The best laid schemes o' mice an' men

"Get stuck in Scotty.....that's it, try and rip it. Wait, let me have a go" This was the surreal moment I found myself in a meeting room on the Nike European campus, trying to tear the Jersey from the back of my colleague Dan Mulvie (himself an accomplished rugby player). My boss David Whiterod, product designer Nathan Wiles and I were investigating the testing failure of the proposed England Rugby, Twickenham Centenary kit for 2010.

Most won't even realize the energy and attention to detail put in when it comes to testing product designed for the Rugby field. The demands put on a rugby shirt are entirely unique in sport. It has to perform by keeping the athlete cool and comfortable but also has to be strong enough to withstand the rigours of the game. Our testing process at this time, at Nike was pretty robust (its a blue print I've used throughout my career).

We first lab tested the fabrics, mock ups of the neck lines and then finally the jersey prototypes, to make sure they withstand bursting and tearing. We then Field tested them with local rugby clubs. Before finally clearing them with the RFU, FFR or pro teams by testing with the actual team. The idea being we can make sure the fabrics and protos work before putting them on the field. We would test with local clubs, so we can focus on fit, comfort and all the human intelligence a machine cant tell you. So by the time it gets to the team its more about familiarization. All the kinks should be worked out by then and it should be about getting a thumbs up.

The testing was done at Loughborough university. They had an incredible facility with lots of complex machines and rigs for replicating the forces garments may experience on a Rugby park. They had done the relevant tests and cleared the 2010 kit for production. We felt confident and went ahead with the inline (industry jargon for retail collection) production. But as a matter of course we put some kit on the field with Rugby Club Hilversum (the most successful Dutch Rugby club in history). Following the match we began to review the product as a team and to our surprise we found a tear in a number of the plackets. Disaster! The match being only 12 weeks away we found ourselves in the meeting room dragging poor Dan around by his collar.

Sure enough by David, Nathan and myself combined efforts, Dan found himself standing shirtless in the jackie joyner kersee buildings 2nd floor board room. We knew for certain then, that if we put this shirt on the field during the Twickenham centenary match between England and Wales, it would fail. If we could tear it, you can bet Alun-Wyn Jones wouldn't have a problem tearing it off James Haskell. We needed to get to work fast. The Design and Development team did a great job in coming up with a solution. In the end we simply made a crew neck Jersey with a false placket. Just by looking, you would never realize that the Promo Jersey made for the athletes, wasn't the same as the inline Jersey that went on sale. It was a stressful time and difficult to arrange the remake in 12 weeks but we did it and the outcome was spectacular.

This story was not the only thing that was remarkable about this kit. It was well ahead of its time form a marketing point of view. England Rugby first of all had the foresight to allow us full autonomy on the kit (within reason). Most assets find it difficult to surrender control for the look and feel of their kits to the manufacturer. That's when you get chairmen and kit managers playing designer. A tough job for any PM to manage is the relationship with the asset, so that his or her designers can do their job without too much interference. The RFU in this instance put their trust in us and allowed the experts to do their jobs without getting in the way and diluting the story.

In this instance not only did David manage to convince them to accept this design but also to convince the head sponsor "02" to move to the sleeve and be printed in a tonal gold shade. I still to this day have no idea how he pulled this off. I shudder to think of "favours" he may of had to hand out to get this signed off. Since being involved with this Jersey I've tried a number of times with various assets to repeat this feat but never came close (well once but I'll talk about that in another post).

In the end a kit was produced that reflected the kit of the 1910 era in look but did not compromise on performance. The shorts were longer in length just like the shorts of 1910 but made from 4 way stretch woven polyester meaning the players had full range of motion. The Jersey was offered to the team with short and long sleeves in an attempt to reflect the aesthetic of the 1910 Jerseys. Each rose on the jersey was hand stitched by embroiderers in London. Making each shirt unique. The colour was an antique white to better reflect the look of the era. The socks were navy with 2 white hoops just as they were in 1910

The marketing team did an incredible job again of bringing this to life. The initial press was overwhelmingly positive as game day approached the excitement grew. As a Scotsman it was a strange feeling getting excited about an England game. When the Jersey and assortment launched the kit sold out in 48 hours. Amazing for us but also vindication as David and I had advised the sales team to double there forecast on this. Sadly they didn't otherwise we could of sold twice as much product.

Ohhh...... England went on to win the match 30-17.

Thanks to everyone for the positive response on my previous post. In the end I decided to focus more on this kit for my second post. So you'll have to wait until the next post to hear about my first RWC kits in 2011. Until next week!

On a side note. My former Colleague Matt Dehaty who went on to manage Rugby at Nike. Managed to reuse the blue print from this Jersey to produce the Pumas 50th Anniversary kit. Which was another beautiful kit check it out.

England's Best and Worst kits