The Sportswear Brands I Grew Up Wanting — And How They Influenced M.U.S.T. Fit® Sports

Growing up in Manchester in the 1970s and 80s, sportswear wasn't what it is today.

There was no endless scrolling through hundreds of trainers on your phone. No next-day delivery. No social media telling you what everyone else was wearing.

You noticed things.

A pair of trainers somebody wore at school.

A football shirt.

A tracksuit on television.

Something you spotted in a shop window.

And gradually, certain names started to mean something.

Adidas. Reebok. Kappa. Fila. Head. Ellesse. Le Coq Sportif. Hummel. Umbro. Diadora.

Later, Nike became part of that world for me too.

And then there were things like Kangol bucket hats, which seemed to jump from British headwear into music and hip-hop culture and suddenly looked completely different.

I didn't discover these brands in a neat order.

They seemed to arrive almost at once.

And I wanted them.

The problem was that I couldn't necessarily afford them.

When the Brand on Your Clothes Started to Matter

As a kid, clothes are just clothes — until suddenly they're not.

There comes a point when you become aware of what other people are wearing.

You start recognising logos.

You notice trainers.

You notice who has the newest football boots.

And you very quickly learn that there is a difference between what you like and what you can afford.

For me, Adidas was one of those early names that seemed to be everywhere.

Football, trainers, tracksuits — those three stripes were instantly recognisable.

Then other brands began appearing on my radar.

And each one seemed to have its own personality.

Adidas — One of the Names That Started It

Adidas felt inseparable from sport.

Football particularly.

The three stripes were simple enough that you could recognise them from a distance, and that probably taught me something long before I ever thought about creating a brand myself:

A strong identity doesn't need to shout.

Sometimes a simple mark is enough.

Adidas wasn't the only influence, though.

Far from it.

Reebok — When Trainers Became Something More

Reebok became another major name in the sportswear world I was discovering.

What interested me wasn't simply performance.

Trainers were becoming part of what you wore every day.

That distinction is important.

Sportswear was starting to escape sport.

Today we take that completely for granted. People wear trainers to work, hoodies to restaurants and sports jerseys as fashion.

Back then, you could actually feel that transition happening.

Kappa, Fila, Ellesse and Head — The Ones I Wanted

Then there were the brands that felt different because they were often out of reach.

For me, Kappa, Fila, Ellesse and Head fell into that category.

I knew them.

I liked them.

I wanted them.

But price mattered.

And I think that's an important part of this story because nostalgia has a habit of making the past look easier than it actually was.

It wasn't.

There were things your friends had that you couldn't have.

There were clothes you'd look at but couldn't buy.

Sometimes wanting something was actually part of what made the brand special.

You remembered it.

Kappa — Sportswear With an Identity

Kappa particularly stood out.

The logo was unmistakable.

The tracksuits looked different.

There was an attitude to it.

Years later, when thinking about M.U.S.T. Fit® Sports, those memories matter — not because I wanted to copy Kappa, but because I remembered how a sportswear brand could make somebody feel.

That's a very different thing.

Fila and Ellesse — When Sport Met Fashion

Fila and Ellesse were another part of that crossover.

They were sports brands, but they didn't feel restricted to sport.

You could imagine the clothes being worn somewhere other than a tennis court or running track.

That idea stayed with me.

Because some of the best sportswear doesn't announce:

“I'm going to exercise.”

It simply looks good.

Head — Another One Just Out of Reach

Head was another brand I remember wanting.

Again, it carried that sense of sporting credibility but also status.

And when you're young, status can be remarkably simple.

Sometimes it was just the logo on your sweatshirt.

Or the trainers on your feet.

Le Coq Sportif — A Logo You Remember

Le Coq Sportif was another name that became part of that period for me.

Even the branding was different.

The rooster inside the triangular logo was immediately identifiable.

That's something I've come to appreciate much more as I've got older.

You don't necessarily remember every product a company made.

But you remember how you recognised it.

Diadora

Diadora was perhaps not quite as influential for me personally as some of the others, but it was certainly part of the sportswear landscape.

It was another name you'd see associated with football and sporting footwear and another example of European sportswear becoming part of what young people noticed and wanted.

Hummel and Umbro — Football Was Everywhere

Then there was football.

For anyone growing up in Manchester, it was difficult for football not to influence what you wore.

Umbro in particular became synonymous with football shirts, shorts, tracksuits and boots.

Hummel brought something different again, particularly its distinctive chevrons.

Football boots mattered too.

You noticed what players were wearing.

Then you noticed what your mates were wearing.

And then you looked down at your own feet.

Anyone who grew up in that period probably understands exactly what I mean.

And Nike Came Later for Me

Today, it would be easy to assume Nike had always been at the centre of everyone's sportswear world.

But that's not how I remember it personally.

Nike came later for me.

By the time it became a major part of my awareness, I had already been influenced by Adidas, Reebok and many of the European sportswear brands I'd grown up seeing.

That's worth saying because this isn't supposed to be an official timeline of sportswear.

It's my timeline.

It's about when I discovered these brands and what they meant to me.

Then There Was Kangol

Kangol is an interesting one because it shows just how far clothing can travel culturally.

The bucket hat already had British roots, but seeing Kangol associated with rappers and hip-hop gave it a completely different energy.

Suddenly something familiar could look new because somebody wore it differently.

That idea fascinates me even today.

Sometimes the person wearing the product changes the meaning of the product.

That's fashion.

We Couldn't Just Buy Everything We Wanted

This might be the most important part of the whole story.

Today it's very easy to write about retro brands and turn the 80s and 90s into one enormous nostalgic shopping trip.

That's not how I remember it.

Money mattered.

Some brands were simply too expensive.

So you saved.

You compromised.

You bought something else.

Sometimes you just looked.

And when you eventually got something you really wanted, it meant something.

You looked after it.

You remembered buying it.

You remembered where you wore it.

Sometimes you can still remember it forty years later.

• That feeling — saving for something, finally owning it and remembering exactly how it made you feel — is something I explored in When Sportswear Meant Something — The Feeling We Never Forgot.

What That Has to Do With M.U.S.T. Fit® Sports

Decades later, those experiences became part of the thinking behind M.U.S.T. Fit® Sports. If you're discovering us for the first time, you can read the story behind M.U.S.T. Fit® Sports and how the brand began.

They already have their own histories.

What stayed with me was something much simpler:

the feeling.

The excitement of discovering a brand.

Recognising a logo.

Wanting a particular top.

Getting your first pair of trainers you were genuinely proud of.

Wearing something that made you stand a little differently because, for whatever reason, you felt good in it.

That's the part of sportswear I've never forgotten.

And it's one of the ideas behind M.U.S.T. Fit® Sports today.

We want clothing that works for movement, but we also understand something those brands taught my generation decades ago:

how you feel wearing something matters.

That's why one of our simplest messages remains:

Look Good & Feel Great.

And perhaps that's why I still remember all those names.

Not because I owned everything.

Quite the opposite.

Sometimes the things you couldn't have were the things you remembered most.

The brands I grew up with belonged to another generation. M.U.S.T. Fit® Sports is about taking that love of sportswear forward — creating clothing for the gym, the street and everyday life. Explore the M.U.S.T. Fit® Sports collection.

M.U.S.T. Fit® Sports

What you wear when you do.