Bert Patrick - Kit Man
With the sales of football kit today accounting for a multi-billion pound industry, Andy Greeves speaks to Bert Patrick - former owner of sportswear firm Admiral and creator of the first-ever official club replicas.
After supplying the goalkeeper shirts for Gordon Banks to wear during England's successful World Cup campaign of 1966 (though the outfield players wore shirts make by Umbro), Leicestershire-based firm Admiral got a taste for football and the business opportunities it could present.
The 1968 Copyright Act gave the company the rights to protect the specific designs of its sports clothing and with it came the opportunity to kit out the top professional clubs in England at the time.
During the same decade a young, former freelance journalist by the name of Bert Patrick had bought underwear manufacturing firm Cook & Hurst, turning it into the Admiral brand that would later become synonymous with teams such as Manchester United, Tottenham Hotspur, Southampton and West Ham United, not to mention the England national team. As the 1970s approached, the company were planning something of a sportswear revolution.
"We had the suitable knitting machinery that was capable of making the fabrics that were used in football kits at the time,' recalls Patrick, on the beginnings of Admiral's interest in the football market. "We were using it to make underwear before football kits. We originally made some items for Bukta and Umbro. After the 1966 FIFA World Cup, for various reasons, we decided to go it alone with kit manufacturing.'
It was in 1973 that Admiral landed their first ever deal with a professional football club in England. That club was Leeds United, arguably THE team of the 1970s and, as had never been done before, Admiral actually paid the Yorkshire club for the right to design and supply its kits, starting with its away kit.
"Don Revie didn't want to change the home strip, but gave us permission to design the away shirt, which was an overnight success,' smiles Patrick. "The kit was a distinctive yellow design and the young fans loved it. The Leeds United tracksuit was a massive success too, having been used in the club's Christmas card that year.'
Luton Town were the next club to be supplied by Admiral, before the firm secured the ultimate contract with Manchester United.
"Getting Manchester United on board was massive for us of course, given the size of the club and because we had taken business from under Umbro's nose,' recalls Patrick. "The Umbro factory was just down the road from Old Trafford in Wilmslow and it shocked them that we'd managed to get the contract to design the new kit.'
Admiral's forage into football continued with the likes of Stoke City, Sheffield United, Queens Park Rangers, Swindon Town, West Ham United and Scunthorpe United to name a few. Bill Shankly had signed another 70s super power, Liverpool, to Admiral but the club's directors promptly cancelled the deal. It seemed not everyone in football was happy with the Admiral revolution and neither were some people outside of the game.
"Initially, there was outrage from some quarters with people accusing us of trying to rip families off etc by bringing out these specific design kits, which could change after say three or four years,' explains Patrick. "Admiral were obviously the first manufacturer to sell as kit with team badges on the shirt and a distinctive design. Before that, you could just get plain jerseys, with badges and numbers sold separately. You could buy a whole Admiral kit for around £9 and a shirt for £5, which seems very reasonable today!
"Retailers complained in the early days too they still had old kit in stock when the new kits were arriving.'
In October 1974, Admiral created more history becoming the England national team's first official sponsor. The commercial association, which would eventually run through until 1983, saw a logo appear on the team's shirt for a first time alongside the famous Three Lions badge.
"Today, Nike are paying the Football Association £25m for the rights to supply the England football team with its kit,' says Patrick. "We were the first manufacturer to agree a deal to actually pay for the right to supply the kit and we paid £10,000 in our first contract.'
While the England kit sold like hot cakes, Admiral experienced financial difficulties towards the end of the 1970s and would eventually be sold to a businessman called Nico de Fries, owner of Frisol Oil based in Holland.
"In the latter years, the competition from South East Asia made it very hard to survive, given how cheaply they could produce clothing and footwear,' laments Patrick. "I was faced with the dilemma of working with contacts out in South East Asia and having our goods produced there at a fraction of a price or keeping on our current workforce, where you had mothers training daughters on how to make football kits. It was a family business employing hundreds of local people and I just couldn't make them redundant.
"So we carried on and we tried to work together with a company called Corah who were working with Marks & Spencer at the time but increasingly losing out because that retailer was starting to buy from abroad. That fell down because Corah folded and sadly, the ultimate situation was that we had to make people in our factories redundant, just like if we'd gone with the South East Asian factories in the first place.'
Admiral has continued to operate since Patrick sold the company and as recently as the 2007-08 season, had another supplier contract in place with Leeds United. Bert Patrick has long since ended his associations with the company, but recently released a booked called Admiral Kit Man: All For The Shirt, charting his history with the firm.
"It was friends that encouraged me to write the book really, believing I'd had an interesting career,' says Patrick. "It is when we go to football matches and they see all the spectators decked out in their football kits, they turn to me and say 'wow, you started what has become a multi-billion pound industry'. The industry is huge and it is something I can take pride in, in coming up with replica football shirts.'
Admiral Kit Man: All For The Shirt by Bert Patrick, published by Matador (an inprint of Troubador Publishing) is available now, priced at £10.99.
© Andy Greeves & Soccerphile.com
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