After a few seasons of looking like they were ready to upset the traditional French hegemonies and become a new force in the Top14, this has been quite the disaster. Grand finalists the last two years, Castres are currently rooted to the bottom of the league table, and are in a proper relegation fight. With things looking so bleak domestically, Europe is probably a welcome distraction for Castres fans – and Kipsta has them covered for shirt options there, too.
Yes, in a rather unusual move, new kit supplier Kipsta has opted to produce not one, but two European shirts for the French side – a home shirt and an change/away shirt. They’re the same colour scheme as the domestic home and away shirts, a very nice mix of blue and white, but the designs are very different.
Swapping the multi-hued stripes and blocks of the domestic shirts for a more simplified (and very trendy) diagonal striped design, the home shirt is a very modern affair. We like the way the diagonal pinstripes get thicker as it goes up the shoulder, and we love the combination of light and dark blues.
The alternate kit has the same design, but it isn’t just a palette swap – with white and grey the colours of choice here, but complimented by some nice dark blue on the collar and sleeve cuffs, and light blue on the bottom of the jersey.
We’re not entirely sure that there’s a great deal of point in a club having both home and alternate shirts just for European competition. A Euro shirt is one thing – it might only get worn for eight games if your club gets knocked out at the group stage of a competition, but that’s still eight games. Having TWO Euro shirts means that there’s a pretty decent chance that each shirt might only be worn four times ever, which is a bit silly, really.
Still, these are both really decent, really clean, modern shirts, that obviously benefit from Castres’ lovely colour scheme. Pointless? Maybe. But Kipsta continue their trend of making very decent rugby shirts indeed.
SHIT/GOOD RATING: GOOD
Rugby Shirt Watch 