Heritage Hoodie and the Issue with Modern Jerseys
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mattstormy
- Thunderstorm
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- Joined: Tue Sep 27, 2011 1:43 am
- Location: Next to the corner post
Over the last number of years, there has been a range of replica heritage jerseys released for all clubs (including Balmain, Newtown, North Sydney and Western Suburbs) but not including Gold Coast or the failed 90s expansion clubs. Now for most current clubs, there has been a heritage range of hoodies that have been released recently with the classic designs and colours for certain teams from years past. The Storm have a hoodie released based on their original 1998 design and it looks absolutely terrific (only minor difference is that the V doesn’t continue over to the sleeves – not that it really matters, and due to being a hoodie no gold collars), with the original badge shield with the logo in the middle. No sponsor’s logos whatsoever make this look even better as well. The heritage jerseys for most clubs have the original sponsoring but they look far better than the ones on jerseys today as they blend in with the jersey.
The interesting thing is that you see a lot of rugby league fans from any club wearing these retro jerseys and hoodie designs. Here are a few reasons why some people could be shunning buying expensive new jerseys and going for the much cheaper retro option:
They are poorly manufactured with awful templates (side panels, shoulder panels, pointless pin stripe piping down the sides and shoulders etc.)
Some clubs have jerseys that are more like half-assed efforts including Vs that don’t go up to the top of the shoulders (eg. Canberra and Manly) and hoops cut off by side panels (eg. South Sydney).
Some clubs (including Melbourne) have designs that change every few years.
Anyone who wears the new jerseys looks like a walking billboard with sponsors littered on the chest, top and bottom on the back and on the sleeves and some clubs have a sponsor just below the front collar as well.
Too many jerseys available to buy (home, away, heritage, Auckland 9s, Women in League, Close the Gap, movie promos, other garbage novelties etc.) The Warriors are the worst for this with a ridiculous amount of novelty and gimmick jerseys. Can't we just have a home and clash jersey and leave it at that.
In terms of professional sport, this is really embarrassing compared to US sports and world football. The AFL is better in keeping with traditional designs but also has a number of flaws with their jumpers with manufacturing templates and the sponsoring makes those jumpers look cluttered.
I know we’re stuck with the jersey we’ve got until the end of 2015, but I reckon 2016 onwards the club should return to its roots (it would also be good to do it for the twenty year celebrations in 2017) and return to its 1998 jersey or something similar with a decent V and a good combination of the four colours that the club was founded with (navy, purple, gold & white). If they do this, they should stick with this jersey for good. Another main factor in this is ditching the tacky lightning bolts on the jerseys for good.
The interesting thing is that you see a lot of rugby league fans from any club wearing these retro jerseys and hoodie designs. Here are a few reasons why some people could be shunning buying expensive new jerseys and going for the much cheaper retro option:
They are poorly manufactured with awful templates (side panels, shoulder panels, pointless pin stripe piping down the sides and shoulders etc.)
Some clubs have jerseys that are more like half-assed efforts including Vs that don’t go up to the top of the shoulders (eg. Canberra and Manly) and hoops cut off by side panels (eg. South Sydney).
Some clubs (including Melbourne) have designs that change every few years.
Anyone who wears the new jerseys looks like a walking billboard with sponsors littered on the chest, top and bottom on the back and on the sleeves and some clubs have a sponsor just below the front collar as well.
Too many jerseys available to buy (home, away, heritage, Auckland 9s, Women in League, Close the Gap, movie promos, other garbage novelties etc.) The Warriors are the worst for this with a ridiculous amount of novelty and gimmick jerseys. Can't we just have a home and clash jersey and leave it at that.
In terms of professional sport, this is really embarrassing compared to US sports and world football. The AFL is better in keeping with traditional designs but also has a number of flaws with their jumpers with manufacturing templates and the sponsoring makes those jumpers look cluttered.
I know we’re stuck with the jersey we’ve got until the end of 2015, but I reckon 2016 onwards the club should return to its roots (it would also be good to do it for the twenty year celebrations in 2017) and return to its 1998 jersey or something similar with a decent V and a good combination of the four colours that the club was founded with (navy, purple, gold & white). If they do this, they should stick with this jersey for good. Another main factor in this is ditching the tacky lightning bolts on the jerseys for good.
Last edited by mattstormy on Sun May 04, 2014 5:31 pm, edited 2 times in total.
I wrote to the club last year saying that they need to stop changing jerseys all the time due to the fact that they have no brand recognition with kids (I work in a school so see this first hand as kids don't recognise my 2008 and 2009 jerseys) and they said they would discuss it but, never got back to me.
By the way, do you have a picture of this hoodie?
By the way, do you have a picture of this hoodie?
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mattstormy
- Thunderstorm
- Posts: 612
- Joined: Tue Sep 27, 2011 1:43 am
- Location: Next to the corner post
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MENACING*STORM
- Player Sponsor
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- Joined: Wed Dec 13, 2006 12:12 am
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The last 'comfortable' jersey we had was manufactured by Canterbury. It was smooth and not coarse compared to the KooGa/ BLK jerseys...of course IMHO.tugga wrote:The problem with NRL jerseys is they are made for playing in, not for casual wear. They are horribly uncomfortable to wear to game and serve no purpose whatsoever to the everyday supporter.
I usually wear a compression top underneath my jersey to make it easier to wear.