FIRST DRAFT: P.E.S.T.E.L ANALYSIS

Political

In terms of political issues surrounding Umbro, most of their factories in which their products are manufactured are in China and Hong Kong, and has been this way since 1999. Therefore political happenings such as Brexit are not going to effect the manufacturing and importing process of their products. Although using factories in China is cheaper for the company, some negatives may include a job loss in the UK for those in the fashion industry as Umbro previously manufactured their products in the UK. 

Economical

Economical performance within Umbro is currently low, there are clear issues including annual revenue, stock pricing and pricing of products. According to campaignlive.co.uk, Nike bought Umbro for over 500 million dollars in 2007, there was a glimpse of hope for the brand, however, in 2009 Nike announced that they had to take an impairment charge of 401 million dollars as the company’s future cash flow had fallen below the levels Nike had expected. Another worrying factor is that on the website ‘Owler’, they have stated that Umbro’s estimated annual revenue is only $4.2 Million, to put that into comparison, Adidas’s revenue was $30 Billion. On Umbro’s official website, the majority of the stock is between 30 and 50 percent off, suggesting that the sales of product are at an all time low. And as for the stocks, Iconix Brand group (current owner of Umbro) have been at a constant decrease for the past 5 years. 

Social

Umbro’s competitor’s have a much stronger social media presence, with a clear demographic which has been targeted by using influencer’s the audience can connect with. Adidas have several instagram accounts which are all regularly posted on, the main account has 23 million followers, Adidas Originals has 31.7 followers; the most followed Adidas account suggesting that a large proportion of the audience enjoy this style of product. Umbro on the other hand have many different Instagram accounts for all countries which they supply, however only three are verified. They have 336k followers, and the feed is very all over the place. The brand needs to develop a much clearer direction in terms of connecting with their target demographic, whether to stick to a strong football supplier or dive in deep and be confident in new collections, sharing them regularly. 

Technological

Umbro’s technological impact is minimal, they have accounts on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter however the advertising campaigns are nothing out of the ordinary and regularly never seen or heard of. Many of the collaborations that Umbro were apart of have not been promoted enough on social media, and with a huge population of young people having a huge interest in sportswear and streetwear then they need to rethink ways to target these individuals, which means having a big online persona. 

Environmental

Environment issues need to be considered. As Umbro manufacture there products in China and are sold all over the world, this means that the products will be travelled by air; increasing pollution. Ideally, once you have bought your product and had enough wear, the products should be recycled (if possible) or donated to reduce landfill. Umbro are not a company who promote sustainability often therefore the audience are not being told want to do with the product at the end of use. This could result in large more amount of landfill. Ideally the products could be sold through websites like Depop or Asos, could be donated to charity shops or other family members, or start making the products out of recyclable materials. The same can go for packaging, plastic packaging should be reduced, increase cardboard with labelled to direct the user to recycle. 

Legal

Moving on to legal issues, items should be correctly labelled; for example if the product is not machine washable, this should be labelled as so. Again, as Umbro is manufactured in China, the wages paid should be at least minimum wage, and of a legal age, working a legal amount of hours. An issue which Iconix Brand Group have came across is racial bias within the company. Jay Z is currently suing the brand after they bought his company ‘Rocawear’ and now have a lack of African American arbitrators within the company.