Harlequins have revealed their brand new 2018/19 home and away shirts, made by Adidas, which the London club will wear throughout the 2018/19 Premiership and European season.
The new home shirt evolves the traditional Harlequins home jersey, purportedly celebrating the ‘swagger of the harlequin’, with the traditional quarters of the Quins home jersey visible from a distance, but upon closer inspection, the smaller diamond pattern of the ‘jester’ that has been the club’s badge for 150 is visible.
The away shirt is another radical Adidas departure from the norm, with the theme of the jersey being described by the club as ‘menace’. The shirt uses a green and black quarters-meets-diamond motif that apparently ‘speaks to the menacing yet playful character that is the Harlequins jester’. Quite.
Both new Harlequins 2018/19 Adidas jerseys are available now, keep an eye on Rugby Shirt Watch for our full review soon.
Rugby Shirt Watch 
“Harlequin” is not a jester; never has been. The confusion seems to come from the fact that the Harlequin character, which has its most obvious roots in the Italian commedia dell’arte theatrical tradition, wears a “motley”, or costume made of pieces of different colour cloth. The fact that similar costumes are also associated with those supposedly worn by court jesters is an understandable mistake. The Harlequin character dates from the 16th century and, rather than being a simple “jester”, is a manservant characterised by his physically agile, quick witted and resourceful nature.
Harlequins describe their mascot as a ‘jester’ so you should probably take it up with them Ned! 🙂
They do indeed, but why let factual acorrectness get in the way of marketing, eh?