Surridge Sport

Surridge Sports are a sportswear company who specialize in all sports including football and cricket. They make the kits of many professional teams in football, cricket, rugby and supply thousands of schools, colleges and universities with sportswear. The company was established in 1867 by Percy Stuart Surridge and is one of the oldest sports brands in the world. In the 1950s the brand grew, with Percy's grandson Stuart Surridge taking on the business, and the launch of the SS branding.
Cricket Bats
The company provided Cricket Bat's for some of the biggest names including WG Grace, Donald Bradman, Viv Richards, Clive Rice, Lance Kluesner, Herbert Sutcliffe and Duleepsinhji,. They were made in Aldermaston. The SS logo was also used by Indian firm Sareen Sports and caused confusion amongst fans.
Surridge Sports entered the big hitter cricket bat race in the late 70s with the Jumbo, competing against Slazenger V8 and V12, Gray-Nicholls GN100 Scoop and the Saint Peter. Graham Gooch scored his record score of 333 in 1990 against India using a Surridge Turbo bat, designed by John Surridge.
Football
The Surridge Cobbler is claimed to be the first lace less football, and was used in the Bundesliga and was used in the 1976 League Cup final. In 1979 the English Football League designed a ball to be used across the competition. It was manufactured by several companies including Mitre, Minerva and Surridge Sports which called theirs the UFO. In the FA Cup in 1980 John Fashanu scored his memorable goal for Norwich City F.C. against Liverpool F.C with a UFO ball. In 1991 Surridge signed a sponsorship deal with Paul Gascoigne.
Tennis
In 1923 Surridge received a patents for their design in reinforcing racquets.
Ownership
In 1993 Stuart Surridge died, and the family sold the company to Dunlop-Slazenger. In 2001 the Stuart Surridge name and branding was sold to an Indian/South African partnership.<ref name=ssh/>
It was purchased by the present owners SDL Group Ltd in 2005 and now operates out of premises in Burnley, Lancashire.
Legacy
John, Stuart's son and Charlotte, his granddaughter, set up a bat maker in 2018 called Swannack. <ref name=ft/>

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