A football brand founded by brothers Harold and Wallace Humphreys in Wilmslow, Cheshire in 1924, now based in Manchester.
Umbro is a football brand that makes kit, boots, balls and clothing. Its name is generally taken from the Humphreys brothers who founded it. Wikipedia lists kit deals with several English clubs, including Manchester City, Everton, West Ham United, Blackburn Rovers, AFC Bournemouth, Hull City and Derby County. Its history is closely tied to English football: its kits appeared in the 1934 FA Cup final, and the England team wore Umbro when it won the 1966 World Cup, returning to the brand in 1984 until Nike took over the deal in 2012.
Harold and Wallace Humphreys founded the business in 1924, starting in their family's pub in Wilmslow before moving to a workshop. By the 1950s and 1960s it supplied the British Olympic team and had become a major supplier to English football; Wikipedia says that by the late 1960s about 85% of British football teams wore its kits. It began making its own football boots in 1986. The company has changed hands several times since, going to Nike in 2008 and Iconix Brand Group in 2012. The pages we read did not give a current mission statement.
Wikipedia gives Manchester, England as Umbro's base. A 100 years of Umbro feature (2024) appeared in search results, showing the brand celebrated its centenary, but we did not read it. We could not confirm the address of a current office or the number of UK employees. The brand is therefore listed with a UK presence based on its Manchester base and the English club partnerships.
The pages we read said nothing about culture, so we cannot describe what it is like to work there. The brand's heritage, though, is that of a family business in Cheshire whose products were worn by football teams from local clubs to the national side, and its centenary campaign in 2024 shows it still trades on that history. Treat any claim about its working life as unverified.
In a football brand's team you would expect product designers and developers, kit designers who work with clubs, sales and licensing staff, brand and marketing teams, and operations and finance people. The roles suit people who love football and are interested in how a shirt becomes part of a team's identity. Check the brand's own website for how its current UK team is set up, as ownership has changed more than once. Because the brand has links to Cheshire and Manchester, the region around Wilmslow, Stockport and Manchester has long been a centre of football clothing and design work, which can matter if you are looking for jobs near home.
Website: www.umbro.com
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