The Origin Story

A few days ago I caught up with an old friend, back in my home town of Hamilton in Scotland. We hadn't seen each other in nearly 20 years. it was great to reminisce about old times, but after a while the conversation turned "so what have you been up to? what do you do for work?". I always give a similar response "I'm a product manager, I look after the production of the Rugby product for ASICS". Normally it's met with "cool" or "that's nice" and that's it, the conversation moves on. But not this time. I forgot I was speaking to a rugby fan. "wow that's awesome, tell me more" I then began to tell him all about my involvement in creating kit over the last 14 years, in the Sportswear industry.

I began to think about all the kit I've been involved in over the years. I thought this would be a good time to look back at all the amazing product that I've had a hand in.

I started my career back in 2008 with Nike. I was over the moon to be chosen for a Job as an Associate PM on the core performance sports team. Primarily working on Rugby. At that time Nike was sponsoring France Rugby, England Rugby, Stade Toulousain and Racing Metro 92.

The learning process started immediately. My boss at the time, David Whiterod, was a fantastic commercial mind and a Nike veteran. He began to teach me about the ins and outs of Nike as well as how to make the best out of the assortment. Being a Rugby player I was there to be the sounding board for ideas. Storytelling is king at Nike, an aspect I absolutely loved. I'm a marketer at heart, bringing to life the kit by finding a story was something I relished.

My first question when designing the French kit was why the colour? Why not French blue? the answer was simple. Navy sells better. Nike had departed from the traditional French blue for the Rugby World cup in 2007 and saw an improvement in sales from the 2003 RWC. For the 2010 season it was decided to stick with this strategy. The kit was inspired by French fashion and the sartorial elegance of the Parisian Gentleman.

England Rugby's main story for this season was their Alternate Jersey. The Purple kit was a major talking point which sadly went over the heads of some England fans. That being said Nike did a fantastic Job of marketing this kit and despite the initial reaction the kit was immensely successful from a sales point of view. The purple colourway ties back in to the Track Jackets gifted to the England team back in the late 80s (before branded kit was a thing). Once a player had a Purple track Jacket it meant he was part of the Elite team. A symbol of that players achievement. Since the 2009 "purple" kit was launched future kit sponsors have revisited it, like Canterbury in 2014 and even Umbro, England Rugby's current sponsor has continued to use purple as part of the training range. I am proud to be part of the team that brought back Purple as a core colour for the English.

As well as international teams like England and France, Nike were also sponsoring Club sides Stade Toulousain and Racing Metro 92. As a Rugby fan working on Toulouse kit was a dream. Arguably France's most famous team and one of the most successful clubs in European Rugby. Nike had a long standing relationship with Toulouse stretching back to the 90s. It was a terrible shame when they were dropped from the sports marketing portfolio in 2014. Stade Toulousain are a club with a rich history going back to 1907 and have in my opinion had some of the best kits Nike ever designed. I was happy to see Nike re-signed them in 2017. The 2010 Jersey that I worked on took inspiration form the original Stade Toulousian Jerseys of the early 1900s. The Chevron graphic that was subtilty applied to the strip was a nod to teams of that era.

Racing Metro 92 only made a brief appearance in Nike kit. At this Time Racing were not quite the force they are now and certainly did not have the facilities they have today. Playing in 2009 at the old Olympic stadium in Paris. Racing were a difficult club to work with. For a start they will never compromise on their iconic blue and white stripes. Which I can respect, after all its a cornerstone of their brand. They are traditionalists. But then why cover it in sponsors! In the end the relationship broke down and Nike opted to end their sponsorship.

This period was my first introduction to working with licensed product. Working with third parties is always a challenge. My colleagues working on inline never have to worry about design signoffs from external parties, re-signing of sponsors ect. That for me is the major difference in managing Licensees. You have to be a Partner manager as well as a product manager. It takes considerable patience and flexibility to work with Assets on delivering product. Toulouse and Racing work with many different sponsors that often change from year to year. Having 80000 units about to go in to production when a sponsor changes can be a stressful situation to be in. I wont miss those situations.

This was also the time of design consolidation, You'll notice from the picture of the England Rugby kit that the chassis design matches the Stade Toulousain Jersey. In the past all clubs and Unions would have a unique kit. Nike led the way when it came to best expression product. Ultimately all Nike assets were given the same technology and design so no assets could claim one had an advantage over another. It allows you to present one unified brand image for the season and speak with one voice across all your assets. In the end it is also far more efficient to design one best expression chassis and apply colour and graphics to that design.

Next time I'll talk about Special edition kit and RWC 2011. Thanks for reading this far. ha ha