Goodbye Umbro. Hello Adidas.

By: Inara | August 10th, 2009

This morning, Lyon announced on their official website that they had terminated their contract with Noel Soccer and by extension, with Umbro as well (Noel Soccer is the French supplier of Umbro). I guess this news isn’t too surprising, given that Umbro was bought by Nike almost two years ago.

Still, the general impression was that Lyon would see out their contract with Umbro, which was set to end June 2013. Lyon even signed an extension back in 2007. But I guess money talks, so Lyon have decided to prematurely end their contract (surely there is some kind of financial penalty…?) in order to sign a ten year contract with Adidas, one that is presumably worth more money.

Sniff sniff. I will miss the familiar double diamond.

However, Lyon will see out the 2009/2010 season in their current Umbro kits, so I recommend all of you buy the cool looking navy blue jersey before next May. The Adidas kits won’t come into effect until the 2010/2011 season.

I guess this news will make some people happy. In the world of football kits, Nike and Adidas are like Coke and Pepsi. You pretty much like one or the other, and though you might have strong reasons for your choice, it’s incomprehensible to someone else. But then you have those other soft drinks, the ones which carry unique brands and can’t be found in every store. Many people don’t even know they exist, but they fulfill the needs of a specific niche in society. That’s Umbro.

Umbro is a small brand, a good one, but it wasn’t expanding fast enough to keep up with the likes of Nike and Adidas. Which is too bad because I rather liked having Lyon a part of the small and exclusive Umbro family (Lyon are the only team in France across all divisions to sport their logo). Plus I like a lot of their designs, and it’s nice to be different from the other teams, which tend to follow Adidas/Nike templates.

Which is why I’m not thrilled about this latest move by Lyon. I guess the fact that it’s a better deal is a good thing, but I’ve never particularly admired Adidas (or Nike) when it comes to their design skills. But I guess we’ll have to wait for the new-look Lyon next summer to cast our verdict.

Some Related Lyon Posts:

Category: Team News and Rumors

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York

I doing casual labor by the day. They wouldn't pay you until the next morning. There was a bar that would cash your check if you bought a beer first. A lot of guys never left until they'd drunk up all their money.
gdfsgd

I like Michael Jordan.So I wear Air Jordan shoes.You can have a try.
ZloK

This is like on the topic will there be long sleeve kids this year and where can i buy one of these?
Flash

Any1 heard this Pjanic to Benfica rumour?
Thomas

I just realized that we (PSG) are no longer the only Ligue 1 club with jerseys by nike. We have been joined by Grenoble, VAFC, and Montpellier.
Theo Walcott 14

I dont really care about the jerseys,especially for the next season.We had a very BAD pre season and a BAD start of the new season and in the next few days we will have a very important match against Anderlecht.We played not so bad against Le Mans,the players were very motivated(beside Cris),Bastos and Licha were great,Bafe was good but Aly didnt impressed me,he was,just like Cris, responsible for the first goal.When I saw the players faces after the match,they were all angry and totally mad.This season doesnt look very promising but I hope that with Licha,Bastos,Toule and all the other hard working players we can win the Ligue 1 this season.But before that something must change or the Coach or the formation or the players!!!
kubi

Adidas Jersey examples:

http://www.besportier.com/arch...
Thomas

Honestly, as a huge supporter of a club that dons nike kits, can't understand why anyone would like their jerseys. The stuff that people like of theirs is stuff that is impossible to mess up, see Barca, Man U, and PSG home kits (though they were shockingly able to butcher the PSG home kits this year) and the other jerseys for these clubs are often horrendous, see Barca and Arsenal away and third jerseys from recent years.
Aleksander

I actually didn't like what Bastos was doin out there, i think he kept doing difficoult things, like dribblin 10 players or makin a unacurate longball to the other side etc, instead to keep it simple.
Jao

FINALLY. I hate Umbro kits. They are so big and look like extra large t-shirts. I usually order the Lyon shirts one size below just so it can fit right. I wish we would have joined Nike or Kappa. Their kits are slightly tight fitted (see teams like Porto and Roma), which allows better movement. Thinking about it, Nike would have been the better move, as Nike are attempting to take control of the country with the acquisition of our national team starting after the World Cup. (Can't wait to see the first shirt : ))
Sam

of course Toulalan and Lloris were faultless as usual....
Sam

yeah lisandro is a God, what did you think about the rest of the performance though? Bastos and Cissokho looked good - but by and large the team were hopeless
mrCham

I wonder if this will improve the quality of the players
Sam

Lyon's home kit this year is awesome. I love the simplicity of it... Seems like we're going to get to keep it without a sponsor til 2010 when the law against betting companies changes as well! Much nicer than having novotel splashed all over the middle.

Has anyone seen Chelsea's kit this year? It's horrible,it has these really stupid body armour pads all over it which look ridiculous
Stanley

hopefully atleast it will be easier to get a lyon kit in the states cause i always have to have my relatives bring me one when i have to come visit
joel

I was hoping that they would choose Nike instead. I think Nike fit better for Lyon than Adidas with their stripes.
John

Sam's right: It's like we're going from having our own personal tailor, designing "suits" with soul, to buying "off-the-rack" vetiments; "boiler-plate" designs with these larger manufacturers.
matt

shame. those kits in the picture are the best i've seen this year i think. love em. classy as hell and isn't the sponsor's logo pretty small and under the umbro thing? it was this weekend but i'm not sure if they hadn't signed a full sponsor deal or something?

anyhow great kit.
Sam

problem with being with adidas or nike is it means the kit will probably just be some template. Will be disappointing to lose our personally designed kits from umbro really. I don't really want 3 stripes down our shirts - oh well...
Luka

Most adidas kits look terrible this year for some reason. I was left drooling at the likes of Hamburg away, Marseille home and Chelsea home last year.