“We’re a heritage-driven sports activities and way of life model,” is the message from hummel.
This was how chief government Lars Stentebjerg launched the Danish firm, whose title is understood and liked across the sporting world, to a small group of assembled English and German media retailers, together with 90min, throughout a particular two-day occasion this month.
“We now have quite a lot of heritage, that’s who we’re as a model, to utilise in our product improvement, one voice to who we’re and the way we wish to stay. Our potential to mix actually units us aside.”
The emphasis is on heritage, appreciating what has come earlier than to assist form the longer term, with “model identification and credibility” an equally vital a part of the journey of over greater than 100 years.
Karma. Life-style. Heritage…is one other key tagline philosophy the enterprise attaches itself to.
The hummel story to date has been a rollercoaster. To Danes, the title is a nationwide establishment. To the remainder of the world, it’s inextricably linked with cult soccer package tradition of the Nineteen Eighties and early Nineteen Nineties.
The pinstripe half-and-half jerseys worn by the Denmark’s ‘dynamite’ technology on the 1986 World Cup, reissued final yr to have fun hummel’s one hundredth birthday, was ranked the best soccer shirt of all time by FourFourTwo journal in 2022.
Jerseys additionally worn by outstanding English sides Tottenham Hotspur, Aston Villa, Southampton and Sunderland greater than 30 years in the past are nonetheless thought-about classics of the package recreation.
Diego Maradona wore a hummel Spurs shirt in a testimonial for compatriot Ossie Ardiles and photographs exists of El Diego carrying Denmark’s pinstripes the day earlier than the 1986 World Cup last, having not truly confronted the Danes within the match and buying it another method. He was even in superior talks to turn into a hummel-branded participant himself at his history-defining peak, though a deal agonisingly fell by.
Actual Madrid wore hummel for 9 years from 1985 throughout the Quinta del Buitre period of Emilio Butragueno, Manolo Sanchis, Michel and others that delivered 5 La Liga titles within the first 5 seasons of the partnership. Denmark additionally unexpectedly loved European Championship glory in 1992 in one other well-known hummel strip.
However hummel largely disappeared from the English membership scene within the early Nineteen Nineties, to not return till 2016. Their shirts remained a fond a part of historical past for followers, though in some methods it started to really feel like hummel was a relic of the previous for audiences outdoors Denmark. And whereas the model was nonetheless seen at worldwide tournaments for a decade to come back, the nationwide crew’s crowning achievement at Euro ’92 was additionally an paradoxically difficult second for hummel.
Denmark did not initially qualify for the competitors, taking Yugoslavia’s place at quick discover when the Balkan area descended into battle, and so they weren’t truly capable of capitalise on the success because of the low worth contract in place. Simply two years later, hummel entered a state of technical chapter.
By this time, hummel had been round for simply over 60 years. Though deeply Danish now, the corporate was initially German, based by entrepreneur Max Messmer and his father, Michael, in 1923 and often called Messmer & Co. The primary creation was a cleated sports activities shoe, which Messmer Jr. had been impressed to make off the again of watching a soccer match within the rain and dust, the place gamers had been unable to maintain their footing within the circumstances.
That was delivered to market underneath the title the ‘HUMMEL’, German for bumblebee. Regardless that rival fledgling German model adidas was additionally beginning up and creating its personal merchandise, hummel are thought-about pioneers of the fashionable soccer boot.
That will proceed for many years when it grew to become the primary to steer away from conventional black boots, supplying Alan Ball’s game-changing white footwear in 1970. White and each different color boots at the moment are commonplace from skilled stage to grassroots.
Adjustments of possession in turbulent many years within the Nineteen Thirties and Forties, throughout which Europe descended into conflict once more for the second time in little over 20 years, introduced title adjustments and difficult financial occasions. Finally, the corporate grew to become Danish in 1956 and has been a part of Denmark’s sporting identification ever since. Nonetheless, a nod to historical past noticed hummel turn into the everlasting title and the bumblebee brand, which additionally options the enduring double chevron – a design staple, emerge.
In the present day, hummel has had regular possession for 25 years. Christian Stadil acquired the enterprise along with his father, Thor, in 1999, by his personal admission an opportunistic and low cost deal given the corporate’s monetary struggles within the previous few years. Whereas larger manufacturers like Nike, adidas and Puma, and much more direct rivals like Below Armour, are publicly traded entities with shareholders, hummel is privately owned by Stadil underneath his Thornico group. It leaves the model capable of “roughly do what we would like” when it comes to pursuing tasks and guaranteeing that core values stay.
Stadil, a working towards Buddhist, has put his character firmly into hummel. Instantly upon getting into its nice waterside headquarters at Aarhus docks, guests are greeted by an infinite sculpture of the businessman, who appeared on the primary 4 collection of Denmark’s model of investor exhibits Dragons’ Den and Shark Tank, sitting in a basic cross-legged Buddha pose with a soccer on his lap.
These beliefs underpin what hummel, though nonetheless a enterprise out to make revenue, is all about. Amongst many world tasks, hummel have opened soccer colleges in The Gambia and labored with former youngster troopers in Sierra Leone. The model additionally created a trailblazing shirt with accompanying hijab for the Afghanistan ladies’s nationwide crew, launched on Worldwide Ladies’s Day in 2016.
One in every of hummel’s longstanding ardour tasks is Christiania SC, an beginner membership primarily based within the close-knit commune of Freetown Christiania, set on a part of an island with round 900 inhabitants inside the town of Copenhagen. A progressive Denmark was one of many first international locations on the planet the place ladies had full voting rights by 1915, the primary to grant authorized recognition to same-sex partnerships in 1989, and enjoys a really sturdy social system. “So long as we’ve got Christiania, we’ve got a few of this edge and these values. And that is why we wish to affiliate ourselves with Christiania,” Stadil defined.
What hummel has in giant portions is the liberty to be artistic and expressive.
Though tough to consider now given each their historical past collectively and the present bond, hummel and the Denmark nationwide crew cut up in 2004. The nation’s soccer federation (DBU) entered a partnership with adidas that lasted for 12 years till 2016, but it surely additionally coincided with a low level in Denmark’s historical past.
The lads’s nationwide crew did not qualify for 4 out of six main tournaments, whereas exiting the 2010 World Cup and Euro 2012 on the group stage. The ladies did not fare a lot better, reaching just one World Cup, knocked out early, and experiencing a number of European Championship group stage exits. Briefly, Denmark had been in disaster.
So once they had been reunited with the DBU in 2016, hummel wished to make a press release. Their canvas was the nationwide crew package and so they leaned into and embraced the disaster. The outcome was a white monochrome strip, that includes crests, badges and even participant numbering and names all with out color, to be worn for a one-off males’s pleasant in opposition to Liechtenstein. It was billed as clear slate and a recent begin for an underperforming nationwide crew, and the restricted run instantly bought out.
The same technique for a really completely different purpose was taken forward of the 2022 World Cup, when hummel produced three monochrome pink, white and black kits to honour the DBU’s vow to put on jerseys that might criticise Qatar’s human rights information. The black version was so as a result of it’s a color of mourning and Denmark noticed themselves as symbolically attending the funeral of migrant employees who had died throughout the development of the match’s stadiums and infrastructure.
In 2016, greater than 20 years after producing their final shirts for an English membership within the early Nineteen Nineties, hummel returned to the UK package scene. EFL membership Charlton Athletic was the take a look at floor for the re-entry.
New kits are unveiled to followers throughout the summer time forward of a given season, however these creations have been the topic of a yr or extra’s price of painstaking design work. Proper now, for instance, hummel’s design groups are already engaged on the 2026/27 season.
Excess of what’s launched to the general public by no means sees the sunshine of day, albeit typically archived to be revisited for future concepts or inspiration, and even a number of bodily prototypes will be produced that also do not go on to be the ultimate product. Every now and then, designs are even proposed for golf equipment with whom hummel is hoping to land a contract with, for the potential partnership deal to then fall by earlier than it may be accomplished.
“…something that ties the followers to the shirt.”
–Â Rob Revell, hummel’s lead designer, UK
“You type of stay and breathe that membership, earlier than you’ve got even bought it [on board],” is how Rob Revell, hummel’s lead designer within the UK, places it. That provides a window into the eye to element that goes into making a bespoke set of kits for every of the model’s skilled companions.
“We stroll across the metropolis and we speak to individuals about what’s vital to them, not simply the soccer membership, however the space they’re from. Coventry Metropolis is an ideal one, the cathedral package [in 2022/23], all people talked concerning the cathedral in Coventry and it is essentially the most stunning constructing. I can not consider, typically, if we go right into a soccer membership and so they have not checked out these things…something that ties the fan to the shirt.”
It is not simply participant kits both, with hummel creating full coaching and way of life ranges to accompany what’s seen on the pitch. You by no means knew you wished a pair of Actual Betis x hummel trainers till you noticed they exist. And whereas hummel is internationally often called a teamwear specialist, giving beginner and grassroots golf equipment in varied international locations around the globe the flexibility to choose their package from a list of pre-made designs, none of its skilled membership creations are templated.
Which means, not like is the case with larger manufacturers like Nike, adidas or Puma, the place elite golf equipment usually must share templates, notably clearly in terms of the goalkeeper package, hummel individually design every little thing. Every skilled accomplice is obtainable what’s proudly described as “true customisation”.
That was one thing that appealed to Sunderland’s new chief enterprise officer David Bruce, who remarkably approached hummel earlier than truly touchdown the job at his home-town membership earlier this yr. Bruce was beforehand in control of advertising and marketing at Main League Soccer for 13 years however returned to Wearside to assist drive the Black Cats again in the direction of the Premier League.
Sunderland wore a hummel package within the 1992 FA Cup last, throughout a earlier six-year partnership, and had been the model’s final UK accomplice earlier than withdrawing in 1994. However Bruce wished greater than what the membership had beforehand had with larger names within the trade, bringing hummel again after 30 years and delivering some unbelievable kits straight impressed by the previous and the town’s particular person heritage.
“We wish to be genuine in our actions. Sunderland goes hand in hand with hummel.” Sunderland’s 2024/25 dwelling shirt, that includes the unmistakable hummel chevrons, appears so good in lengthy sleeves, that Bruce even claims credit score on the membership’s behalf for restarting the broader development this season.
Heritage is a standard theme throughout hummel’s skilled kits. When it got here to celebrating 100 years of the model in 2023, they made shirts for eight accomplice golf equipment, which included Everton and Southampton on the time, individually impressed by Denmark’s 1986 pinstripes. Retro vibes in fashionable soccer shirts are all the time a giant hit and, at HQ in Aarhus, an east coast metropolis on the Jutland peninsula round half an hour’s flight from the capital, rotating archival rails usually serve to assist encourage designers on the lookout for their subsequent large thought.
Amongst these hummel is especially pleased with are Denmark’s Euro 2020 shirts, which achieved a novel look when the soundwave of followers singing the nationwide anthem earlier than a recreation was captured and included into the house and away designs.
In the present day, hummel is a resurgent power at dwelling and internationally. Former chief government Allan Vad Nielsen was in cost for seven years from 2017 till six months in the past when he left to pursue his personal entrepreneurial desires. Throughout that interval, hummel’s turnover greater than doubled and, now with Lars Stentebjerg getting into the position after three years as chief working officer, ambitions stay excessive because the agency goals to nearly double its annual revenues once more by 2028, the equal of what could be an total fourfold progress over 11 years.
What most individuals outdoors Denmark might not realise is hummel’s pursuit of changing into a longtime way of life model, creating casualwear, and a formidable coach assortment that provides new strains yr on yr. A kidswear division born in 2007 can also be a rising operation and except for the soccer operation, a number of show rooms within the Aarhus constructing, which has been hummel’s base since 2011 however is already too small amid a reluctance to depart, showcase the assorted ranges to potential retailers.
In 2020, guardian firm Thornico acquired Danish vogue label HALO, for which income has grown by an element of ten in three years, and working model Newline. A latest collaboration with HALO produced the particular one-off Denmark shirt worn throughout this month’s UEFA Nations League conflict with Spain in Copenhagen, in addition to a complementary designer way of life vary.
In 2024/25, hummel has as many membership companions in La Liga as Nike and Puma, every with three, and greater than adidas. Werder Bremen represents the model within the Bundesliga, and there are sturdy hopes Sunderland will imminently deliver them again to the Premier League. Designs for golf equipment not but formally introduced as hummel companions are already underway too.
Finally, hummel desires to turn into the most important teamsport model in Europe by 2028, and a goal of 10,000 golf equipment globally from beginner stage upwards within the subsequent 4 years. The US, the place varied professional golf equipment within the USL pyramid already put on hummel, and China have additionally been recognized as rising markets.
So whereas hummel would possibly as soon as have light from worldwide prominence, the enduring Danish model is now again in a giant method, able to tackle the world and alter it too.
