Can people really not see why they don't go with the "traditional" hoops every time?

The same shirt every year means fans that are hard up just won't buy it. They'll take one look and say "well I have a shirt with hoops almost identical to that, just with a different collar sponsor" and not bother.

By having a different design each year, the people who want to look like they're wearing the latest shirt will buy it.

It doesn't seem like rocket science to me.

Yes we may all like the hoops and the tradition, but it doesn't make clever business sense. And considering the club don't have a nice wealthy backer, they need to make as much money on merchandise as they can.

I haven't seen the stats, but I somehow suspect that shirts like this will sell a lot more than those that look almost identical to the previous year's effort.

If I remember right, you get £5 worth of points on your Teamcard. Which can then be used to redeem against something in the shop. But I can't remember where I read that, or if I just imagined it.

is that different to last year then? as we didnt get £5 worth of pints on card for shirt discount. you just had to show your card to get discount Iirc. The £5 worth of points most people got were compensation for the cheap walkup price bulls did for wire game.

Yeah I think you're right.

To be honest, £5 on the teamcard is better. It means those who want it off the shirt can have that (so no difference for them) and those who don't want to buy the shirt, get £5 off something else instead.

like the home shirt more, will be getting one.

I like both traditional and "modern" designs, but I quite like these. I'm not convinced about the colour of the away shirt (but that's purely a personal preference) but it will no doubt sell well. Purple is the new Black and all that.

Will certainly be buying both (or asking for them as presents because I'm skint) as I collect our shirts, but I'll reserve judgement on whether I wear the away shirt or not until I see it in the flesh.

absolutely correct. whatever the club do they arent going to make everyone happy all the time.

Some more pics

The designs I don't really care either way. A bit dull and tacky as usual from Kooga. The thing that irritates me are the absurd collars (lack of). Unless you have a Rugby Players phsyique, you're going to look a muppet with a neck like that.

Is it just me who finds it odd that JCT600 are on the front of the shirt twice?

Lends even more weight to the idea that they'd originally pulled out of being the main shirt sponsor in favour of being a smaller one, but then changed their minds.

it's been like that for the last few seasons mate, it's nothing new.

Really? Shows how observant I've been.....

I get all that and I also have no way of arguing over the numbers because I just don't know.

I would really have thought that a RAB V would have been ideal for this relaunching of the club. You're right about minor tweaks giving no incentive to buy but it would have been the first one since 2006 (I don't count last year) and I just suspect would have sold more.

Again, almost every other club in SL manages to keep traditional on their home shirt while leaving the experiments to their away shirt. If it really does make financial sense to go bold on the home shirt then why does nobody else? (The wealthy financial backer argument makes no sense - these are businesses, not just reckless vanity projects.)

It's also excellent that the club will have both shirts on sale BEFORE Xmas. I've always felt that the club was missing a trick by only releasing the away shirt in Dec then the Home shirt in Jan. Hopefully they've ordered a decent number of both shirts in a good range of sizes to cover demand. I would imagine that people who've saved so much money on their season ticket would be tempted to buy a new Bulls shirt to go with it.

I know I'll be buying my first new shirt since, I'm not sure actually. It's the last home shirt to have RAB hoops, 2007?

Yep, 2008 and 2009 shared a home shirt, the one Beaver is scoring in above on the banner