The Admiral experience proved a valuable lesson for Umbro and in the Eighties it became the most significant player in the replica market. By 1984 it had regained the England contract in a five-year deal worth £1m to the FA. By this time, however, Umbro was a very different company, the passing of Harold Humphreys having been followed five years later by the sudden death of his son John.
The loss of the managing director aged just 49 was a profound shock to the company. Martin Prothero, Umbro’s current Vice President of Football, did not join until three years later, but he recalls how the loss was still felt. “There was this void,” he says. “Everyone still referred to ‘Mr John’ and he was still the shadow that hung over everything that Umbro did. Without a doubt the business went through a period of lacking that firm hand on the tiller.”
By the mid Eighties Umbro’s contract with Adidas, that had once proved so profitable for the company, was nearing its conclusion. In many ways the relationship had been built on the personal friendships between the Dassler and Humphreys families, but it failed to survive the death of John. Early signs of discontent had followed the first steps by Adidas into the apparel market in the Seventies, and while Umbro remained contractually restricted from moving into football hardware – boots, balls and shin guards – Adidas relentlessly pressured their partners for a share of the lucrative UK kit market, which Umbro effectively dominated.