VintageGent’s Menswear Daily

Rugby Team Wows the Crowd…on Their Shirts

The French Rugby team Stade Français has a new rugby jersey, and its not striped or color-blocked. “The Crowd” will debut at the August 14th match. The uniform will inevitably scramble a few television camera and is certainly atypical for a sporting team. Part of it harkens back to the days of 70s photo prints on button-down shirts, albeit far more cartoonish. T

here is a method to the madness. It’s all about merchandising. The team hopes to rope in sales from design aficionados, rather than strictly Rugby fans. This kind of potential shark jumping also gets the team a lot of press.

There was a study years ago that suggested sometimes the color of a uniform made a difference in the mindset of a team. What does having 70 people on a uniform do? Give the athlete the impression they are being cheered on by a crowd, or jeered at? Time will tell, and certainly sales figures will tell once the design is made available to the public at large.

What do you think? Brilliant marketing or a an ill-fated move?