They were founded as Hull Brewery in 1888 but changed their name when Northern Dairies acquired them in 1971. This link to Hull led to Mansfield sponsoring the Tigers in 1987/88. Speaking to the Hull Daily Mail, the brewery’s spokesman John Walker said: “When Mansfield Brewery came to Hull, we became an integral part of the city and its people. We believe in supporting local concerns and teams near to the heart of the city with a view to making them even more successful in practical and realistic ways“

The deal was described as “an undisclosed five-figure sum” but was thought to have exceeded what Twydale Turkeys paid. For 1987/88, ‘MANSFIELD BEERS’ was applied in white to the black chest band of the Admiral and also appeared on the white change shirts with black pinstripes, applied in black lettering.

Mansfield renewed their sponsorship for a second season, paying £45,000 for the privilege, and elected to promote their Riding Bitter brand on City’s shirts. The brew was first launched by North Country in 1982, but disappeared from taps when Mansfield took them over, citing inconsistent quality and poor scores in market surveys. Mansfield launched a new Riding Bitter “from scratch” in 1987, and the City shirt sponsorship was part of an advertising drive. However, Hull City came under fire when replica shirts in children’s sizes featured the Riding Bitter wordmark.

The 10th of August 1988 edition of the Hull Daily Mail reported: “City have been slammed for allowing brewery sponsored new shirts to be sold to children, the club are one of several Football League outfits ‘blacklisted’ over the practice by the Government-funded Alcohol Concern…Sports shops across the city have reported a brisk trade in the new shirts which can cost as much as £16.50 for a child’s size with the “Riding Bitter” logo…[City chairman] Mr Don Robinson said the club was pleased to have Mansfield as a sponsor and he regretted the mix-up.

Though child sized shirts with Riding Bitter on were withdrawn from sale, the brand was given national prominence when extended highlights of City’s FA Cup tie with Liverpool were shown on the BBC’s Match of the Day programme. In 1999, Mansfield were acquired by Wolverhampton and Dudley Breweries.

Dale Farm

For the opening months of 1989/90, the Tigers played with ‘HUMBERSIDE’ on the front of their shirts, much to the displeasure of those fans who consider themselves proud Yorkshire-folk.

The 4th of August 1989 edition of the Hull Daily Mail spoke of a possible boycott from some fans: “The move has outraged die-hard supporters furious that the announcement was made on Yorkshire Day. 

“From the comments I have heard from customers, I am worried about. how this will affect the club’s finances. You are looking at maybe 500-less at every home game, said Yorkshire Travel proprietor Mr Brian Sutton. The Beverley-based travel firm is a regular sponsor at Boothferry Park and has just agreed to an advertising hoarding deal for the new season. 

Mrs. Eileen Sonley, a Tigers fan for 30 years and an executive box seat holder for the new season told us “I have got my executive seat but I won’t be going after this. The gates are low enough already, but I think they will get even lower because of this decision. They should have put East Yorkshire on the shirts or just left them blank until they got a sponsor”, she said. Club chairman, Mr. Don Robinson has said the “Humberside” logo was meant to highlight the county and possibly attract investment into the area.”

The issue was resolved when City secured a new sponsorship with local firm Northern Dairies.

The Wednesday 22nd of November 1989 edition of the Hull Daily Mail reported: “Hull City were today expected to announce a major sponsorship deal with dairy products company Dale Farm. The deal…was due to be announced officially at a press conference at Boothferry Park this afternoon. City’s new chairman Richard Chetham would not disclose the amount that Dale Farm, a subsidiary of the Hull-based Northern Foods company, had agreed to put into the club, but it is understood to be a five-figure sum. The deal will last until the end of the season and Dale Farm, who have a factory at Holme-on-Spalding Moor, will then have the first option of continuing it for a further year.”

Holme-on-Spalding Moor, mid-way between Hull and York, is where Alec Horsley founded a family run dairy business in 1937. After buying out competing local dairies, the business became Northern Dairies in 1942, and later after diversifying into food the firm became Northern Foods in 1972. In 2005 the company’s headquarters were moved out of Hull to Leeds, and demolition of the Northern Foods building at St. Stephen’s Square began.

Bonus

Bonus Electrical was founded as an independent electrical wholesaler by Eric Boanas in 1962, operating out of rented premises on Mytongate. Bonus is a family business to this day: when Eric passed away, his shares in the business were evenly split between sons Trevor and Graham. The Bonus Group is now led by Shaun Boanas, who took over when Trevor retired. No longer just a wholesaler, the wider company has diversified into retail, supplying solar power equipment and the manufacture of electrical switchboards.

Bonus have been main sponsors of Hull City on two separate occasions. The first ran from 1990 to 1993, and takes in two very significant kits: the 1990-92 primary kit, which was the first in eight years to not feature red as a tertiary colour as the Tigers went back-to-black and amber basics, and in the 1992/93 season, when City wore one of the most iconic kits, not just in club history, but in all of world football history, Matchwinner’s tiger stripe shirt.

Bonus returned as sponsors in 2002, this time with ‘Electrical’ added to shirts, remaining the club’s primary backer until 2007. This period took in the move from Boothferry Park to the KC Stadium, back-to-back promotions and consolidation in the second tier after a fourteen-year absence.

The first deal was announced by the Hull Daily Mail on Friday 13th of July 1990: “Hull City today received the Bonus of a new five-figure sponsorship deal. City chairman Richard Chetham announced that the club had finalised a one-year agreement with Hull-based company Bonus Electrical — and that there was the promise of a bonus from Bonus if the players responded on the pitch. The club will receive another five-figure amount — which I understand to be half that already pledged in the deal — if the side earn their stripes and reach the Second Division play-offs in the coming season… Chetham would not disclose the exact amount of the new sponsorship — supplied by Swanland businessman Trevor Boanas — although he called it “substantial”  

“His company have an executive box at Boothferry Park but he wants to be more involved in the club and we are pleased to have this new support from him. His company will also have the first option to renew their sponsorship at the end of a year if they want”

Pepi’s

Pepi’s began in the 1980s as a Middle Eastern cuisine restaurant on Boothferry Road, a goal kick away from the Tigers’ Boothferry Park home. The venue was known for belly dancers and purportedly Hull’s first karaoke machine.

Syrian owner Mohamed Kaband built a £3m three-storey building with a glazed tower on Hull Marina that opened in 1991. Pepi’s Palace had a first-floor restaurant called CoCo’s and a ground floor bar.

Pepi’s stepped in when the Bonus Electrical deal ended, though the club were coy about the identity of a new sponsor when the agreement was announced. The Saturday 31st^, of July 1993 edition of the Hull Daily Mail featured this on the back page: “Hull City have wrapped up a deal with the mystery main sponsor. The Tigers’ £60,000 three-year deal with Bonus Electrical has run out, but City chairman Martin Fish today confirmed that a new main sponsor had been found. Fish wouldn’t name the new sponsors but said the new deal, which is for one year with an option for another two years, was worth more than the £60,000 three-year deal with Bonus.”  

For the start of 1993/94, the 1992/93 home shirts were reused with PEPIS in upper case white letters (lacking the possessive apostrophe) applied to black patches that obscured the Bonus wordmark on shirts. They also had patched over Matchwinner logos until new supplier Pelada had time to produce a replacement primary and change kit.

The new primary kit was launched in mid-November 1993, and included an attempt at a non-copyright violating tiger-stripe shirt, though the pattern had more in common with the spots of leopards and was so tight, the amber and black merged into a rusty coppery hue. Rendered in the same typeface used for Bonus on the patched-up shirts, the replacement shirts had PEPIS in embossed white felt using a modified version of the ‘Sweet Gothic Serif’ typeface, replicating the signage at Pepi’s Palace.

After running into financial difficulties, and legal action taken out by an architect owed more than £100,000 for work on Pepi’s Palace, a bankruptcy order was issued against restaurateur Kaband.

The Wednesday June 15, 1994 Hull Daily Mail announced: “Cash-starved Hull City were dealt another severe blow today after it was announced shirt sponsors Pepis have pulled out of supporting the club. Beleaguered chairman Martin Fish is now looking for another company to put their names on the Tiger’s shirts…Pepis, the Marina-based restaurant and bar once owned by Langley Leisure, had a one-year deal for the shirts with an option to extend it for a second year, but the company’s new owners have told Fish they do not want to exercise the two-year option…The City chairman, who only just cleared the £171,000 debt to the Inland Revenue after an exhausting four- month appeal to city businesses, is now appealing for a local business to take over the shirts.”

Needlers Sweets

Frederick Needler from Arnold, a hamlet near the village of Skirlaugh, started his working life aged just 14, employed by a tea and coffee warehouse in Hull. In 1886, he bought a small confectionery business that he’d been the bookkeeper for, and began producing sweets in Anne Street, now adjacent to KCOM’s ‘Telephone House’ HQ. The company was incorporated in October 1902 as Fred Needler Ltd, but became Needlers Ltd in 1906 and expanded to a larger factory on the now demolished Bournemouth Street, off Sculcoates Lane.

Founder Frederick’s health deteriorated as he contended with Parkinson’s disease, and when he passed in 1932, his son Percival took over. In 1938, Needler’s perfected clear fruit flavoured hard sweets, and Glacé fruit drops became one of their bestsellers. Percival retired in 1970, succeeded by son Raymond, who led the buyout of London based toffee producer Batgers.

Needlers were bought by Hillsdown Holdings in 1986 and then had four other owners before Ashbury Confectionery made the decision to close the Hull factory on Sculcoates Lane in December 2002.

Before that, in 1994, Needler’s stepped into the breach when Pepi’s new owners elected not to renew their sponsorship deal for a second season. The back page of the Hull Daily Mail on Tuesday 5th of July 1994 had a story named ‘Sweet Success’.

“Hull-based confectionery giants Needlers were today named as the new main sponsors for Hull City. The firm take over as shirt sponsors from Pepis for an undisclosed sum. City chairman Martin Fish said he was delighted with the deal – but was quick to point out the sweet firm are not connected with the Needler family who own the club. At a press conference at Boothferry Park today, Fish announced a one-year deal with an option for a further two years. Despite losing Pepis after one year under a similar contract he is confident Needlers will stay with the club.

Fish said: “This is a very encouraging deal for a variety of different aspects. The first is that the approach was made direct to me, which is interesting because someone wanted to support Hull City. The second brings all sorts of possibilities over the season because there is no doubt the company wants to give away a lot of free sweets as part of the deal”

Needlers marketing manager Denis Healy said the company intends to give out different brands of sweets at every home game. All the company’s employees will also be offered the chance to see a game at Boothferry Park at some stage of the season. Healy said: “We are delighted to announce our new partnership with Hull City. We are a local company with a tradition and heritage deeply rooted in Hull. Today as one of Hull’s leading employers we take seriously our commitment to the local community and sponsorship of our local football team is an important part of that commitment”

After being forced to change kit supplier for 1993/94, with Pelada kit being introduced mid-season to replace patched over Matchwinner gear used at the start of the season, City were loathe to have a new kit for 1994/95.

So, felt patches with the Needlers Sweets cursive wordmark framed inside a ‘torn wrapper’ outline were stitched over the Pepis wordmark on both the home and away shirts. These patches were large and unwieldy and became heavy when wet.

The wordmark of Needlers did appear on one shirt that was designed with it in mind, when the club had Pelada knock up some limited-edition shirts ahead for Christmas 1994. They were announced in the Saturday 10^th December 1994 edition of the Hull Daily Mail:

“The Tigers have produced a limited-edition shirt for the Christmas market, a gift idea they hope will bring some much-needed cash into the Boothferry Park coffers. Only 1,000 of the black shirts, with amber and white stripes, have been produced so in future years they may become collectors items.

The shirts are now on sale at the club’s Paragon Square shop and Boothferry Park club shop on match days. Because only 1,000 have been made demand is expected to be high and a number of fans ordered the shirts when they heard rumours they were on their way.

City boss Terry Dolan said “I really like it. If I had my way we would be playing in it next season. But the Chairman has told me it would clash with referee’s jerseys, so as the rules stand we can’t use it. I hope it generates some interest. It is a great idea and we hope to raise some money from it. The new limited-edition jerseys come in two sizes, small (£25.99) and large (£33.99).”

The most prominent memory of the launch is of Dean Windass modelling the shirt while stood on the rickety roof of Boothferry Park’s West Stand, dressed as a chavvy Santa. He was photographed pairing the limited-edition shirt and navy Mizuno shell pants with a tinsel wreath and a black bin bag for a sack. A marketing image for the ages.

After just one season of boiled sweets being thrown to fans in the stands, the deal ended and the Tigers were again looking for another main sponsor.

IBC

After back-to-back single year deals, the Tigers sealed sponsorship that would last the lifetime of new kits supplied by Burnley based Super League.

The Thursday May 18th of May 1995 edition of the Hull Daily Mail read: “Hull City today unveiled the name of their new sponsor – little known Hull company IBC Ltd. The Hedon Road-based transport company have taken over the shirt sponsorship from sweet firm Needlers. The good news for City is that the company, whose full name is International Bulk Containers, have signed a two-year deal, the full details of which were expected to be announced at Boothferry Park today.  When Fish announced that Needlers would not be renewing the contract in April, he feared that the club would struggle to find new sponsors. He was even prepared to launch the new club shirts without a sponsor’s name if necessary.

But today, it’s a very different story as Fish prepares to send off the artwork for the new shirt, designed following a competition in the Hull Daily Mail by City fan Chris Boynton. Fish is hopeful the new shirts will be ready for sale during the close season. IBC are a Hull-based company who employ around 50 people at their main depot on Hedon Road. They were founded in 1981 and have international recognition as one of the leading bulk transport companies… [and have] offices throughout Europe in Rotterdam, Zeebrugge, Strasbourg, Milan, Dublin, Valencia, Gothenburg and Oslo.”

The firm’s deep red and yellow shipping container livery informed the away kits maroon and amber colourway, and the home and third shirts for 1995/96 had IBC’s initials in red embossed felt letters (though for 1996/97 the white third shirt used black letters).

Though the two-year deal was not extended at the end of 1996/97, IBC returned as main sponsors in 1999, by which time the club was under different ownership. The Friday 11th of June 1999 Hull Daily Mail announced: “Hull City have spoken of their delight at clinching their new two-year sponsorship deal with IBC. Tigers’ chairman Nick Buchanan was “honoured” the transport firm were backing their bid for promotion – and his words were echoed by IBC managing director Joe Staton, who helped put together the lucrative deal.

This is the second time company have supported the Tigers. Staton said: “I hope this is going to be a very successful marriage. Hull City are at a turning point and we’re pleased to be a part of that and happy we’re here again.

“This is about a football club, not individuals. Plenty of our staff are fans and when the team are doing well it really puts a smile on their faces”

The package contains a string of incentives to spur the Tigers on. As well as shirt sponsorship, Warren Joyce’s outfit are set to benefit if they make play-offs or gain automatic promotion. Buchanan said: “IBC are great supporters and If things go well over the course of next two years, then it would be good to carry it on.”

Again, IBC’s initials were applied in red on both the home and away shirts in 1999/2000, but for 2000/01, black was used for the home shirt, and yellow used on the navy blue and maroon change shirt. Curiously, in July 2000, one year into the two-year deal, the company changed its name to UBC, but there was no indication of this on match kit or in club publications. In 2007, they became part of Interbulk, which was itself later acquired by the Dutch firm Den Hartogh logistics.

University of Hull

Thomas Ferens, Member of Parliament for Hull East for 13 years, a key figure behind the establishment of noted local firm Reckitt and Sons and philanthropist, helped establish University College, now the University of Hull, with a donation of £250,000 in 1925.

Ferens also purchased three fields, donated the land to the Hull Corporation, who in turn granted the land to the board of the new University College in Hull. The college gained its royal charter in 1954, giving it university status, entitled to award degrees of its own.

Football sponsorships by learning institutions are no longer uncommon, the universities of Portsmouth and Bolton have supported their local EFL clubs and the University of West London is a long-standing partner of Brentford, but things were very different in 1997.

The Wednesday 4th of June 1997 edition of the Hull Daily Mail announced: “The Tigers have completed a unique ‘first’ by signing-up the University of Hull as the club’s new shirt sponsors. Now the city’s premier education establishment has paid for the honour of having its name emblazoned across the famous Tigers’ shirt.

It is the first time ever links between two such organizations have been forged to promote the city as a whole, and the surprise arrangement will be worth a substantial five-figure-sum to Hull City, which will last for one year. Now the Tigers are gearing themselves up to launch a brand new home kit in preparation for the start of the season in August.

The deal has been finalised over the last couple of weeks and a formal announcement was due to be made at Boothferry Park today. The University takes over from IBC, whose two-year contract came to an end this summer.

Tigers’ commercial manager Simon Cawkill is responsible for hatching the amazing partnership. City’s players have been using the University’s training facilities for the last couple of years, and now the club’s soccer stars will be participating in a number of university sports science degrees. Cawkill said he was delighted at the institution’s support for the club and is confident the link will be a success.

“Both the University and Hull City are an integral part of the community, he added. Hull City are proud to be associated with the University of Hull in the full knowledge that it enjoys a reputation for excellence not only throughout England, but also throughout the world. As well as being a footballing first, this partnership shows the strength of the University’s commitment not only to Hull City, but to the city as a whole. Hull City are delighted with this substantial deal and are fully committed to playing an active part at the University and will continue to benefit from their splendid sporting facilities.”

Spokesman for the University, Jim Dumsday, said: “We will be announcing a partnership agreement with Hull City which will help promote both education and sport in the city.”

A year later, the Saturday 18th of July 1998 edition of the Hull Daily Mail’s weekly ‘green’ Sports Mail had a front cover image of David D’Auria and Gregor Rioch modelling the new home and away kits. Under the headline of ‘Double delight’ read: “The University of Hull have signed up as the club’s sponsor for a second successive season in a record deal and Tigers boss Mark Hateley finally completed the signing of his long-time transfer target Jon French, 21…He was poised to take his bow in City’s new university-sponsored strip in this afternoon’s friendly fixture at home to first division Watford.

In 2016, the University re-engaged with the club to become ‘training partner’, which took in naming rights to City’s training ground in Cottingham, and University branding placed on trainingwear and benchwear.

Sportscard

In March 2001, former Leeds United executive director Adam Pearson bought Hull City out of administration after they’d imploded financially, unable to pay players wages, locked out of Boothferry Park twice, and issued a winding-up petition by the Inland Revenue. Pearson sought to get the club on a sound financial footing, so it could be in his words “able to wash its own face” and negotiated a sponsorship deal with the rewards-based credit card company Sportscard.

The idea behind Sportscard was that cardholders could earn and spend points on things such as sports events tickets, health club memberships and items from sports goods stores. It was set up by David Banford, who pioneered retail loyalty cards in the 1970s, and appointed Peter Ridsdale, who gained notoriety for Leeds’ boom and bust period of the early-2000s, as a non-executive chairman.

A press released read: “Sportscard Group plc (‘the Company’ or ‘Sportscard’), the UK rewards-based credit card company, today announces that it has signed a three-year partnership agreement with Hull City Football Club (‘HCFC’) to develop and market a rewards-based loyalty credit card for supporters of the football club.

The deal will see Sportscard gain access to HCFC’s loyal fan base of 10,000 supporters. The Company will also become the main sponsor of the club, who play in Division Three of the English Nationwide Football League. Holders of the HCFC Sportscard will be able to pay for their season tickets at a reduced rate on the card, at the same time earning ‘Sports Points’. These points can be used in full or part-exchange for sports merchandise (including HCFC merchandise at discounted rates), ‘hard to find’ tickets for major sporting events as well as towards the cost of sports and health club memberships. Cardholders will also be able to attend exclusive HCFC events.

Adam Pearson, Chairman of Hull City Football Club commented: “I am delighted to announce that Sportscard will be seen not only as Hull City A.F.C’s official main sponsor, but also their credit card supplier from this season.”

However the three-year deal was cut short against a backdrop of Sportscard being acquired by ukbetting plc, who in 2006 became the 365 Media Group, which was in turn taken over by BSkyB and absorbed into their SkyBet business. Before the 2001/02 campaign had ended, the Tigers had inked a new sponsorship deal with Bonus Electrical, and wore new kit featuring Bonus branding in the last game of the season.

KCOM Group

In the same year that Hull City was founded, 1904, the Hull Municipal Corporation set up a telephone exchange on Trippett Street. Many such telephone companies established by local authorities were absorbed into the Post Office, which effectively nationalised the telephone network, but Hull’s service remained under municipal control. The £192,423 purchase of local network infrastructure in 1914, ensured that Hull’s telephones remained independent from the company that became British Telecom in 1980.

Known for its cream coloured telephone boxes, the Hull Telephone Department became Kingston Communications Plc in 1987, and in 1999 Hull City Council partially floated the company on the London Stock Exchange, retaining a 41.3% stake.

The shareholders voted to change the company name to KCOM Group in 2007, as Hull City Council sold its remaining stake-holding in the business. That same year the firm were announced as main sponsors of the Tigers, having held naming rights for the KC Stadium since it opened in 2002.

It was a time of great change for the club: after overseeing the move from Boothferry Park to the KC Stadium and spearheading two promotions, Adam Pearson sold Hull City in June 2007 to a consortium led by Paul Duffen and including Russell Bartlett and Martin Walker. Umbro became the new kit supplier, and the KCOM Group deal would see a different brand appear on each of the home and away shirts.

The home shirt would bear the name of the Karoo broadband service, while away shirts carried the logo and wordmark of the wider Kingston Communications firm. 2007/08 was a historic campaign for the Tigers, as they ventured to Wembley Stadium for the first time in club history to play in the Championship Play-Off final. Under the national stadium’s steel arch, Hull City were victorious, earning the right to play in English football’s top-flight after 104 years of trying.

The dual branding sponsorship policy was retained for 2008/09, as City shook the world with away wins over Newcastle United, Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur early in the campaign. Form faltered as the season progressed, and the Tigers became embroiled in a relegation battle, but they secured Premier League existence for a second season.

The KCOM Group stepped down as main sponsors at the end of 2008/09, but they retained stadium naming rights, calling it the KCOM Stadium between 2016 and 2021.

Totesport

The prevalence of alcohol sponsorships in the 1980s and 1990s was a two-edged sword for football clubs, generating revenue but also public condemnation and ethical criticisms. In the years since, it is gambling firms that have come to dominate football sponsorship, and the debate about the moral implications of what is promoted on shirtfronts.

When Hull City announced their first betting company backer ahead of 2009/10, they became one of seven Premier League clubs that season to have a gambling related sponsor. The practice peaked in the top-flight in 2016/17, when such deals accounted for half of the Premier League’s main sponsors.

A press release issued on Tuesday 30th of June 2009 stated: “The Tiger’s new Umbro home and away shirts will carry a new name on the front for the 2009/10 Barclays Premier League season. Hull City is pleased to announce that they have agreed to a substantial new two-year sponsorship deal with totesport.com, which will see the betting company’s name appear on the front of the first team’s home shirts. The away shirt will carry the name of totesport, which represents the retail division of the business.

Tiger’s Chairman Paul Duffen said: “these are exciting times at Hull City as we look to build on our recent success both on and off the field and we are delighted to showcase the totesport brand to the countless millions of fans and followers of football worldwide who see us play in the Barclays Premier League, FA Cup and Carling Cup competitions this season.

This is one of the most important commercial partnerships in the history of the Club and we are looking forward to working closely with the totesport team in delivering this fantastic partnership opportunity.” 

The ‘Tote’, or the Horserace Totalisator Board as it became known in 1961, has its origins in the Racecourse Betting Act of 1928, which established the Racehorse Betting Control Board. It was intended to be a state-controlled and therefore safe alternative to illegal bookies that reinvested gambling revenues back into horseracing.

The Betting Levy Act of 1961 reconstituted the board as the Tote and permitted the opening of betting shops offering odds on horseracing. A loosening of restrictions in 1972 meant the Tote could operate as a bookmaker as well as offering pool betting on horses, and at the time the sponsorship deal with City was signed, totesport had 514 retail shops offering betting on a wide range of sporting and non-sporting events.

Hull City’s first stint in the Premier League came to an end when they finished 19th in 2009/10, so totesport’s second and final year played out with the Tigers in the relative commercial obscurity of the Championship.

Cash Converters

Though the Premier League can unlock huge riches for its constituent clubs, it can also financially break teams who spend big attempting to stay at the top table yet slip through the relegation trapdoor. From being a club without debt when sold in 2007, Hull City had taken on big liabilities that demanded belt tightening and the sale of assets by mid-2010, so a sponsorship deal with a pawnbrokers fit the tone of a new financial reality.

Cash Converters was founded in Perth, Australia in 1984, and within four years they had grown to seven outlets, two of them franchised. International expansion came in the 1990s, first in the United Kingdom with a store in Essex, followed by New Zealand, South Africa, Spain, France and Belgium.

Ahead of the 2011/12 season, Cash Converters were announced as sponsors of both Hull City and Scottish Premier League side Motherwell. The deal with the Tigers, for two-years with the option of a third year, was understood to be worth £350,000 a season.

Speaking at the time, the club’s Chief Executive Mark Maguire said: “It is the biggest sponsorship deal in the Club’s history in terms of the commercial gain…Cash Converters saw us as a very proactive club which is going forward and can help us develop their brand… It is also important for the Club to be associated with an international brand and a growing company.”

In November 2012, the firm supported another initiative that began in Australia and spread around the world. The ‘Movember’ movement is a month-long charity drive each November which encourages sponsorship of moustache growing to raise funds for men’s health issues such as prostate cancer.

For the trip to Bristol City, the regular sponsor appliqué was replaced by a black moustache shaped transfer with ‘tash converters’ inside. Shirts from the match were later auctioned to raise funds for the Movember charity.

The third-year option was taken by Cash Converters when the Tigers were promoted as Championship runners-up. The extra year paid off, as City not only played in the Premier League (and retained their status with a 16th placed finish), they reached the FA Cup final at Wembley, a game that attracted a peak television audience of 10 million viewers in the United Kingdom as well as being shown around the world.

12Bet

Against the backdrop of the club’s owners trying to the change the club’s name, a deeply unpopular move that created needless rancour with the fanbase, City changed crest (removing the club name), kit suppliers and main sponsors ahead of 2014/15.

The sports betting brand 12BET would be advertised on shirts made by Umbro, after signing a two-year sponsorship deal said to be the largest in club history, though the Curaçao registered gambling concern quickly pointed out what appealed to them about the deal and it wasn’t the club or its identity.

Highlighting the ability of the Premier League to reach fans in over 200 territories through live footage shown by 80 international broadcasters, 12BET Europe CEO Rory Anderson said “The association with such a prestigious and global competition will provide 12BET with the perfect opportunity to achieve their objectives faster and more cost effectively. ‘The Tigers’ give us a great Premier League platform to engage our target audience around the world.”

Prior to sponsoring Hull City, 12BET had advertised on the shirts of Wigan Athletic in the Premier League and Sevilla in Spain’s La Liga. The partnership was organised by the marketing agency SportQuake.

Hull City’s commercial manager, Simon King, said: “We are delighted to be working with 12BET. Having a global brand like 12BET with a great history of working in football is very exciting. This deal represents how far the club has come on the field and from a commercial perspective in the recent years.”

Though the deal was announced as being for two-years, it in fact lasted just one season, suggesting 12BET had a clause that the second year was dependent on maintaining Premier League status. Relegation had City looking for a new backer in 2015/16.

Flamingo Land

A surreal spectacle of sponsor credibility relativism occurred in the summer of 2015, when the North Yorkshire theme park, zoo, and resort Flamingo Land announced two football sponsorships.

For 2015/16, they would be Hull City’s main sponsors, with their wordmark placed on the front of Tigers shirts, while being a secondary sponsor of Middlesbrough, with the logo appearing on the back of ‘Boro’ shirts. Curiously only one of these teams were openly mocked in the press for the association.

Metro, the free newspaper distributed by the same group that owns the Daily Mail, ran an article on Friday 10th of July 2015 that read: “As if getting relegated from the Premier League wasn’t bad enough, Hull City have further embarrassed themselves.

The Tigers have unveiled what might be the weirdest kit sponsor of all time. While most clubs nowadays seem to go for airlines or betting companies, Hull have gone down a slightly different route. They have instead teamed up with Flamingo Land!”

The London Evening Standard went with “Hull City mocked on Twitter after unveiling ‘Flamingo Land’ as new shirt sponsor”, and the opprobrium wasn’t limited to home shores, with the sports division of American broadcasting giant CBS chipping in: “There have been some weird shirt sponsors over the years, and Hull’s newest is up there with the worst. Soccer fans are obsessed with their team’s jerseys. New ones are out every year, and most have a sponsor across the abdomen that fans like to connect with. There was the great Fiorentina uniform with Nintendo as a sponsor and Arsenal’s Sega Dreamcast kit are a few that come to mind. But not all are great, just like Hull City’s latest.

The Tigers will be the latest to have a weird sponsor, with Flamingo Land, a combination of a theme park, resort and zoo in England. Ideally, you want a big name sponsor that people will recognize…But Hull, along with Middlesbrough, will be using Flamingo Land for the upcoming season. That’s like if Orlando City of the MLS picked the Central Florida Zoo and Botanical Gardens. Nothing says tough, physical soccer like a Zoo with zebras, birds and more.”

Naturally, as recipients of sponsorship cash, the club were more upbeat, City’s commercial manager Simon King said: “It is an honour to welcome Flamingo Land as our new shirt sponsor and we look forward to building a successful relationship with the resort, initially for this season but hopefully for the long term.”

Flamingo Land’s chief executive Gordon Gibb said: “Since Flamingo Land’s initial meetings with the club and our subsequent agreement, it has become abundantly clear that we are both Premiership quality!”

Gibb’s father Robert brought the tourist attraction into family ownership in 1978, buying it from Scotia Leisure, for whom he was previously a director. The site opened in 1959 as Yorkshire Zoological Gardens, founded by Pentland Hick, a World War Two veteran and owner of a chain of cinemas in North Yorkshire.

A colony of flamingos was one of the first additions and became mascots for the site, which became home to the country’s first captive bottlenose dolphins and sperm whales. A fun fair was added in the 1960s and by the 1970s amusement rides had become a permanent attraction. The early 1990s saw the addition of thrill rides and roller coasters such as The Bullet, Corkscrew and Thunder Mountain.

Under the Gibb family’s stewardship, Flamingo Land has become a nationally known family attraction, combining a theme park, zoo and holiday village. Both Flamingo Land sponsored sides were promoted in 2015/16, Middlesbrough as Championship runners-up, and the Tigers as Play-Off winners, beating Sheffield Wednesday 1-0 at Wembley.

SportPesa

With the Tigers back in the Premier League, they were once again an attractive proposition to firms wishing to exploit the league’s global appeal. After Totesport (2009-11) and 12BET (2014/15), a third betting company took a punt on sponsoring Hull City in 2016, this time with an East African flavour.

Samson Sport Consultancy, the sponsorship agency who have worked with Arsenal, AC Milan and Borussia Dortmund, connected City with the Kenyan online gambling firm SportPesa.

Founded in 2014, SportPesa became title sponsor of the 18-club Kenyan Premier League a year later, but seeking to grow the brand beyond its home nation, the firm looked towards the English Premier League.

A press release read: “The Tigers are proud and delighted to have signed a club record, multi-million-pound deal to have Kenyan online gaming company SportPesa as their official sponsor. As the official sponsor, SportPesa have signed a three-year deal and will have their name and company logo on the Tigers’ home, away and third shirts for the 2016/17, 2017/18 and 2018/19 seasons. The new sponsorship deal is the most lucrative in the Club’s proud 112-year history.

Africa’s Number One Sports Betting Platform, SportPesa has become a significant investor and operator in the online gaming industry having successfully transitioned from a pioneer in a little known industry in Kenya, to become both a market leader and ‘super’ brand that is changing lives all over their home country in the space of just over two years.

This new partnership with the Tigers sponsorship marks the company’s global expansion starting with the UK where gaming services will be available on their platform within the next month. The company are also official sponsors of two its countries most popular clubs – Gor Mahia, who are currently the defending champions of the SportPesa Premier League, and AFC Leopards. Part of our deal will see The Tigers be the first English Premier League team ever to come to Kenya to play a select side as part of our campaign towards having Kenya compete in the World Cup for the first time in 2022.”

For the 2016/17 season, City’s shirts featured the SportPesa wordmark above a circular logo depicting a letter S inside a field of light and dark blue, contained within an outline rendered to look metallic. This device was dropped after one season so the size of the wordmark could be increased.

Relegation from the Premier League led to SportPesa scaling down their financial commitments to Hull City and sponsoring Everton, so that they still had top-flight exposure, though they remained the Tigers main sponsor. In 2017/18 City took part in the ‘Kits For Africa’ scheme, an initiative that encourages football fans to donate their old kit for underprivileged, grassroots teams across Africa. Donation bins appeared across the city, such as the Tiger Leisure stores and Hull College buildings. To promote this initiative, City’s shirts had Kits For Africa patches applied over the regular SportPesa wordmark for the Boxing Day 2017 game against Derby County.

Just after the 2017/18 season concluded, the Tigers travelled to Nairobi to face reigning Kenyan champions Gor Mahia, another club sponsored by SportPesa. Played at the Moi International Sports Centre stadium in Nairobi’s Kasarani neighbourhood, the game attracted a capacity crowd of 60,000 spectators! Goalless after 90 minutes, City won 4-3 on spot-kicks.

The Kits For Africa donation drive was repeated in 2018/19, and a new appliqué design was added to blank shirts (instead of covering the regular SportPesa wordmark) for the home game against Swansea on 22nd December 2018.

The deal with SportPesa was extended for a fourth season. The Hull Daily Mail wrote on the 4th of March 2019: “Hull City have announced a one-year extension to their sponsorship deal with SportPesa. The sports betting firm, based in Kenya, has been City’s main shirt sponsors since 2016 and had been due to see the partnership expire at the end of this season. An extended contract will now see SportPesa, who also adorn the shirts of Premier League club Everton, continue their partnership with the Tigers through the 2019/20 season.”

In mid-2019 SportPesa lost their betting licence in Kenya following a tax dispute with the government, this was a major blow as up to 95% of global income came from revenues in Kenya.

The SportPesa sponsorship, which began as Hull City rejoined the Premier League, ended with the Tigers facing life in League One after a disastrous 2019/20 campaign that resulted in relegation to the third tier.

Giacom

From Hull City’s first ascent to the Premier League in 2008 to the end of their third spell in English football’s top-tier in 2017, much of the discourse around sponsorship has included the word ‘global’, referring to the potential reach on offer to backers afforded by the Premier League’s worldwide popularity.

So when the Tigers fell into the third tier in 2020, there was something reassuringly local about the deal with a national leader in its field when Hessle-based Giacom were named as the Principal Club Partner. Rather than talking about the benefits of being associated with the league Hull City were to play in, the new sponsor spoke about their pride in being partnered with the Tigers.

Founded as an Internet Service Provider (ISP) to provide an alternative to Kingston Communications in 1999, Giacom has since repositioned itself as a provider of cloud-based internet data storage and complementary software to small and medium sized businesses.

When reporting on the sponsorship deal, the Hull Daily Mail quoted Giacom CEO Mike Wardell as saying “We’re proud to be partnering with our local club, supporting our city and standing alongside the other great businesses from the region who are associated with Hull City. The Giacom team are excited to work with the club to develop our partnership.”

Wardell told Business Works magazine that the club made the initial overture: “They had seen it [the company] in the Insider and reached out to me,” says Mike. “I’d never really thought about it – I wasn’t sure whether it was the right idea to be spending a lot of money on sponsorship and branding – but I went to meet them and I was really impressed with the club’s commercial and marketing team. They came up with loads of ideas about what we could do. As the meeting wore on, Mike became more and more convinced that Giacom was the perfect fit for City…What I also realised is that the sponsor name could be on kids’ shirts now, unlike the previous sponsor which was a betting company. I was thinking, actually, what a good thing this would be to do, firstly for the club and, secondly, for the local community to have a local business on the shirt.”

Indeed, Giacom were the first local firm to be main sponsors since the Kingston Communications/KCOM deal ended in 2010. Back then Wardell was working for KCOM as the Head of Commercial Finance, working on projects such as the roll-out of fibre broadband across Hull. In 2016 he was head-hunted by Giacom to transform them into a one-stop-shop for IT solutions servicing small businesses.

Though a global pandemic prevented people from watching games in person for the whole of 2020/21, Hull City’s fine form that season made the Giacom branding highly visible. They are now ineluctably connected with a promotion campaign and the club’s first divisional title since the 1960s heyday of Waggy, Chillo and Co.

Giacom were highly praised for permitting their branding to effectively be hidden on the 2021/22 ‘blackout’ change kit, as City became relatively early adopters of the trend for entirely (or almost entirely) black kits.

This meant applying the maker’s mark, club crest and sponsor branding tonally, so that they could only be seen up close, but while branding visibility was sacrificed, Giacom’s value came from association with one of the most talked about kit releases of the year. Interest was unprecedented, as people with no stake in Hull City per se wanted one of the ‘coolest’ football shirts available, and that availability was brief, as a first batch of shirts sold out instantly, with a December restock also selling out.

In the summer of 2022 Giacom agreed to step aside as main sponsor as the club, now under the ownership of Turkish media mogul Acun Ilıcalı, attracted sponsorship from Turkish companies, but Giacom remained in partnership with the club, becoming training-wear sponsors for 2022/23.

Corendon Airlines

The purchase of the club by Acun Ilıcalı in early 2022 infused a weary fanbase with optimism and a sense that ‘the sky is the limit’. A series of sponsorship deals with companies from Ilıcalı’s native Türkiye followed, with the first being with the Antalya based air passenger carrier Corendon Airlines.

They were initially announced as the club’s first-ever ‘Official Travel Partner’ in May 2022, a deal marked by the unveiling of a Boeing 737-800 aircraft featuring a Hull City livery, but became main sponsors six weeks later, signing what was described as a ‘multi-year deal’.

The CEO of Corendon Airlines Yıldıray Karaer said: “We announced being the official travel partner of Hull City in May by painting one of our aircraft in Hull City livery. With the jersey sponsorship, the cooperation between Hull City and Corendon Airlines continues to grow exponentially. We are happy to support Hull City with all our strength and passion for sports. We hope this great partnership will create value for both parties and also contribute to the popularity of the club in Türkiye.”

The airline was founded in 2004 to complement the Corendon Group, a tour operator specialising in trips to Turkish holiday destinations, and in 2005 they began operations with two Boeing 737-300s. Since then, they’ve formed sister companies Corendon Dutch Airlines (2011) and Corendon Airlines Europe (2017) in Malta.

A pre-season fixture against Leicester City in July 2023 was branded as contesting the ‘Corendon Cup’, which somewhat oddly was a large acrylic shield that now belongs to the Foxes, who won the game 4-0.

Part of Acun Ilıcalı’s love-bombing of the Tiger Nation included paid-up club member’s getting the chance to go on a seven-day holiday at Corendon’s Grand Lara Hotel in Antalya. Several hundred City fans were selected for the trip and naturally they were flown to Türkiye on the Tigers themed Boeing 737-800, registry 9H-CXG. While in Antalya, the fans got to attend two open training sessions, see friendlies against Istanbul Başakşehir and Trabzonspor, and meet Ilıcalı and first-team boss Liam Rosenior. This trip was the first of several excursions to Türkiye enabled by Corendon Airlines.

Back of shirt, shorts and sleeve sponsors

In 2002, the bankruptcy of ITV Digital, the pay-TV service which held the 2001-2004 live broadcast rights for Football League games, plunged many clubs into financial crisis. Halifax Town went into administration in April 2002, and in ensuing months they were followed by Bradford, Barnsley, Notts County, Leicester City, Port Vale, York City and Ipswich Town.

The effects were felt for several years, and for 2004/05 the Football League attempted to help its constituent clubs with a new title sponsor, Coca-Cola, a rebrand of the divisions with Division One becoming the Championship, and a relaxation of kit sponsorship rules: The backs of shirts and shorts were now fair game for the advertisement of secondary, and even tertiary sponsors.

Late adopters, Hull City didn’t have a back of shirt sponsor until 2006/07, when they applied the wordmark of Hessle based Gemtec, a distributor of photocopiers, printers and scanners. Promotion to the Premier League ended the Gemtec deal, since the top-flight didn’t permit secondary sponsors back then, so the last appearance of Gemtec on a shirt for a game was in Hull City’s first appearance (and win) at Wembley.

The Tigers returned to the Championship for 2010/11, and signed their first shorts sponsorship deal with Scientific Laboratory Supplies (SLS), “the UK’s largest independent supplier of laboratory equipment, chemicals and consumables”, headquartered in Hessle. The company was founded by Peter Chapman, son of former Tigers’ chairman Bob Chapman, and himself an honorary president of the club who was integral to Steve Bruce’s appointment as manager.

The back of shirt sponsor was Neil Hudgell Law, the solicitors founded by the owner of Hull Kingston Rovers rugby league club since 2004. The law firm’s red and blue wordmark was applied above the player names.

SLS upgraded their deal for 2011/12, becoming back of shirts sponsor for this and the following season. There was no season long shorts sponsor in either 2011/12 or 2012/13, but Neil Hudgell Law patches were added to the navy alternate change shorts for the televised game at Blackpool in March 2012, and patches for local scaffolding concern Burflex appeared on the shorts for the 0-0 draw with Leicester on Boxing Day and remained for the rest of 2012/13.

Hudgell Solicitors returned as back of shirts sponsors when City returned to the Championship in 2015/16 after a two-year spell in the Premier League that also took in an FA Cup final and preliminary stage UEFA Europa League games. A Play-Off final win over Sheffield Wednesday in May 2016 meant only the one kit sponsor in 2016/17.

The Tigers had a panda on their shorts for 2017/18, but it wasn’t a sponsorship as such, as City teamed up with the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) to promote their campaign to double the number of wild tigers by 2022. As well as featuring on the back of the first-team’s shorts, the WWF’s panda logo appeared on the front of under-23 and academy teams shirts

Also in 2017/18, Burflex Scaffolding returned as a kit sponsor, graduating from shorts advertiser in 2012/13 to back of shirts sponsor, an arrangement that held for 2018/19 too. Founded in 2005, Burflex are headquartered in Hull, but have contact offices in Sheffield and Leeds.

The On Line Group, from just over the Humber Bridge in Immingham, describe themselves as an engineering design and construction solutions provider. They became back of shirt sponsors in 2019/20 and stuck around for three seasons, though for 2021/22 the shirts featured updated company branding, as they now identified as OLG.

2019/20 started with no shorts sponsor, but Beverley-based learning institution East Riding College put their logo on the back of shorts from November 2019, later becoming ‘Official Education Partner’ while continuing shorts advertising in 2020/21 and 2021/22.

Secondary and Tertiary sponsorship took on a distinctly Turkish flavour in 2022/23, with the beer Efes Pilsen advertised on the back of shirts from the mid-September game at Swansea, and the logo of cryptocurrency exchange Tomya was applied to the shorts.

Two new Turkish owned firms partnered with the Tigers in 2023/24, though not from the start of the campaign. McVitie’s the biscuit-maker is considered a consummately British brand, it was established in Edinburgh in 1830 and is the best-selling biscuit manufacturer in the United Kingdom, however since 2014 it has been a part of Yıldız Holding. The Turkish conglomerate traces its history back to 1944 when brothers Sabri and Asim Ülker started a small bakery in Istanbul, and it has grown to have over 300 brands available in five continents, with a focus on biscuits, cakes and confectionery. The McVitie’s deal put their logo not only on the back of first-team shirts but also on all training wear from late September 2023.

Shirt sleeve sponsorship came to the EFL in 2023/24, having been permitted in the Premier League since 2017/18. Antalya based tour operator Anex became Hull City’s first sleeve sponsor, starting with the Plymouth home game on the last day of September.

The Tigers were without a shorts sponsor until February 2024 when they announced online gambling site HighBet would be advertised for the remainder of the 2023/24 campaign.

Anex continued their sleeve sponsorship in 2024/25, but there were two new deals signed in the club’s 120th anniversary year: Safiport, the Turkish shipping and port management firm became back of shirt sponsors, with their wordmark appearing high-up on the shirts starting with the pre-season game against Fenerbahçe. Online betting platform Sportsbet.io became both back-of-shorts sponsor and ‘official Turkish betting partner’.

Tiger Rags book – Features (This page)
Tiger Rags book – Primary kits
Tiger Rags book – Change kits
Tiger Rags book – Third kits