Might as well be just a case. Just a few weeks after announcing its partnership with Premier League club Manchester City, Nike makes official their decision to sell Umbro, former kit supplier for Man City and one of soccer’s leading brands.

Umbro, which got bought out by Nike in 2006, will now be sold within 12 months to make room for other brands such as Converse, Jordan and Hurley. Less complicated brands, to tell the truth.

In 2008, just to bring an example, many at Nike’s main offices in Portland stuck up their nose when the English National squad (one of Umbro’s main deals) didn’t make it to the Euro championship, inspiring cries of “epic fail” through the whole nation.

From 2006 and up to today, the Umbro brand has lost £34Mil: a figure that is way beyond the pale for Nike, whose brands are all in the black. This very policy of getting rid of the unnecessary branches also led during the years to the conveyance of Starter and Bauer, leading manufacturers of hats and hockey gear.

For such economic powerhouses, and Nike surely is one, a global perspective is indeed compulsory. While Umbro, especially in the football-fed western Europe, might look like a prestigious, super-cool, top notch brand, this is not true for the rest of the globe. If you take Italy, France, England, Spain and Germany off the world map, you will hardly find someone who can find value in the maker of the Lille kit or of the Glasgow Rangers shirt.

Even at times like these, where the major economies  fight to survive, Nike keeps scoring astronomical incomes: in Q3 of 2011, they stopped the clock at an astonishing +15% in revenues. It is plain for everyone to see that holding on to this pace requires strength, firm decisions and foresight. Might as well be just a case. Or maybe not.

By Emanuele Venturoli - RTR Sports Marketing
In the picture: England 2012 Euro Kit by Umbro
Courtesy of Umbro