The first Lions 2021 stash is here and it’s… different?

With next year’s British and Irish Lions tour to South Africa fast approaching, kit supplier Canterbury has revealed the first stash drop for the tour, and it’s a little bit different than what we’ve seen before… and dare we say, a little more hip?

As you can see from the Ordinary Boys-looking chap above who appears to be attempting to wear it all at once, while the famous Lions crest is still a feature of the new gear, we have a striking Lions wordmark featuring heavily on some gear, while the single lion that sits above the crest on is being heavily used on its own.

This ‘touchline pack’ as Canterbury is calling it certainly feels like a departure from the defiantly old-school garb that the brand produced ahead of the last Lions tour – especially the Since 1888 collection and the 1959 jersey.

Instead they’re clearly trying to do some things that we haven’t seen before with the Lions branding – and some of it is more successful than others.

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The single lion tour sweatshirt design is rather nice, and we dig the roundel with the venues of all the tour matches in as well. What’s less good is the ‘Lions Lions Lions’ thing in isolation, and the less said about the script design the better – it looks like something you’d buy from a dodgy street trader on the way to the ground, which is very much not the vibe you want from branded gear, is it?

It’s not all new and different however – fans wanting their share of old-school Lions stash are catered for by various classic long-sleeve jerseys, including an out-there black-on-black design and a VERY smart hooped short-sleeve number.

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Either way, it’s an exciting first look at what Canterbury are planning for next year’s Lions tour, and the first in what we imagine will be many drops of cool on and off the field gear, not to mention the all-important jersey, before the players head down to South Africa in 2021.