This shirt has been out there for a while now, but as we’ll be seeing the Scottish team run out in it for the first time in a few weeks, there’s still more than enough reasons to take a look at the lovely 2013/14 Scotland shirt from new supplier Macron.
Let’s get the really interesting bit out of the way first. After a few years of decent-to-average kits made by Canterbury, the SRU signed a deal with Macron to supply their new shirts, completing a triumvirate that also sees the Italian company supply kit to both of Scotland’s pro teams, Edinburgh and Glasgow.
Perhaps to get fans on side with a new supplier that has pretty limited experience in rugby, the SRU and Macron held a competition to design a new shirt, which was won by 33-year-old Stuart Gray from Edinburgh. As you might expect with a fan-designed shirt, it’s utterly fan-pleasing in the best way – it’s traditional, stylish, clean and, we must say, rather lovely. Nice job, Stuart.
There are all sorts of details here that we really like, and if Stuart came up with them, fair play to him. For starters it’s just dark blue and white. Not desperately optimistic and delusional gold, or horribly unnecessary purple – just white. As it should be.
But it’s the clever subtle details that really lift it. For example, the slightly thicker, more absorbent material used on the chest area, which will be ideal for soaking up children’s tears when New Zealand put 50 points on the Scots come the AIs – GOOD STUFF.
The collar, too, is what every rugby fan secretly craves – an old-school, fold-over design that just looks fantastic. It’s pretty similar to the one on this year’s Lions shirt, which we also loved – though as it’s a Scotland shirt, you’re significantly less likely to see a smiling, celebratory head sticking out of the top of it, but still, lovely.
On a serious note, we really like the way the placket on the collar is actually two colours – white on one side and blue on the other – but you’d never notice it unless you were looking with the sort of depressingly forensic detail that we do. It adds a nice splash of white to the front of the shirt without having to resort to deeply regrettable measures…
Some people, bafflingly, hate to see national flags on a shirt, but we think that they can provide a nice, subtle accent to otherwise plain shirts. We’ve seen this trick before this season, on Canterbury’s England home shirt – the Scotland shirt keeps it in the same territory as their southern rivals, but it’s at a lower level. You can make your own joke there.
And we must note, if you are the kind of person who gets inordinately upset about a tiny Saltire on a rugby shirt, we’d remind you that a) you really should think about changing your prescription, and b) it could be MUCH. FUCKING. WORSE.
Well, there you have it – the 2103/14 Scotland home shirt from Macron. If you hadn’t guessed, it’s really hard to make stupid jokes about a shirt this classy, classic and simple, so we took the low road and made fun of Scotland being crap at rugby instead. This is what you signed up for.
So, Scotland fans, when you win a Grand Slam this year, you can come back and thank us for providing you with the karmic currency that enabled you to achieve such a feat, until then, you’ll have to make do with our approval in the only way we know how…
SHIT/GOOD RATING: GOOD
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