UMBRO, Which Almost Has Nothing At All, Is Now Targeting The Chinese Market.

In the early days, Britain could fully rely on its own strong sports industry to achieve self-sufficiency, but with the development of economic globalization, sports

More and more open, in the western world, sports have become public assets, and strength from overseas has greatly reduced the sports market and investment opportunities in the UK.

Remember UMBRO? It's a hundred percent British blood.

In those days, it was definitely a great sport.

However, in today's world sporting goods market, where can UMBRO still be placed? It should be said that it has withdrawn from the mainstream.

Nike, Puma, Under Armour and other brands have completely invaded the British sports market, and people's memory of UMBRO has begun to blur.

The originator brand of sporting goods

In fact, compared with those big brands mentioned above, UMBRO can be regarded as the originator of sporting goods.

As early as 1924, the UMBRO brand was founded.

In the town of Cheshire, a town called Willms Lo, in the northwest of England, the two brothers of Harold Henfris and Wallace Henry Vries founded UMBRO.

As to why the name is "Umbro", the word is actually synthesized by Humphreys Brothers, and the literal plation is the Henry Vries brothers.

But now UMBRO headquarters has moved to Cheadle in Greater Manchester, not far from downtown Manchester.

UMBRO's sportswear debut was in the FA Cup final in 1934, with both sides of Manchester City and Portsmouth playing in UMBRO's Jersey.

In the 30s and 40s of last century, the match clothes of Manchester United and Xie Feilian were sponsored by UMBRO.

In addition, UMBRO has become the official sponsor of the FA Cup and its exclusive supplier of ball games.

In the 1952 Helsinki Olympic Games, UMBRO began to cooperate with the British Olympic Committee to provide professional competition suits for the British Olympic athletes. The two twenty years of cooperation have been opened up.

In 1954, there was also a historic moment in the history of human sports.

Until then, 1 miles in 4 minutes was considered impossible by the scientific community, which was the limit of human beings until a British man named Roger Bannister appeared.

In May 6th of that year, he ran a mile in 3 minutes and 59.4 seconds, when he was wearing UMBRO's sportswear to accomplish this feat.

In 1957, UMBRO began to set foot in the tennis market. The brand was cooperating with British tennis player and designer Ted Tinlin in developing tennis series clothing.

In the twenty years since then, Ted Tinlin has designed tennis clothes for almost all famous women players.

UMBRO has been able to shine on Wimbledon for twenty years.

Football fires all over the world

In 1958, UMBRO finally got a chance to play football in the world.

At the world cup in Sweden, Brazil beat the host by a score of 5 to 2, winning the world cup for the first time in history, while UMBRO was the sponsor of Brazil's shirt.

Driven by the world cup effect, UMBRO's soccer business has developed rapidly.

A year later, UMBRO and Manchester United manager Matt Busby jointly designed a series of winter sportswear, which is the first official cooperation between UMBRO in the field of football and individuals.

In the same year, UMBRO also introduced youth soccer suits, including jerseys, trousers and socks. This also means that the football peripheral industry represented by Jersey is being noticed by sporting goods manufacturers.

Four years later, the world cup in Chile is Brazil, and is wearing the same formula as UMBRO, who won the world cup.

In 1963, an article in the daily express, the British Daily Express, explored the evolution of the shirt in the past 100 years, in which UMBRO has been playing the role of the leader.

The Henry Vries brothers even call it the Dior of the football world.

In 1964, UMBRO signed an exclusive licensing agreement with Dennis Law, the Scotland star who played for Manchester United. This is also the first football player sponsored by UMBRO.

In that year, Dennis Law won the title of European Footballer awarded by French football.

In the 1966 World Cup in England, UMBRO finished the championship hat trick.

England won the world cup at home, and after 12 years of cooperation with the England football team, UMBRO finally saw the return.

In fact, 15 of the 16 teams in the competition were wearing UMBRO jerseys, except the Soviet Union.

It was UMBRO's heyday. Not only the national team, but 85% of the UK's Club jerseys were sponsored by UMBRO.

In 1974, the FA did not choose to continue to cooperate with UMBRO, but sold it to a local brand Admiral, which is ten years older than UMBRO.

However, after ten years of cooperation, the football association has renewed its lead with UMBRO.

And during this period, the Red Army Liverpool began to dominate Europe, and the four time to win the Champions League was UMBRO's strategic success.

In 1986, UMBRO began to develop soccer shoes business. Alan Hiller and Michael Owen joined UMBRO's endorsement Corps. Erwin was only 14 years old at that time.

In the 1994 World Cup in the United States, Brazil won its fourth trophy. Ajax and Manchester United who returned to UMBRO held the summit in Europe in the following years. UMBRO still relied on football to achieve a strong recovery.

{page_break}

However, the football market at that time was not the only one of UMBRO.

In 1970, Adidas began to provide the match ball for the world cup, and then began its own hurricane in the football market.

Adidas relies on its own unique football shoes to gain a foothold in the sporting goods market.

With the slogan of "impossible is nothing" put forward, Adidas has become the vane of sports fashion.

And the Nike, which started with basketball and running, also gave UMBRO a heavy blow in 1996. The Brazil national team, which had worked with him for decades, was picked up by Nike in the year, and the market competition pressure faced by UMBRO was increasing.

By twenty-first Century, Adidas and Nike began to attack football sponsorship market in an all-round way. UMBRO's large number of positions missed.

For example, Adidas captured Ajax and Chelsea in 2000 and 2006 respectively, while Nike put Manchester United in the camp in 2002.

Over time, only the England football team is left behind by UMBRO.

Finally, in October 23, 2007, UMBRO was bought by Nike at a price of 285 million. The more than 80 year old sports brand ended its era of independent operation.

Although UMBRO signed a sponsorship contract with Manchester City in 2009, in 2012, Manchester City and England football team were "logical" by Nike.

UMBRO, which was ransacked by Nike, was then abandoned. In October 2012, Iconix Brand Group, the US brand management company, received UMBRO at a price of 225 million US dollars.

It is precisely this acquisition that gives UMBRO the chance to regain its freshmen.

Reborn, targeting the Chinese market.

UMBRO, who almost has nothing at all, is starting to get active in the football market.

Since the signing of the sponsorship agreement with the Premier League Everton in February 2014, in just two years, UMBRO has set up a sponsorship Corps including Hull City, Eindhoven, West Ham United, Nuremberg and Blackburn.

Although it is still not worth mentioning compared with Adidas and Nike, it is a great victory for UMBRO, which has been through many twists and turns.

In addition, UMBRO also aimed at the Chinese market.

Recently, the brand officially announced that Michael Owen was hired as the Chief Cultural officer of UMBRO in China. He wanted to open up the Chinese market with the influence of "chase boy".

CEO Zhang Tengfei of UMBRO Greater China revealed that UMBRO plans to open 20-30 stores next year, and that by 2017, the number of stores will increase to 200.

Zhang Tengfei and his team hope that UMBRO will not only sell football shoes, but also expand its products to the layout of the surrounding industries, so that the products will become more fashionable.

To this end, they invited the former South Korean design director of Kappa as the chief creative director of the company. Based on the analysis of the current young consumers, on the basis of consolidating the football professional and cultural products, the trend fashion style and the football elements are integrated to trigger the Millennium generation's love for Yu Yinbao.

However, it is not easy for UMBRO to dig gold in the Chinese market.

Although from the current situation, whether the international brand or domestic brand has achieved better results in Greater China in recent years, it is also the case that UMBRO faces more intense competition.

Relying on one Erwin is obviously not enough to create brand awareness, and more importantly, reshaping brand positioning and creating core products.