Some things are just meant to be together. Fish and chips, rum and coke, Brad and Angie, Tom and Katie, Madge and Guy, er… you get the idea. It’s the same with some teams and their kit suppliers, and if ever there’s a partnership that felt like it was meant to last forever, it’s Nike and Toulouse.
As you’ll probably know, however, nothing lasts forever, and in 2014 Nike and Toulouse parted ways after a whopping 23 years, with BLK taking over. And let’s face it, they did a pretty good job of filling in, with some pretty cool designs along the way – particularly last year.
But some things are just meant to be, and like the rugby apparel equivalent of Liz Taylor and Richard Burton, three years after their divorce, Toulouse and Nike are back together.
And that’s a very, very good thing – just look at this brand new home shirt? Like the recent Nike Argentina shirts, the sportswear giant’s return to Toulouse strips things back to the basic ingredients, and it’s all the better for it.
It’s hard not to like the classic plain black Toulouse home shirt, but the pinstriped red and black side panels really elevate the jersey without making things over-complicated. It’s simple, clean, classic and yet totally modern at the same time – it’s everything we could want.
There’s a bit more going on with the away jersey – it’s still very clean of course, but things are a bit more unabashedly modern here.
It’s a classic white Toulouse away shirt of course, but here it’s accented with grey – with a grey pinstripe fade that gets darker as you move down the bottom of the design.
There’s also grey on the sleeves – there’s a very tight, very fine pinstriped pattern of grey and white that covers both shoulders, and the pinstriped theme is continued with red and white stripes on the sleeve cuffs and on the back of the collar.
We really liked BLK’s efforts with Toulouse but there’s something about that Nike logo on there that just feels right. What’s more, both of these shirts are super classy and intelligently designed, making this a very welcome reunion in every way.
Rugby Shirt Watch 
Beauty! This one deserves an award!