Brentford Shirt History
Upon their formation, whether Brentford would register as a rugby or a football club went down to a vote by a local council. Football won by eight votes to five and the rest is now history. Time to look at their kit manufacturer and shirt sponsor timeline…
Brentford Shirt History Checklist
Brentford Kit Manufacturer History
2019 – present – Umbro
Quite unusually for a Premier League outfit, the Bees announced in 2021 that they would now only change their home strip once every two seasons. However, the West London club are now also into their second season of wearing their remarkable light blue melange effect away kit which is inspired by shirts worn in the 1980’s and 1990’s. The best thing about this top is the old school castle Brentford crest, which was used from 1975 until the end of the 1992/93 season, making a return. ‘Bee together’, the club’s message of inclusivity, is also imprinted on the inside of its neck.
A forever famous Brentford shirt will be the one that was worn on that sunny afternoon at Wembley in May 2021. The Bees beat Swansea City 2-0 in the play-off final to earn promotion to the Premier League for the first time in their history. It was traditionally horizontally striped white and red, but the white stripes had black outlines. Black also featured around its neckline.
Although the season prior to the one mentioned above ended in play-off heartbreak, the 2019/20 campaign will always be remembered with fondness given it was the year the club said goodbye to their beloved Griffin Park. Griffin Park was the Bees’ home since 1904 and the third shirt in 2019/20 was made to commemorate it. The blue tonally striped top had a gold crest with ‘Farewell Griffin Park’ and ‘Griffin Park 1904 – 2021’ printed on it also in gold. The principle sponsor for this season even agreed to have their branding removed from the replica’s. The first 400 people to purchase the shirt received it in a special presentation box.
2013 – 2019 – Adidas
While in partnership with Adidas, Brentford celebrated their 125th birthday and given the partnership announcement referred to it then you would have thought that it would have delivered, but it didn’t. No special kit was released and no reference was made to it on either of the 2013/14 or 2014/15 jerseys.
Somewhat of a controversial move was made by Adidas in 2016/17, as unlike other Brentford home shirts which are plentifully striped, the 2016/17 version only had two red stripes running on its base.
In 2018/19, Brentford had an away top that had a brown base for the very first time. It was topped off with one white vertical stripe on its chest, followed by orange patches on either of its shoulders.
2007 – 2013 – Puma
The rarest most-sought after Puma Brentford shirt is the silky silver special strip which was released in 2012/13 to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Brentford FC Community Sports Trust. It was simply sliver with one black vertical stripe across the chest. ‘1987 – 2012’ and ‘Brentford FC Community Sports Trust’ looped around the emblem. The celebrated initiative uses the power of sport to educate, motivate and inspire people from all backgrounds.
Despite the 2011/12 home shirt being nice on the eye, it is the 2009/10 version which takes the crown for the most interesting and that is because of the white pinstripes that ran through the bold red ones – this was in addition to large white stripes.
2005 – 2007 – Lonsdale
Despite still operating, Lonsdale haven’t been involved with football since 2006/07 and the English brand now focusses on boxing and MMA. Their two-season stint with Brentford was fairly straight-forward, with not much drama. Although, the Lonsdale produced 2005/06 away and third kits were the last time that the club wore a centre crest design.
2002 – 2005 – TFG Sports
Speaking of shirts with a central club emblem, TFG Sports gave Brentford a sound home top following this concept and it was ran from 2002 until 2004. It was traditionally striped red and white across the base and arms, while white side panels were also integrated. It also had black outlines over each section.
In 2004/05, TFG provided the Bees with a classical buttoned yellow and navy striped away top that certainly made them stand out from the crowd.
2000 – 2002 – Patrick
Patrick, a brand from Belgium, partnered with the London club for two seasons and for both of those campaigns the same home and away jerseys were worn. Thankfully, they were both rather good.
The home shirt, which had a V-neck neckline merged with a polo collar, had noticeable but smaller black stripes in-between its red and white ones. The aforementioned collar and neckline were also made up of those colours, but predominantly black.
The away was mostly navy with yellow side panels and shoulder strips, which were subtly outlined red – it all came together quite nicely.
1998 – 2000 – Super League
Like with Patrick, Brentford wore the same shirts for two seasons under Super League. The V-neck home strip, which involved white pinstripes as well as large stripes, was definitely the better of the two outfield jerseys. This shirt also had black features to its neckline and sleeve cuffs. However, the puzzle like goalkeeping top from these campaigns cannot be ignored – eye sore.
1996 – 1998 – Cobra Sports
As per Football Kit Archive, this was Cobra Sports’ first and only manufacturing deal. On the home top, the red stripes smartly have a subtle diamond pattern imprinted. Sadly, we wouldn’t pair the word smart with the striped black and white away top.
1995 – 1996 – Core
Brentford are one of three clubs that Core has worked with. The home shirt is a collared version similar to the 2016/17 Adidas home strip. The away jersey was taken from Hummel in the previous year and it was striped blue and white. It also had quite a jazzy pattern printed into its background.
1992 – 1995 – Hummel
Danish brand, Hummel, takes the accolade for having one of the nicest shirts that is going to receive a mention in this article. The navy collared polo, that was rocked from 1992 until 1994, has a distinct lined pattern across it that is made up of various shades of light blue. Light blue hoops were also inserted into the aforementioned navy collar. The same home kit, which had the famous Hummel chevrons printed onto its arms, was worn for all three campaigns.
1990 – 1992 – Chad
Chad kept it simple for their two-year deal with the Bees and produced a minimally detailed concept which was used for both the home and away. As expected, the home was striped red and white, while the stripes on the away alternated from dark to light blue.
1988 – 1990 – Hobott
Hobott was a fairly popular brand across the lower divisions in from the late 1970’s to the late 1980’s.
You expect stripes when you think of Brentford home kits, but this shirt took it to another level with several black, white and red stripes running horizontally. The black stripes were more like pinstripes, while the white and red were much thicker.
1987 – 1988 – Spall
Spall’s last football manufacturing deal was with Ashford Town in 2020/21. Their year with Brentford seen them simply remanufacture the design their predecessors made in the previous campaign.
1981 – 1987 – Osca
Osca’s most interesting Brentford shirt came in the form of their 1983/84 home strip. The stripes on this kit only went up to chest, with the break area being a clean white. Bringing it all together was the red V-neck neckline. Classic.
1980 – 1981 – Adidas
Brentford have only had one collection of Adidas Original shirts and their cool, simplistic look certainly made them hits. This includes a green, Republic of Ireland like, third shirt with a standout polo collar in white.
1977 – 1980 – Bukta
Bukta were fairly prominent across English football at this point and their popularity didn’t disappoint with the Bees. A smart V-neck polo shirt was handed to the club for their home fixtures.
1975 – 1976 – Umbro
Coincidentally, current suppliers Umbro just so happen to be the clubs first ever manufacturing partnership. Although, it only lasted for one season and they went back ‘in house’ for two campaigns following this.
Brentford Shirt Sponsor History
A quick flick through shows that Brentford haven’t had too many appalling shirt sponsor agreements appearance wise, but let’s delve into them a little more closely…
2021 – present – Hollywood Bets
Nope, betting company Hollywood Bets isn’t based in America, it is actually headquartered South Africa. The gambling business has only recently delved into the UK market and, as a result, they saw Brentford as a perfect opportunity.
They have cleverly caught attention by leaving ‘Hollywood’ with a patterned star in bold. The word ‘bet’ is in a smaller text attached underneath. It actually looks quite cool.
2020 – 2021 – Utilita
Utilita is an energy company and their selling point is claimed to be that they are ‘the only energy company created to help households use less energy’.
Although their feature was a lot, given it involved their name, logo and tag line ‘life with power’, it was done at a reasonable size meaning that it didn’t look too bad.
2019 – 2020 – Ecoworld
Ecoworld is a property developer and they were also the club’s development partner for their new stadium. Their appearance on the shirt was fairly elegant.
Credit where it is due, Ecoworld agreed to have their branding removed on replicas of the commemorative shirt for Griffin Park.
2017 – 2019 – LeoVegas
LeoVegas is an online casino company who’s branding on the kits was saved by the fact that the colouring fitted in to that of Brentford’s. It isn’t the best feature, but it is by no means the worst.
2016 – 2017 – 888 Sports
Speaking of bad features, we are sorry to say that, for us, 888 Sports’ falls into that category. The betting brand’s branding is just too large on this occasion.
2015 – 2016 – Matchbook.com
Matchbook is a peer-to-peer betting exchange. Their branding is a squeezed version of their URL, which thankfully isn’t done in an over-facing manner.
2012 – 2015 – Skyex
Skyex is a West London minicab company. With fans needing to go from a to b on matchdays, it was clever of the business to partner with a West London club.
Unfortunately, though, the appearance of their feature wasn’t great at all. It looked like a sticker with its white background and it was fairly overpowering.
2010 – 2012 – Bathwise
Bathwise, who are a team of bathroom designers, sponsored the away shirt for two seasons and they allowed for their feature to be altered to best suit the colour of the kit. For that reason, it gets a thumbs up from us.
2008 – 2012 – Hertings
To this day, Hertings is still an official club partner and they sponsored the home kit for four seasons. Their stick-on feature appeared too cramped.
2008 – 2010 – MKT Computers
MKT Computers has been supplying refurbished midrange computer hardware since 1999. They had a two-year spell on the away kit, but featured two different types of branding. The MKT Computers wasn’t too readable on the first circular version, so they simply had ‘MKT Computers’ in a large, bold, straight text for the second year.
2006 – 2008 – Samvo.com
Samvo was a gambling group. Their branding in the first season in partnership was certainly more interesting than it was in the second, although neither were particularly fantastic.
2003 – 2006 – St George PLC
St George PLC specialises in large-scale regeneration projects across London and Birmingham. Once they removed the ‘PLC’ which appeared on the shirts in the first campaign together, their feature was a good one.
1998 – 2003 – GMB
Trade union, GMB, partnered with Brentford following a stint with fellow London club Fulham. Their black oval like feature was a little different and it surprisingly fitted into the shirts quite well.
1995 – 1998 – Ericsson
Ericsson is a Swedish multinational networking and telecommunications company. Their time with Brentford was a little strange. They opted for a white background stick on like approach for the home shirt in 1996/97, but simply black text with no background on the black and white striped away top – making it unreadable.
1984 – 1995 – KLM
KLM’s full name is KLM Royal Dutch Airlines and they were a wonderful sponsor for the Bees. Their relationship lasted over a decade and their branding complimented the shirts brilliantly.
1982 – 1984 – DHL
Logistics company DHL was the clubs first ever shirt sponsor deal. It was a fair introduction for supporters given their red branding.
Conclusion
Brentford’s initiative of their home kit now lasting for two seasons is a fantastic thing financially for supporters and it should be applauded, especially this day in age where clubs are slowly losing touch with fans’ wants and wills. The club has also avoided kit designs that have been a monumental disaster for some time now, but with Umbro starting to bring their creative flair to the forefront, are they due one?