It’s fair to say that we’ve had something of an up and down relationship with Puma’s Bulls jerseys in the last five years or so. For every clean and classy design they’ve put out it seems there’s been two examples of gaudy graphics or unconscionable camo.
Last year’s 80th anniversary shirt was equally frustrating, with its awfully tacky ‘2018/80’ graphic, dreadful two-tone design, and Geordie Shore collar, and certainly in some respects the 2019 version is an improvement.
The collar is better for a start, and we like the increased use of the dark blue to compliment the light on the home shirt this year, but other than that it’s all a bit much, isn’t it?
The big, bold isometric design that dominates the jersey front and back is okay we suppose – it’s got a bit of a ‘killer robot’ vibe to it, but some people dig that, certainly.
We’re not so sure about the honeycomb pattern that runs over the chest area both front and back, fading noticably on the rear. It’s just a bit much, and makes the shirt just a tad too busy.
It’s a shame, because regardless of how you might feel about the bold design, the fact that it’s only one primary colour on each side is surely a positive step compared to last year.
The away version keeps the same killer robot design overall, but swaps the colours out for white, grey and dark green, and we have to say there’s something about that palette that works better than the home.
Puma rarely goes for something classic and restrained when it comes to jersey designs, and with that in mind we should probably appreciate this for being an improvement on last season – we still can’t shake the feeling that there’s room for serious improvement here, however.
Rugby Shirt Watch 