Suiting up for battle – the fight rugby hasn’t even entered

By Benji Crossley

The New Zealand Super Rugby teams launched their new merchandise websites last week. After years of being seemingly shackled by an Adidas deal that put all the focus on the All Blacks, they had a unique opportunity to really do something new and exciting in terms of engaging your fans via merchandise. They failed.

Here is the Chiefs website, I don’t need to link any of the others because they’re all the same. Just with a different colour jersey. And remember, with three weeks to go before the season these websites launched last week. Not before Christmas, early February. Compare and contrast that to the Warriors who have also signed a new deal with a new apparel sponsor. The range, the different value options, the creativity, it could not be a bigger contrast.

The lack of Black Ferns merchandise has long been criticised. My five year old daughter who plays and loves rugby wanted Black Ferns merchandise after the World Cup but there wasn’t any to be found. We ended up buying her a t-shirt from the Tavlova Instagram account. People like that appear to be the only guys doing anything in that truly accessible and creative space for rugby at the moment. But going back to the contrast between the new Warriors deal and new Super deals, compare and contrast what I could buy my kids or friends new baby’s between those websites. They’re not comparable.

When the Super Rugby deal with was announced last year, much of the excitement was around the launch of some retro merch. As of yet, only the Blues have publicly launched their version. Presumably, the other teams will launch something in the weeks before the Retro round but why wait? Why not build some excitement? It just seems like another missed opportunity.

On the idea of retro jerseys, you don’t have to look very hard to see that sports merchandise is fashionable right now. When I wander around Bayfair at weekends the number of shops selling specific team merch or lines of clothes designed to look like teamwear you realise that it must be popular at the moment. Hallensteins having a licensing deal with the NFL makes that point pretty nicely. They’ve also launched a collaboration with the Warriors as they look to capitalise in the space. Cotton On sell stuff linked to American Colleges!

Do you spot any rugby gear in the shops of Bayfair? One rack, potentially even less, of All Blacks gear in Stirling Sports. No Super Rugby, no NPC, nothing else. Maybe the ship has sailed now but if Hallensteins are prepared to do deals with the NFL and the Warriors, surely, they’d be interested in a deal with rugby if rugby wanted to try and get into the space? If you accept the notion that you can’t be what you can’t see, then rugby is losing the battle to put their brands front and centre by literally putting them on peoples backs. As a rugby fan that would be easier to accept if they were fighting and losing, but it’s a battle that right now they don’t even appear to be suiting up for (pun intended).

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