The First Time

Fila

Like so many other familiar brands of the football kit world, Fila were previously a name associated with sports other than football, and before that were manufacturers of items not connected with sport at all.

The company was created by Giansevero Fila and began operation from a small shop that fronted the creation of textiles and fabrics for local people in the small town of Biella, 80 kilometres west of Milan. Turning its attention to the eventual production of knitwear and underwear, Fila had a workforce of over 250 people by 1972 and were generating sales of over a billion lire. The next obvious step was to dip a toe into the world of sportswear, and it was tennis that introduced the Fila brand to a wider audience, particularly when worn by the great Bjorn Borg. Other sporting greats wore the F-Box logo too, from champion golfer Tom Watson to skiing legends Ingemar Stenmark and Alberto Tomba.

Yet Fila resisted the urge to supply its own kit to a football team right up until 1997 when Fiorentina became the first major team to adopt the brand. Indelibly associated with a golden era for Serie A football (and especially with Fiorentina's Gabriel Batistuta), Fila's arrival coincided with a purple patch for La Viola. Fiorentina were regularly qualifying for European competitions and Fila's name was being seen all across the continent, but Fila's next step came as something of a surprise to many.

Having identified English football as the next market to break into, Fila chose another team that was about to embark upon a European campaign during the 1999-2000 season. For them, however, this was to be no Manchester United or Arsenal. Instead, they chose West Ham United.

The Hammers, despite having won European silverware in the past, were hardly what you'd call one of the continent's top clubs, but they had finished the 1998-99 Premier League season in fifth place (their second best ever league finish) and qualified for the following season's Intertoto Cup. This they duly won, along with Montpellier and Juventus, thereby providing them with a crack at the 1999-2000 UEFA Cup competition.

It was an eclectic team that wore Fila in claret and blue that season. West Ham could boast the upcoming talent of young players such as Rio Ferdinand, Frank Lampard and Joe Cole, exciting prospects like Paolo Di Canio and Paolo Wanchope and no-nonsense physicality from the likes of Stuart Pearce and Neil Ruddock. Managed by Harry Redknapp, this was a West Ham team going places, but alas the 1999-2000 season saw them crash out of the UEFA Cup in the second round, and their eventual Premier League finish of 9th was somewhat down from the previous campaign.

For the second year of Fila's contract with The Hammers, navy blue was used as the colour for the entire away kit - an approach that was emulated by Reebok, Umbro and Macron in the years that followed. Fila proved from the outset that they could be every bit as innovative as they were respectful of a club's history, and the kits they went on to provide until 2003 were a fitting way of introducing themselves to the English football scene.

Around the same time, Fila also supplied kit for the Scottish national team as its official partner between 2000 and 2003, and also saw its apparel worn in the Football League by fourth-tier Rushden and Diamonds during their breakthrough season of 2001-02. After that, Fila disappeared from English professional football until 2011 when they re-emerged even more determined to make their mark. Kit deals with AFC Bournemouth and Blackpool were soon followed by others with Oldham Athletic, Notts County and Tranmere Rovers to name but a few.

Alas, Fila has once again disappeared from English and Welsh professional football and hasn't been seen since 2016. Currently owned by a South Korean businessman, Gene Yoon, Fila continues to make sportswear and its name is still widely visible around the world. One can only hope they make another foray into domestic UK football soon as their absence is sorely felt by fans of their delightfully Italian styling.