The Queensland Reds have announced a new four-year kit deal with Zoo Sport – in surprising news, the new deal kicks off straight away, with the Reds wearing Zoo on their kits for the remainder of the 2017 Super Rugby season.
Zoo Sport is a UK-based apparel maker, most notable for supplying the Bedford Blues, but the Reds deal is with the Australian licensee of the brand, which is based in Queensland.
The change is another blow for troubled apparel maker BLK, who have made the Reds kits for the past five years, and have lost various sponsorship deals in the last few months, most notably Ospreys.
Zoo has decided to not alter the BLK design too much for the shirt they’ll be wearing until the end of the season – the collar has been tweaked (it’s very similar to the old BLK one in fairness) and there are a few other subtle changes, including no koala sublimation, and different grip pattern.
Some all-new designs for 2018 are in the pipeline, so stay tuned to Rugby Shirt Watch for the first news and reviews of those shirts as they appear.
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