The 2016/17 was another hugely successful one for Saracens – they might not have captured the Aviva Premiership, but we’re sure that being crowned back to back European champions went down rather well over at Allianz Park.
With a squad that’s the envy of Europe and a seemingly relentless appetite for success, you wouldn’t bet against them winning everything again this year, and they’ll do it once again sporting kit from BLK.
Saracens are now the only top flight rugby union side with BLK in the UK, and you can see that the brand has clearly driven all its design resources into a shirt that’s packed with little details with real meaning.
The basic shirt combines rather fetching red, black and grey pinstripes that fade down the jersey, and we really like the way the red fades into grey and then black diagonally as we move down the shirt.
We like the way the stripes intersect in the middle of the jersey, and apparently, this is designed to represent the on-field clashes that team will face over the course of a game. Sarries have done the pinstripes thing before, but this is a nice spin on it.
A closer look at the top half of the jersey reveals a rather cool little detail however. Sarries are famous for the way they build a unified culture, and while those of us outside it might find things a bit tedious, it clearly works. This year’s home shirt is designed to epitomise this culture.
So, on the inside of the collar, we have the club’s ‘values’ – honesty, work rate, discipline and humility – and on the bottom of the back of the jersey we have the acronym ‘TSPDS’, ‘The stuff people don’t see’.
If you’re chewing your fist at the management speak awfulness of this, we’re right there with you, but clearly this kind of motivational stuff works on the players, and it’s a nice touch that the club includes the latter to also nod to the unseen work that goes on behind the scenes to make the club such a huge success.
Perhaps the most striking detail of the jersey is the grip material that covers the top third of the jersey and the sleeve. These tiny gel lightning bolts are supposed to reinforce the idea of ‘energy’ – the speed in attack, and defence that Sarries’ famous Wolfpack are known for.
You’ll also notice that the club crest features a pair of stars above it to represent the two Champions Cups they have one. Some fans were puzzled as to why Sarries didn’t add a star above the badge last season, but clearly they were just waiting until they could do two!
This is an interesting, thoughtful design that’s clearly benefited from having the full weight of BLK’s design team in the UK working on it – it looks great, and we wouldn’t bet against next year’s shirt having a third star on there either…
Rugby Shirt Watch 