19 replies to this topic

[BRG]

As a spin-off from my Fan History thread, I wondered when the practice of selling branded team-wear to your supporters originated?  There was a recent thread on RCF asking what racing merch(andise) people had.  I realised that I had very little, not least because I begrudge paying through the nose to get clothing that advertises a team and its paying sponsors.  So far at least, motor racing enthusiasts have not been suckered into buying several new sets of team clothing per year in the way that football fans are (you have to have this season's home and away strip for your team if you are not be shunned on the terraces).  Wearing earlier team stuff is seen as OK at the race track, even pleasingly retro.

 

But when did this all start in motor racing?  Of course drivers and mechanics may have had mildly branded overalls but the idea of team kit to be sold to the punters was not around when I first started taking an interest, although it may have been different outside the UK, especially in the US?   

 

One of the first big commercial team wear efforts may have been Ford as part of the Rallysport sub-brand in the early 1970s.  They offered all sorts of stuff (I had a little RS aerofoil on the wiper arm of my Escort!) but especially jackets.  The Ford RS Forest jacket was ubiquitous amongst rally folk in the 70s and bore only a Ford logo or two rather than the full market place of sponsors of these days.  They also did a shiny blue rally jacket which was common wear  amongst rally crews of the time.  I am sure that Ferrari were early to the game as the tifosi would probably have knitted their own if the team didn't sell it.

 

I bought a very nice Jaguar jacket at Brands, in pre-Silk Cut white and dark green scheme with just a Jag logo.  It was reduced due to the Silk Cut sponsorship arriving, but it was a nice jacket and served me well.  Caught up in Mansell-mania, I bought a Goodyear cap at Silverstone after the famous Manselll/Piquet duel from a hawker on the track.

 

Nowadays, every race team of any consequence offers "merch" usually at obscenely high prices and a nice little earner it is too for them.  Personally, I refuse to  pay £50+ for a  printed t-shirt that Primark would sell for £7.  So where and when did all this kerfuffle originate and how much have you been drawn into buying?

[Vitesse2]

I have an Embassy Racing with Graham Hill T-shirt somewhere. Plus the patch from a long-dead generic Embassy Racing rally jacket - they were also sponsoring powerboat racing at the same time and I actually bought them both at Southampton Boat Show in either 1974 or 1975.

[Vitesse2]

So I guess that sets the early 1970s as a benchmark, when overt non-motor trade sponsorship had become a thing, but there are no doubt earlier ones.

 

Although what I would like would be one of the original tortoise brooches which Nuvolari apparently used to give out as gifts - as seen in my avatar. You can buy modern reproductions, but the originals seem to be very rare.

[Charlieman]

1950s Stirling Moss shirts by Suixtil? 1960s Jack Brabham Driving Jacket? Team beverages by Courage or Johnnie Walker?

 

I'd also look at jacket pins which were very popular with bike fans. 

[geoffd]

I bought a Gold Leaf Team Lotus tee shirt to support my favourite team, that would have been 1968 or a year or two later.

[WINO]

Shelby American merchandise offered in Sports Car Graphic in the early 60s? I bought two T-shirts for a relatively low price.

 

WINO

[ensign14]

[10kDA]

I had a "Lola" hat and T-shirt from 1978 or so, before that I had a Bombardier hat that dated from maybe '76 or '77, Kawasaki hats and T-shirts from the early-mid 70s but those weren't exactly "team" items so they may not count. I had a Wes Cooley/Yosh Suzuki shirt that actually depicted the team rider & bike from 1981 or so. As far as generic products and speed equipment not necessarily aligned with teams, that goes way back in the US. I had a couple of STP shirts, "Moon Equipped" bucket hat, Champion plugs T-shirt, etc in the 60s. Maybe the STP shirts could be considered team apparel due to Andy Granatelli's Indy teams. The shirt just had the STP logo and nothing else. It would have been boss to get ahold of a set of those STP pajamas/team uniform.

[WINO]

Didn't Ecurie Ecosse had some merchandise to sell once you became a member in the late 50s?

[Nick Planas]

I bought a Gold Leaf Team Lotus tee shirt to support my favourite team, that would have been 1968 or a year or two later.

I recall a visit to one of the Motor Racing Shows at Olympia - probably 1969, and they were giving away (shhh!) loads of Gold Leaf Team Lotus stickers - nowadays that would have cost a 9-year-old's fortune. I know you could get a GLTL jacket but that was way beyond my budget, even though the little GLTL fan in me was convinced that it would have somehow been warmer and better than my own...

 

Despite this, even at this early age, I was not so much of a fan that I only supported one team - I liked a good race more than anything else, and still do. I have my 'folks I'd rather see win' preferences, which change from time to time, but if any driver races hard, and fairly, and wins, then that's good enough for me.

[Doug Nye]

Not strictly fan clothing but the earliest postwar motor racing supporters' club I recall is the original BRM Association as mentioned in post 3 of this old TNF thread - https://forums.autos...upporters-club/.  Obviously it derived from the late pre-war ERA Club.

 

DCN

[BRG]

1950s Stirling Moss shirts by Suixtil? 1960s Jack Brabham Driving Jacket? Team beverages by Courage or Johnnie Walker?

Do you have dates for these?  Presumably the shirts were 50s or 60s and the jackets in the 60s.  But i don't think the booze counts!!  

 

It looks like we have traced this back certainly into the 1960s, with an explosion once title sponsorship became the norm.  I did wonder about BRM given the overt patriotism of its early days but maybe in the aftermath of rationing and in an age with more good taste than now, a BRM jacket might have considered a bit infra dig.

Edited by BRG, Yesterday, 09:34.

[john aston]

When I first became interested in 1967/8 the only branded "merch" was the Dunlop Rally Jacket , which I coveted deeply. Black, with yellow stripes on the sleeves. Then, as John Player, Kent, Embassy  Marlboro and the rest  started sponsoring teams , there were free cigarettes on offer from skimpily clad girls , and sundry stickers. Marlboro even went as far as sending motor club members (I was in BARC ) a free news paper previewing every Grand Prix . 

 

The only merch I bought in period was a cheap nylon Yardley McLaren jacket . My three friends all had the same jacket , which earned us a wave from the impossibly cool Peter Revson on his lap of honour at Silverstone.  Oh, and I also had a Hesketh teddy bear sticker on my Riley 1300 - which did not produce the hoped for  increase in  performance nor do it make me more interesting to girls . 

 

My Sevens often sported an AGIP sticker - I've never filled up with AGIP but who doesn't love a six -legged dog ? 

[2F-001]

My Sevens often sported an AGIP sticker - I've never filled up with AGIP but who doesn't love a six -legged dog ? 

Did AGIP miss a trick by not sponsoring Tyrrell?

[68targa]

Didn't Ecurie Ecosse had some merchandise to sell once you became a member in the late 50s?

I remember becoming a member of the Ecurie Ecosse supporters club in the early 1960s. They issued  'News from the Mews' magazine so you could read all about Wilkie and I had a lapel badge (since lost)  similar to the ORMA supporters club.  They may have sold a tie and possibly a blazer badge in the days when jackets were the norm.  I believe the Association was so successful that they contributed to buying a transporter for the team.

[Sterzo]

In 1966 I worked for the Civil Service, sorting out problems with National Insurance cards (if anyone remembers those). I visited a small flat on the top floor of a house near Paddington Station, to find a lady surrounded by BRM pictures. It was Molly Wheeler, who ran ORMA. The query was dealt with in two minutes, but then we got onto motor racing... I had the impression Molly Wheeler did not approve at all of the shift in power from Peter Berthon to Tony Rudd.

[Geoff E]

Molly Wheeler died in Eastbourne in 1997 aged 90.  Her husband (Harold) was shot down over the English Channel in 1940.

[chr1s]

I thought Tyrrell were one of the first teams to sell actual merchandise, as opposed to sponsors promotional people just giving away stickers etc, I think it was one of Kens sons that organised that, but I may be wrong.   

[Gary C]

I know that Team Lotus mechanic Beaky Sims still has his 1970 GLTL tshirt, I've seen him wear it!

[Charlieman]

Do you have dates for these?  Presumably the shirts were 50s or 60s and the jackets in the 60s.  

From memory of seeing adverts, the Suixtil shirt deal started when Stirling Moss raced in the Caribbean during the winter months. If you search around, images of the Jack Brabham coat can be found. Styling and the label suggest it was the sort of thing you wore when out in your Brabham Viva or Herald.