Tottenham were one of the first teams to jump upon the ‘Shirt Sponsor’ bandwagon, after going without one for just over a century.
Holsten-Brauerei AG (Holsten Brewery plc.), became the first commercial company to have their logo printed on the fabled white shirts of the Spurs. Their name adorned the home, away and alternate shirts of Tottenham for 12 years, between 1983 and 1995. The first game in which the Holsten logo featured on the Spurs shirt was on a televised Friday night game, the small logo was placed directly under the Spurs badge (which appeared in the top centre of the shirt), and the Le Coq Sportif logo’s were located on the arms of the top. The shirt became a great commercial success, despite some early misgivings about the usage of a sponsor.
Holsten quickly became associated with Tottenham and the company stuck with Tottenham through thick and thin. Despite the team losing influence in the new premiership-era and despite the 1987 FA Cup balls-up (in which half the players shirts didn’t feature the Holsten logo), the company kept on paying Tottenham year after year, never changing their solid blue capitalized logo.
Le Coq Sportif Spurs Home Shirt
In and just before 1995 Tottenham Hotspur began a period of radical change. Managers came and went. Some iconic players left (Klinsman left to return to Munich) and the club changed kit manufactures and shirt sponsors. Holstens name was replaced by the logo of Hewlett Packard, a rapidly expanding computer company. The logo was featured on the new Pony kits, however the kits never became a fans favourite and many longed for the Holsten days. After Hewlett Packard’s four year sponsorship contract ran out they couldn’t agree a new deal with Tottenham and so the club began a search for a new sponsor.
Pony made, Hewlett Packard Sponsored
The clubs search for a new sponsor ended quicker than the board suspected for they agreed a new deal with previous sponsors, Holsten pills. The fans were delighted with the return to to the traditional sponsor and the company’s logo adorned the new, highly commercialised Adidas jerseys. Holsten sponsored the club for another 3 years, boosting their total combined years as Tottenham sponsor to 15 years. The end of Holsten’s sponsorship coincided with the end of Adidas’ kit deal, leaving Tottenham with a new kit manufacturer and kit sponsor to find.
Blue away spurs shirt with orange piping
In April 2002, Tottenham clinched a sponsorship deal with holiday company Thomson. The deal gave an added benefit to fans of Tottenham as Spurs fans received cheaper holidays in the deal. The company’s newly re-branded ‘smile’ logo featured on the new, minimalistic white strips of Italian company Kappa. Daniel Levy was happy with the deal: “This deal is very significant for Tottenham Hotspur. It is one that will benefit the club, Thomson and, importantly, our fans,” said the club chairman.
“The new deal will not only mean a strong financial investment into the club, but also exclusive offers for Tottenham fans from Thomson’s vast range of holidays. I look forward to a very successful relationship with Thomson.” Despite the chairman’s delight, however, fans weren’t very happy as the Thomson logo was red, the first time the colour red had featured on aTottenham shirt (if you discount the small amount of red on the club crest).
Kappa / Thomson Spurs Kit
2006 saw the start of the current club sponsor, betting company Mansion, sponsorship of Spurs. The club agreed a £34million four year sponsorship, giving Tottenham one of the best sponsorship deals in the world. The deal followed Puma’s £20 million four year deal, bolstering Tottenham’s finances. The new sponsor also aided Levy in his quest to market the club in Asia: “”We are excited about working with Mansion and keen to accelerate the international development of our club,” said Levy.
“We share similar ambitions to grow and extend our respective brands in many of the world’s key and developing economies and we have already discussed ideas on how we might achieve this by working together.”
Puma / Mansion Spurs Kit
For the 2010-11 season Spurs opted for Autonomy replacing Mansion’s five year run. Autonomy only lasted one season on the Spurs’ kit before Autonomy owned Aurasma took over for two years from 2011 to 2013 where Hewlett-Packard took over for the current 2013-14 season.