Toulouse and Nike have consistently been the most guaranteed home run partnership of club and kit manufacturer in all of rugby. And asides from a regrettable dalliance a few years back, that partnership has been cranking out hit after hit like the Lennon and McCartney of rugby gear all the way back to the 90s.
After such a long time together, it would be easy for things to get a bit staid or repetitive but thankfully, year after year, Toulouse and Nike prove us wrong, and their 2021/22 jersey is no exception – a radical blend of the classic thin hoops the club wore in their first Heineken Cup winning season in 1996 with a modern fade and striking central black bar… it looks nothing like anything else, and nothing like either of the other jerseys Nike has made for French clubs this season (take note, Adidas, ahem).
But the really impressive thing about Stade isn’t just that their kits are all great – EVERYTHING that Nike produces for the club, from warm-up and training gear to off-field and travel stash is all absolutely sublime, and this year is no exception.
Just check out the gear above – the wild and bold warm-up shirt not to your taste? Well don’t fret because how could you not want a classic US collegiate-style block wordmark tshirt, or the subtle echoing of the home shirt’s thin hoops on the black off-field tee.
Every taste and style is catered for every year, and this year the club have even added something new to the mix that might be the best bit of stash they’ve made (last year’s Space Stuff aside, of course)
With it’s clear nod to current streetwear trends – the double swoosh, the large graphic on the back with its geometric pattern – this isn’t just a cool Toulouse t-shirt, it’s a COOL Toulouse t-shirt… Hypebeast cool, not silly rugby apparel website cool.
Almost no other team in rugby could pull this off, and many who would attempt it would fail miserably in doing so. But Toulouse and Nike are a uniquely powerful partnership of two blue-chip, achingly hip brands, and that’s what makes their stash a cut above everyone else.
Rugby Shirt Watch 
Looking at the Toulousain home jersey from the front and from afar, it looks pretty neat. Any other angle though and its flaws are presented.
First, up close you notice the black fencing pattern on the red coloration, even on the smaller horizontal stripes. It’s too much for the provided space and is made even worse by adding a gradient at the bottom at one side that doesn’t sync with the top.
The championship stars across both the small black and red horizontal stripes are an eyesore, as is the red outline of the ST logo being a brighter shade than what’s on the jersey.
The amount of space allotted for the giant Peugeot sponsor is too large. It’s like a black void while the rest of the jersey has so much else going on. It’s made even worse by the bottom white horizontal stripe going completely around yet the top one being cut off by the pits and then continuing on the back.
It comes down to opinion, but most of the official team jerseys I see from Nike, other than Fiji’s Sevens home, are mediocre to downright awful.
As for the rest of the gear, some are pretty good. The practice jersey’s design looks blurry, but maybe it’s just the image. Nice job on covering the “what’s in” points for the shirt. I wasn’t aware of that. The back of that particular tee with the double swoosh looks cool.