The Game 2021 Jerseys, Sponsorship, Logos etc

[GAZF]

Titans NRLW jersey

This design seems to suit a women's cut more than the men's. Less large blank spaces or something.

 

[MugaB]

This design seems to suit a women's cut more than the men's. Less large blank spaces or something.

No huge NEDs advert on the front helps

 

[The Great Dane]

It's honestly fascinating how little effort the clubs put into the NRLW.

Not one of the clubs has stopped and thought 'hey the NRLW presents us with a bunch of merchandising opportunities' or 'we could be selling two home jerseys to people each year', they all just whack exactly the same logo onto the exactly same kit, except it's in a women's cut and has a different sponsor, and call it a day.

It's an ineptness that's hard to comprehend and it's not just the NRL clubs either, most clubs around the world do the same, which is even more fascinating.

 

[Scott Gourley's Lovechild]

It's honestly fascinating how little effort the clubs put into the NRLW.

Not one of the clubs has stopped and thought 'hey the NRLW presents us with a bunch of merchandising opportunities' or 'we could be selling two home jerseys to people each year', they all just whack exactly the same logo onto the exactly same kit, except it's in a women's cut and has a different sponsor, and call it a day.

It's an ineptness that's hard to comprehend and it's not just the NRL clubs either, most clubs around the world do the same, which is even more fascinating.

I hate the fact our NRLW team wears a different jersey to the NRL team. They are first grade for St George, they should dress like they’re first grade for St George. Instead they have an abomination with red sleeves, red side panels, and a Dragons watermark on the bottom left of the jersey.

With that said, I agree that the NRLW gear should be sold to the public as it is. The Big Bash went a step further - all women’s merchandise is WBBL gear only.

 

[Timmah]

It's honestly fascinating how little effort the clubs put into the NRLW.

Not one of the clubs has stopped and thought 'hey the NRLW presents us with a bunch of merchandising opportunities' or 'we could be selling two home jerseys to people each year', they all just whack exactly the same logo onto the exactly same kit, except it's in a women's cut and has a different sponsor, and call it a day.

It's an ineptness that's hard to comprehend and it's not just the NRL clubs either, most clubs around the world do the same, which is even more fascinating.

Strong disagree, I'm with @Scott Gourley's Lovechild tbh. Single identity for clubs - you should be able to pull on the 'famous jersey' of whichever club you line up for regardless of being in NRL or NRLW.

That said, I also appreciate the Raiders have the Valkyrie brand and if/when they join the top flight it'd be interesting to see how they plan to go in terms of jersey designs etc.

 

[GAZF]

I'll add that the amount of people that would buy one of each men's and women's jersey in a year would be minimal, and probably limited to female fans for the most part.

Clubs should retain their brands where appropriate, but gender-specific mascots should be changed - Cowboys (Spurs would be cool), Knights (?), Raiders (Valkyries), Roosters (Bantams), Storm (change logo), Titans (?).

 

[Perth Red]

Strong disagree, I'm with @Scott Gourley's Lovechild tbh. Single identity for clubs - you should be able to pull on the 'famous jersey' of whichever club you line up for regardless of being in NRL or NRLW.

That said, I also appreciate the Raiders have the Valkyrie brand and if/when they join the top flight it'd be interesting to see how they plan to go in terms of jersey designs etc.

I think you can strike a happy balance between the brand representing the NRL club but having some unique female features to it> I think Raiders Valkyrie idea is a great example. Developing merch that appeals to the 45% female supporter base has to be an earner in merch sales.

 

[Perth Red]

I'll add that the amount of people that would buy one of each men's and women's jersey in a year would be minimal, and probably limited to female fans for the most part.

Clubs should retain their brands where appropriate, but gender-specific mascots should be changed - Cowboys (Spurs would be cool), Knights (?), Raiders (Valkyries), Roosters (Bantams), Storm (change logo), Titans (?).

Knights could have joan of arc as logo for womens team.. Don't think the name of the side has to change unless there is a cool female version like Valkyries. Storm could try and do a deal with Marvel for use of the Storm character out of Xmen. Titans could use a logo based around Metis, Greek Titan Godess. There's lots you could do with a bit of imagination.

 

[The Great Dane]

I hate the fact our NRLW team wears a different jersey to the NRL team. They are first grade for St George, they should dress like they’re first grade for St George. Instead they have an abomination with red sleeves, red side panels, and a Dragons watermark on the bottom left of the jersey.

With that said, I agree that the NRLW gear should be sold to the public as it is. The Big Bash went a step further - all women’s merchandise is WBBL gear only.

Strong disagree, I'm with @Scott Gourley's Lovechild tbh. Single identity for clubs - you should be able to pull on the 'famous jersey' of whichever club you line up for regardless of being in NRL or NRLW.

That said, I also appreciate the Raiders have the Valkyrie brand and if/when they join the top flight it'd be interesting to see how they plan to go in terms of jersey designs etc.

So instead of taking a golden opportunity to appeal to a new audience, diversify income streams, and generally grow the sport's market, we should do everything the same because 'muh tradition', 'muh heritage', 'muh identity', etc. Attitudes like yours are why RL has stagnated over the last 25 years...

The NRLW will only be a commercial success if it can appeal to an audience large enough to sustain it's self. You can't do that by making it a carbon copy of the NRL because everybody that is interested in that sort of product already has a product that caters to them, the NRL. On top of that, most NRL fans are not going to be inclined to pay extra support the NRLW team away so it's a bad market to target in the first place.

So you have to find that equilibrium between what will appeal to a brand new audience and that that will appeal to older customers whom could be persuaded to invest in both products, and again, you can't do that by making it a carbon copy of the NRL because if that new audience was interested in that they'd already be avid NRL fans, which obviously they are not.

That means new brands and even different teams from the NRL would make sense.

 

[The Great Dane]

I'll add that the amount of people that would buy one of each men's and women's jersey in a year would be minimal, and probably limited to female fans for the most part.

Sure, but you can't sell two jerseys to anybody if you don't have two for sale.

You also don't incentivise that behaviour by making the NRLW jerseys exactly the same as the NRL ones.

 

[GAZF]

Sure, but you can't sell two jerseys to anybody if you don't have two for sale.

You also don't incentivise that behaviour by making the NRLW jerseys exactly the same as the NRL ones.

Agree on the first point in principle, but this type of buyer would be the anomaly. However, if a unique women's design drops sales of the men's design, but boosts overall merch sales then I'm all for changing it up. Some clubs are likely to half-arse it (Dragons), while others (Warriors) nail it, so success may vary in the early years (other factors as well).

 

[Scott Gourley's Lovechild]

So instead of taking a golden opportunity to appeal to a new audience, diversify income streams, and generally grow the sport's market, we should do everything the same because 'muh tradition', 'muh heritage', 'muh identity', etc. Attitudes like yours are why RL has stagnated over the last 25 years...

The NRLW will only be a commercial success if it can appeal to an audience large enough to sustain it's self. You can't do that by making it a carbon copy of the NRL because everybody that is interested in that sort of product already has a product that caters to them, the NRL. On top of that, most NRL fans are not going to be inclined to pay extra support the NRLW team away so it's a bad market to target in the first place.

So you have to find that equilibrium between what will appeal to a brand new audience and that that will appeal to older customers whom could be persuaded to invest in both products, and again, you can't do that by making it a carbon copy of the NRL because if that new audience was interested in that they'd already be avid NRL fans, which obviously they are not.

That means new brands and even different teams from the NRL would make sense.

Again using cricket, if The Hundred has taught us anything, then changing things for the sake of change or to find a "new audience", you are destined to come up lacking.

The audience for NRLW is the Rugby League audience. You have to convince them first - the viewership numbers at the moment for the NRLW say that there is a long way to go before the entire Rugby League audience is on board. Once the NRLW numbers are comparable to the NRL numbers, then thinking outside the box options to build from there is a good idea. The same can be said for the AFLW or the WBBL: it doesn't mean these competitions are not successful, but it does mean they do not have the full engagement of their own sports' fanbase.

Your other issue at the moment is that, other than the Roosters, none of the NRLW teams have worn jerseys that are the same as their NRL counterparts. St George, the Warriors and Brisbane have been different: therefore this belief about different designs & names will bring in numbers is already proven false. No-one from Brisbane who isn't a Broncos fan is going to tune in explicitly to the NRLW just because the name changes to the Fillies or Mares. The fact that the new teams are sticking close to their NRL counterparts in terms of names and jersey design shows that there is very strong value in these names and brands. Claiming otherwise, or that change is required to engage consumers, is short-sighted and "pie in the sky" thinking.

 

[League Unlimited News]

 

[kdalymc]

Wtf is a Valkyrie

 

[GAZF]

Wtf is a Valkyrie

https://www.google.no/

 

[AlwaysGreen]

Great way to honour one of the Valkyries finest.

 

[yakstorm]

Not one of the clubs has stopped and thought 'hey the NRLW presents us with a bunch of merchandising opportunities' or 'we could be selling two home jerseys to people each year', they all just whack exactly the same logo onto the exactly same kit, except it's in a women's cut and has a different sponsor, and call it a day.

Whilst there is no denying that clubs could be doing more to leverage their NRLW team, out of the four foundation teams only the Roosters wore a kit that was a carbon copy of the Men's home kit.

Dragons, Broncos and Warriors all had unique designs.

As for the new clubs, I wouldn't be surprised if they weren't able to deviate from an 'approved kit design' for this year, considering 2021 designs were meant to be approved in 2020 by licensing and at that time the Eels, Titans and Knights had not yet been awarded franchises.

Maybe common sense prevailed and that's not the case, but I wouldn't be surprised.

 

[ayatollah_murdoch]

Maybe I am being slow but is Ken actually a bloke or just a bogan way of saying Canberrans.

 

[Scott Gourley's Lovechild]

Maybe I am being slow but is Ken actually a bloke or just a bogan way of saying Canberrans.

It was a subtitle error from I believe a COVID media conference that has gone viral.

 

[toomuchsoup]

Why are both teams wearing their away? That knights away is my least favourite jersey of the last few years