Being a kit collector and a massive geek when it comes to rugby kits/boots etc, I speak with a few other collectors etc mainly over the rugby/football spectrum. One of my good pals had this to say about Castore:
If I’m honest getting castore isn’t great. “They’re having a nightmare with Newcastle at the moment. They’ve taken over operation of the club store, and yeah it’s not going well at all.”
For me, Castores designs for most of their football and rugby teams look good. But this doesn’t sound good, and almost identical to the issues with Adidas/Lovell we are currently facing this year at least. These being not having a good selection of kit for all sexes and sizes, poor stock levels, and Lovell pretty much running our merchandise department. Lovell used to be a phenomenal company to deal with but ever since partnering with Sports Direct a few years ago have completely changed their business and not for the better.
The optimum choice for me would be Nike, or stick with Adidas if they can commit to putting more effort in our kit designs like the first few years of the kit partnership with Quins, and a levelled up offering for all sexes and sizes. And never again pick a shirt for us which looks like it’s risen from a swamp. Nike for me used to ace the England kits, and have always put out great France, Toulouse, Argentina, Jaguars, Saracens, South Africa, Newcastle and more recently Toulon and Clermont kits in terms of design. I feel like they would be able to release a great varied offering too. Nike rarely ever put out a shoddy kit.
Preferably Nike or keep Adidas for me, if not then Castore, Umbro, Macron or Cotton Traders. Definitely not “Can’t-erburuy” (as I like to call them), or Samurai.
I used to love the Quins Mizuno/Kooga/O’Neills offering too from the past.
