Mitre Sports International

Mitre Sports International Ltd.

Type	Subsidiary
Industry	Sports equipment
Founded	1817 (1817) in Huddersfield, England
Headquarters	Finchley, England
Area served	Worldwide
Products	Football & rugby balls Football & netball playing kits
Parent	Pentland
Website	mitre.com

Mitre is a British sportswear and equipment supplier based in England and owned by the Pentland Group. Established in England in 1817, Mitre is the world's oldest manufacturer of footballs. Mitre currently uses the Mitre Delta V12 Football in competitive professional matches. This includes the League Cup, The Football League and the Football League Trophy.

History

In 1817 Benjamin Crook opened his tannery in Huddersfield, England, giving his own name to the company he founded.^[1] By 1949 the name changed to "Mitre", producing footballs and rugby balls for clubs all over the world and in 1959 Mitre expanded into cricket, soft leather and bags. Sports footwear followed a year later.

Manchester United's prominent footballer Denis Law became the first official Mitre spokesman in 1964, and two years later Mitre went on to become the Official ball supplier for the English Football Association, and for the next forty years the FA Cup Final was to be played with a Mitre ball.

Muhammad Ali wore Mitre in his 59th professional fight against Leon Spinks in New Orleans and Stuart Pearce wore Mitre football boots in 1977. Mitre was also the official ball supplier to the 1987 Rugby World Cup, jointly hosted by Australia and New Zealand. In 1992, Mitre became the official ball supplier to the newly formed FA Premier League, introducing its synthetic footballs instead of leather balls which had been used previously. In 2003 the Mitre ball was used in The Netball World Championships held in Jamaica. The England national netball team also appeared at the tournament wearing Mitre apparel.

In 2000 Mitre arrived to Argentina signing deals with several Primera División clubs. Newell's Old Boys, Estudiantes de La Plata, Unión de Santa Fe, Belgrano de Córdoba, Arsenal de Sarandí and Chacarita Juniors were the first teams wearing uniforms by Mitre.

Football star and UNICEF goodwill ambassador George Weah teamed up with Mitre in 2004 to donate 5,000 footballs to underprivileged children in Liberia and 5,000 footballs to Iraqi children. Another endorsee joined Mitre in 2006, when Australian cricketer and record breaking test wicket-taker, Shane Warne, was signed to wear Mitre footwear and protection.

Then, in 2007, Mitre launched its new revolutionary Revolve football to the Football League, where each club played with its own club coloured and badged ball. This was the first time this had happened. Mitre also re-entered the apparel markets with kit deals with Ipswich Town and Huddersfield Town FC. In the year of 2008, Mitre signed All Black player Luke McAlister to be the figurehead of its rugby range. The same year, the company signed an agreement with the El Salvador national football team to be its exclusive uniform provider^[2]

In 2009 Mitre expanded its business in South America becoming the official uniform provider of many teams of the Chilean league.^[3] In June 2011, Mitre extended its deal with the Scottish Premier League to be the official ball supplier until 2015.^[4]

Products

The following chart contains all the product lines by Mitre.^[5]

Sport	Range of products
Football	Balls, goalkeeper gloves, shin guards, apparel, footwear, bags, accessories
Netball	Balls, bags, accessories
Rugby	Balls, apparel, footwear, protective equipment, bags, accessories