Club Kits

[Saintjay]

Bath have gone retro.
So retro, they've got Dan Lyle in as a model

I can't get by the arm length on the smallest kid. He's got the wing span of a buzzard.

 

[Rinkadink]

Fresh back from their fox hunting jolly with a selection of prawn sanwhiches ready to watch their rugger at Bauth.
...

What's happening with the collar on these Quins shirts? Appears odd.

 

[Not Mike Brown's Sock]

Fresh back from their fox hunting jolly with a selection of prawn sanwhiches ready to watch their rugger at Bauth.
...

What's happening with the collar on these Quins shirts? Appears odd.

Looks better in actual pictures - it's the fact it's down down I think

 

[Rinkadink]

Looks better in actual pictures - it's the fact it's down down I think

Yeah, I saw the supporter's replica one and it looked fine. Seems just the pro version (which the players have and isn't on sale yet), wondered if its just the photo shoot or it is indeed an odd collar.

What do you make of your new supplier? I hadn't heard of them before.

 

[Not Mike Brown's Sock]

Yeah, I saw the supporter's replica one and it looked fine. Seems just the pro version (which the players have and isn't on sale yet), wondered if its just the photo shoot or it is indeed an odd collar.

What do you make of your new supplier? I hadn't heard of them before.

Willing to give them a shot, Adidas was **** and didn't even bother to make kits for the women, which there was an actual row about with them.

Castore do McLaren, Newcastle FC, Sarries and a few other bits so clearly making some strides

 

[LeinsterMan (NotTigsMan)]

Adidas kit looked good generally though

 

[Kiwiwomble]

And all the NZ SR shirts

further to this, just heard last week that the NZ Super rugby teams are breaking away from Adidas, can negotiate their own kit suppliers

only article i found for it was paywalled unfortunately

 

[LeinsterMan (NotTigsMan)]

I like some kit makes but Nike and Adidas actually made generally modern but nice looking jerseys on the whole and I think the sport is poorer without them.

Canterbury make nice looking stuff but generally pretty traditional on the whole.
Samurai next tier down starting to get into the streetwear game though I believe

Rugby merch wise IMO is sort of similar to most things off field rugby struggles to modernise with fear of push back from traditionalist when in reality both are easy to do at the same time.

 

[TRF_Olyy]

Rugby definitely seems to be drifting further from the traditional kit suppliers and more into the plastic looking modern ones - Macron, Castore etc.
The kinda stash that looks like it was knocked up with with an online kit generator on their website before a 7s tournament

I guess they get better deals from them - Nike doesn't need to negotiate with Saracens over money, they'll just walk away from the table and continue to make billions elsewhere instead

 

[pagliaccio_euforico]

a German company being involved with rugby never did make much sense.

They announced the other day they were backing out of the NHL and they backed out of NBA/NFL years ago. I think the logistics of making uniforms for sports other than soccer are quite the obstacle. It's easier to just dedicate your factories to t-shirts and shorts rather than ones designed for the wear and tear of rugby.

Nike seems to be a little more committed to rugby but they only keep a very small number of teams. They probably just badge some third party's kit.

Under Armor has one rugby team left that I'm aware of and they probably hate it. They've been terminating contracts early for awhile with a lot of schools so that will probably be the next to go.

I think it's hard for athletic brands to make kit for specialty sports; hurts the bottom line compared to leisure ware. Sport dedicated brands will be the future.

 

[Rinkadink]

I'm shook, Umbro have come good and launched this beauty of an away kit about an hour ago for Bristol;

That's 2/2 so far (training kit is nice too), dare I dream after the past couple of disappointing yesrs?

 

[pagliaccio_euforico]

umbro's Chile kit is really good. Their away kit for Selknam (after a google research it's a bit weird that Chile's mostly white rugby team wears a tribal pattern and is named after the indigenous people of southern Chile.)
Will be interesting to see if Umbra expands their rugby portfolio if they can keep doing better jobs on the design side.

Might have to get myself a fighting AJs shirt.

 

[EdBirch]

We have O'Neills. It's ok

 

[LeinsterMan (NotTigsMan)]

Umbro do decent designs.

It's the **** quality I don't like about them.

 

[Kiwiwomble]

We have O'Neills. It's ok

my club team had O'neills in Melbourne until this year, i really liked them and provided a full webstore for ordering supporter or training gear...we've moved to BLK and whilst lots are raving about the new 1's kit...im not a fan, much prefer O'neills, as a manager i was given a puffer vest....BLK logo peeled off before the first wash...just re branded rubbish

interestingly, i have realised (at least in Aus and NZ) Gilbert and Asics kits are the same, just with a different logo, seem to be the same distributor and have just decided to use the Gilbert brand in NZ and the Asics Brand in Aus

 

[pagliaccio_euforico]

Gilbert workout shirts are the most comfortable thing I've ever owned and when usa rugby referees were contracted with them it was amazing. Bought a bunch of stuff from them and their parent company.

I've been looking for ASICS rugby shorts since I got to wear the South Africa referee ones for craven week. A little on the light side for playing but great for reffing. Might just be running shorts.

I do think kiwiwomble is right that a lot of it is just different branding. I know stormers had their kit made in Cape Town and slapped an adidas logo back in the day.

 

[LeinsterMan (NotTigsMan)]

Asics is a company that I wish would get into rugby stuff over here

 

[TRF_Olyy]

I'm surprised Adidas didn't push Reebok as a rugby brand in the late 2010s - they used it as their "Xtreme sports" brand for a while, focusing on CrossFit, MMA etc.
Plus it's a British brand and was used in rugby in the past

 

[EdBirch]

my club team had O'neills in Melbourne until this year, i really liked them and provided a full webstore for ordering supporter or training gear...we've moved to BLK and whilst lots are raving about the new 1's kit...im not a fan, much prefer O'neills, as a manager i was given a puffer vest....BLK logo peeled off before the first wash...just re branded rubbish

interestingly, i have realised (at least in Aus and NZ) Gilbert and Asics kits are the same, just with a different logo, seem to be the same distributor and have just decided to use the Gilbert brand in NZ and the Asics Brand in Aus

Yeah i agree the quality is good and i like the off field stuff. Guess playing kit design comes down to the club. I play in Gilbert kit and it's probably my favourite overall for fit and durability

 

[will311293]

We did a whip round from the fans for all the old kits of years gone by due to being skint. TBF wouldn't be upset at that.