Our History

Lea-Ray was formed in 1978 when the founder, Ray Leader had the idea of a football supporters jacket in the clubs colours... Our first sale was to Watford FC, then under the management of Graham Taylor and the Chairmanship of Elton John. This jacket really was the first of its kind, and launched Lea-Ray into the supply of sports related clothing to many of the leading clubs, including Chelsea, Manchester United, Glasgow Celtic and Nottingham Forest.

With the market changing and larger brands giving kit away to many clubs for advertising and sponsorship, Lea-Ray branched out into 4 specific areas; Corporate, Sports, Educational and Promotional, allowing us to focus on specific products within a specific customer base.

Corporate Clothing - With the purchase of Boxley Careerwear in 2001, Lea-Ray had the experience necessary to offer the more formal side of corporate wear, including both men and ladies business suits, and bespoke ties. (With this, we have managed to keep a couple of larger football clubs such as Wolverhampton Wanderers and Birmingham City). We now supply to many of the larger companies in Kent, not only with these products but also with the work wear used in manufacturing or distribution.

Sports Clothing - We today have a growing business to local clubs and associations, and are agents for many top brands including Pro-Star, Kappa, Uhlsport and with our partnership companies, Nike and Canterbury of New Zealand. Our products range from Football to Rugby, Hockey, Cricket and Speedway, but we welcome the challenge from all other sports to supply to their specifications.

Educational - This incorporates Schools, Colleges and Universities with the supply of student and staff uniform, leavers hoodies, event promotions and coursework products. We offer both retail direct to parents, and wholesale direct to schools, colleges, universities and schoolwear shops. We have contracts with many customers for the supply of all clothing requirements. Our retail shop is open 6 days per week supplying local schools and companies with uniforms or corporate clothing.

Promotional Products - These products include not only clothing, but items such as pens, watches, golf accessories, umbrella’s, key rings and many others. The focus here is to help the customer maximise the identity of their company or when sponsoring an event.

A growth area for the company is bespoke clothing, in other words, we make to order! This really is a full turning circle for the company, because that is how we started. We can produce almost any garment specifically to a customers design, right down to the buttons and zips!

No job is to small, and whoever the customer is the key to our success has to be customer service. Our data base of customers still has many of the same names as when we first started over 30 years ago, so we must be doing something right!

Please contact us today to see how we can help promote your brand. All we ask is the opportunity to quote, and we wont be beaten on service, quality, price or delivery...