An Insight into Admiral

Rob Stokes from the fantastic goalkeeping site The Glove Bag was kind enough to send me these scanned articles from an old early 70s football mag called ‘Football News’ concerning the emergence of a then new football apparel brand, Admiral, and their involvement with England boss Don Revie. The pages (in JPEG) format are a fascinating interview with Revie and give a real insight into Admiral and their innovative business model that was to change the face of football kits forever. Essential reading for anyone interested in the history of replica kits and football strip design in general.

Thanks again Rob!

Click on the pages to download/read.

10 Replies to “An Insight into Admiral

  1. Really interesting article. Strange to think that Tottenham weren’t interested at that time in making the change but of course they eventually did. I remember being jealous then because we (Arsenal) didn’t change as well! Ironically I thought I saw a bloke in the crowd at WHL today wearing the tracksuit that they had at the time. Are they selling them in the club shop Andrew?

  2. Yes Ronan, I’ve had it for a couple of years now, from memory its made by Score Draw. Topps licence to make Spurs products has expired.

    I only by Retro gear these days. I’d rather have a shirt that’s 20 or 30 years out of date than 1 or 2 years old, if you know what I mean.

    Do Arsenal do a retro 2005 Cup Final shirt? So the fans can remember the Old Days when they won trophies?

  3. I’ll have to check that one out Andrew, I’d also love to see a retro Tottenham shirt from the last time they were champions as I’ve never seen one in colour before….

  4. Brilliant article. I always remember a tv interview (Match of the Seventies, maybe?) where a former England player was asked what it was like when Revie came in and he answered that one of the first things Revie announced was that he had increased the appearance fees and, instead of being grateful, immediately the players knew the guy had his priorities all wrong.

    Until now I hadn’t realised that it had been down to the Admiral deal.

  5. What a great series that was, Match of the Eighties and Match of the Nineties were just pale imitations. The latter though did include Gazza’s classic interview after the 91 semi

  6. Thanks so much for posting this John, and to Rob Stokes, of course.
    I would surmise the article was written in late ’74-early ’75, with from the reference to the QPR kit deal, in addition to the main focus on the FA’s Admiral deal, which England first wore in autumn 1974.
    I extensively researched Admiral’s operation in the 1970s and was always perplexed by QPR wearing Admiral kit until December of the 74/75 season – after which it was never seen again. So, the explanation from the article interview with Bert Partrick, who was incidentally known as ‘The Admiral’, solves that one!
    How about Dunlop and Adidas bidding for the England contract, eh? Can you imagine an England kit with the three stripes in those days? This was 2 years before Adidas produced any kits for UK clubs.

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