Leeds United Shirt History

‘Enterprise Insurance’, which was written out in a fairly elegant text, was the company’s logo. It isn’t the greatest shirt sponsor feature that I have ever seen, but it is by no means the worst.

2008 – 2011 – Netflights.com

Netflights.com is a travel operator and, as per Marketing Week, the deal only came about because contractual difficulties cropped up with a rival sponsor and it scuppered the deal.

The N, G and M within Netflights.com had an arrow on it, which I can only presume signifies travelling or a plane. I liked it, it didn’t overpower the shirts in any sense and it slotted in nicely.

2007 – 2008 – Red Kite Holdings

Red Kite Holdings, a company which specialised in property, took the central spot for a single season. Although, it is believed that Leeds supporters were not happy with this feature because their logo incorporated red – a colour associated to their rivals Manchester United.

2006 – 2007 – Bet24

Leeds’ deal with Bet24 thankfully only lasted one season, because it was a bit of an eye sore.

However, Bet24 certainly got their money’s worth out of the marketing budget, as an initiative was set-up where Bet24 customers could choose to claim a free Leeds United Home Shirt as their sign-up bonus, instead of the 50% bonus bet.

2003 – 2006 – Whyte and Mackay

Whyte and Mackay is a blended scotch whiskey brand and the deal they penned with Leeds was reportedly worth £3 million with the potential to rise to £6.5 million.

Their feature on the shirt had a blue background with white text. Perhaps it is the fact that Leeds home shirts are typically made up of those colours, but I actually think it looked fairly decent.

2000 – 2006 – Strongbow

Strongbow is a well-known dry cider which originates from the United Kingdom. It was introduced to the markets in 1960.

Their text on the strip was curved and black, except for on the blue third shirt, where it was yellow. I’d give this one a thumbs up. It looked good.

1996 – 2000 – Packard Bell

Packard Bell is a computer manufacturing brand, but again, it wasn’t a partnership that the Leeds fanbase liked because of the red features in their logo.

From a neutral perspective, it didn’t look too bad, but I did prefer the few shirts that they produced without the actual company emblem.

1993 – 1996 – Thistle Hotels

Thistle Hotels is a UK based hotel chain and for the most part, I have no complaints at all about their feature.

However, the white text on the yellow and blue 1993 – 1995 away strip just wasn’t visible at all. They should have come up with something different.

1992 – 1993 – Admiral Sportswear

Not only did Admiral manufacture the shirts in 1992/93, but they also sponsored them. Given the aforementioned history in the away and third strip, they will be glad that they did – double the exposure!

To be fair, I actually liked how it looked too. It now adds to the retro-ness.

1991 – 1992 – The Yorkshire Evening Post

The Yorkshire Evening Post is a daily evening newspaper publication in Leeds. It was described as a ‘stop gap’ sponsor to cover a 12-month period where the club had no agreed sponsor. Given the Whites won the league that campaign, just how lucky did they get?!

The word ‘Yorkshire’, although perhaps intentional, wasn’t really readable on the jersey – that would be my only issue with it.

1986 – 1991 – The Burton Group

The Burton Group utilised their partnership with the club to promote their men’s fashion retail brand, Top Man, from 1989 until 1991, but prior to that Burton did take centre stage.

The text for Burton was a little more appealing and it only took up one line of the shirt, for that reason, I probably prefer it to the Top Man feature which took up two.

1985 – 1986 – Lion Cabinets

The Lion Cabinets feature had a little lion placed just above the text and it did seem a little random, but that isn’t to say it necessarily looked bad. I didn’t hate it!

1984 – 1985 – WGK

As the chosen text colour was white, WGK was placed onto the Leeds shirt with a black background. I think how they allowed the W to naturally run onto the shirt really made it. It eliminated the ‘sticker’ look.

1983 – 1984 – Systime

Systime was a computer company which was founded in Leeds. The birth of the business came in 1973.

Each letter was white with a black background, and they were stuck on to the shirt individually with a break between each. It made it fairly difficult to read for me, but I appreciate the idea.

1982 – 1983 – RFW

RFW, now known as Winder Power, was an electrical company based in Pudsey – a neighbouring town. They had the honours of being the clubs first ever shirt sponsor.

It was a sound introduction for shirt sponsors too, as I think their branding looked good. The letters were boxed in by a black outline and the R and the F were also black. The W, though, was white on a black background.

Conclusion

As you got deeper into this article, you really began to feel the true history and heritage behind the club with some classic retro shirts. As for their sponsor history, well, the club’s decision makers have a peculiar job given that none of businesses can have a red feature for understandable reasons. That said, considering how many shirt sponsors they have had, they have done well to avoid too many shockers!