Written by Mike Carter, Hull KR Shirts.
Introduction
Craig will be celebrating a decade with Hull KR in 2023 and his roles within the club have progressed from his first through to the present day. Craig is currently the Chief Operating Officer at Hull KR and in this role he has to oversee many facets of the Club including communication, the match day experience, retail and marketing. This makes him one of the perfect people to ask some hard-hitting shirt, kit and retail-related questions too.
As supporters, we love being able to have access to inside stories and information and Craig has agreed to peel back the curtain for us and give us an insight into the processes of kit design, exclusively for Hull KR Shirts…
MC – What challenges are you faced with when designing a kit, and where do you start?
CF – Challenge number one is finding a design which will be loved equally by men and women, boys and girls aged 0-99 that moves the club forward whilst respecting our heritage. It’s a tough brief when you think about it.
(Credit: Hull KR)
The starting point is to look at what trophies we’ve won, and any milestones or anniversaries we have coming up in the year the kit will be worn. Equally, we also look at what kits we’ve worn previously so, for 2023, what did we wear in 2013, 2003, and 1993? etc.
We then look forward, what stories do we want to tell, where’s the market going, and what’s ‘in fashion’ at the moment. After the badge, the kit is one of the biggest pieces of visual identity we have, so it’s something that’s never far off our radar.
MC – Does the fact you’re a lifelong, die-hard Hull KR supporter make the design process easier or harder?
CF – Harder in the respect that as a fan I’d have a white shirt red band every year, but it’s not a strong seller, so I’d be out of a job pretty quickly because ultimately, I’m judged on growing sales. However, it’s easier in the respect that it generally speeds up the process, I have a good handle on the rich history of the club and share some of the lesser-told stories which we sometimes lean into as inspiration. I’d also like to think I have a good instinct of what the fans will like, but that doesn’t always work out.
Ultimately, it’s a team effort and not just my call, and in that wider team we have a healthy mix of fans, and non-fans, so it balances out quite well. You need that in a process like this, so you don’t end up in a rabbit hole.
We are fortunate as a club to have Oxen as partners who have a strong handle on the wider marketplace, and Laura George who heads up our retail arm, and is one of the most knowledgeable and experienced retail operators in the game. Kit decision time is always full of healthy debate, so we have an unofficial rule that we are both allowed one veto each per year, so if I absolutely loved a design, but she hated it, she could use her veto card. We rarely use them because we are generally on the same page, but they do come out occasionally.
MC – When does the design period start for you/the club, and can you talk us through key time frames to ensure delivery in time for the new season as well as who is involved?
CF – It’s something we talk about all the time, we are forever sharing launches from other clubs and other sports, sometimes just things in the fashion market we like too. It’s a bit of a 365-day process in that respect. The ‘hard’ work starts usually in October, often before or around the time that the latest shirts are launching. We do our research, sit down as a team, throw some ideas around and then send off a design brief to Oxen, who then bring their own ideas and inspiration to the table before we go into draft one.
We usually end the year with the shirts signed off from a design perspective, then we work on the training ranges. We’ll then pick it up again once the season starts, review the data from the current kits, gauge supporter sentiment and make a final decision. Kit sponsors get signed off in March, and then we go into ‘sampling’ which is getting a pre-production shirt made, so we can sign off and double-check, before the mass manufacturing starts. It can all get a bit confusing though because we are talking about 2024 shirts before all the 2023 shirts are released.
Supporters will have noticed our launches have been much earlier in recent years, covid aside. We like to have at least one shirt on sale in October which has dragged all our deadlines forward.
MC – In 2022 you trialled an event with supporters to discuss the potential options for 2023, was this successful and what did you gain from it?
CF – Yes, it was, it was useful. Shirt designs are usually a very closely guarded secret, so we were very nervous about opening it up, but everyone in the room respected the commercial confidentiality around it and gave us some really constructive feedback.
In many ways, because we had such a good cross-section of fans in the room, it underlined just how difficult it is to find a shirt that everyone likes equally. In some respects, it made us more comfortable with that, if there’s at least one shirt in each cycle a fan likes and can get behind, it’s almost job done for us. The one they like and buy, someone else will hate, and we’re cool with that.
We left that session with a good idea of the direction of travel for 2023 and 2024.
MC – Building off the last question, the release of the 2023 warm-up shirt has sparked debate about whether that should have been the home shirt, what was the thought process and reasoning behind this design being used as a warm-up shirt only?
CF – A few reasons, it’s well documented that white shirts do not sell as well as predominantly red shirts.
However, we recognise that design is still iconic to the history of the club. We have tried to find a way to give everyone what they want, the warm-up shirt is as close to the 1980s shirts as we can do in the modern era. It’s one brand, it’s clean and it’s classic Hull KR.
(Credit: Hull KR)
If it was to be the home shirt, they’d be another 9-10 logos on it, and the simplicity of it would be lost.
The nods to Clive are symbolic, he’s a big figure in the club’s history so it’s important to us that his legacy lives on, and we share his remarkable achievements with the next generation.
MC – To date, how has it sold?
CF – Sales are below where we’d expected them to be. Our retail continues to break every single record we’ve ever set, so sometimes when we say “record-breaking kit sales”, “opening day records”, or “best ever year” I know some people will think it’s just a marketing spin. It’s not, everything we say is factually accurate, otherwise, we lose our creditability. So when something like this which we’ve tried doesn’t sell as quickly as we thought, we’ll be really honest about that too.
I’m not sure whether the message has gotten across that it’s made from replica shirt material and not a training tee. It’s priced below a replica shirt, so it’s as competitively priced as we could make it.
If anyone reading this hasn’t seen one in real life, or in the shop, go check it out in person. It is a thing of beauty and a piece of history, in the way it celebrates Clive.
White generally works better in the Summer, so they will sell out eventually, it will just take a bit longer than we thought.
It will give us even more nervousness about reverting to a similar design for future home shirts. The ‘Sully shirt’ is our first white shirt, red band design, across any product since 2020, so we were hoping they’d be some pent-up demand for it.
Like I said at the start of this interview, I like that design more than anyone, so it’s a shame that it no longer seems to sell as strongly as red-based designs but we remain keen to find a home for that design somewhere in our offerings.
MC – Will we see a repeat of classic designs as warm-up shirts in the future?
CF – If the ‘Sully shirt’ launch was a big success, the thinking was we could use our warm-up shirts as a slot to reissue classic designs. As I mentioned earlier, because those tops typically carried fewer sponsors, it’s easier to achieve a retro look that way over the playing kits.
That would allow the replica shirts to move us forward in terms of design, and then do some cool retro nods on the warm-up shirts. I’m not saying that won’t happen, but we’ll perhaps be more cautious with the quantity we order.
MC – What’s your favourite kit that you’ve personally had a big say on during your time at the Club?
CF – I joined the club in late 2013 and didn’t get involved in shirt design until the 2017 kits, but there is still plenty to choose from, so it’s a tough one. If I was really pushed, I’d go for the Boilermakers shirt, just slightly ahead of the 135-anniversary shirt. The Boilermakers story was an under-told tale, so it felt like a risk, would resonate with fans? When it landed and people liked it like they did, meaning it sold out quickly, I was very relieved.
My favourite campaign was the ‘paint the town red’ campaign we did to launch the 2018 home kit. The photography for that was great.
(Credit: Hull KR)
I’ve got to give a notable mention to the 2019 away shirt too, the royal blue one, that’s a beauty.
MC – Commercialism plays a huge part in Rugby League merchandising. How does this play its part in the kit design(s)?
CF – It’s huge, shirt sales are a significant part of our retail budget and the sponsors who sit on them, are a big part of our commercial budget. Shirts are a truly cross-club effort, from design, our partners in Oxen, commercial selling the sponsorship, the marketing launch, the retail team selling them and then the players doing the business on the pitch in it. It touches almost every part of the club at some point. So it must be right and that is why so much focus goes into them.
MC – Now feels like a good time to have a quick word for our loyal sponsors, who have on many occasions changed their branding to positively impact the aesthetics of a kit. How important is that to you and the other designers?
CF – It’s amazing, you see so many great shirts ruined by poor sponsor integration. We are very fortunate that the vast majority of our kit partners are long-standing sponsors, who work with us to integrate their logos, it makes such a positive difference.
Hirebase has been on more Hull KR shirts than any other brand in history with their support spanning over 10 years. IRS are up there too, as well as Steve Leaming Plant Hire, Harrison Solway and so many others. It’s remarkable really. We hope Connexin will take the mantle of our longest-serving principal shirt sponsor, since Riding Bitter (1989-1993) if we can extend their deal. Connexin is a national brand with a clean logo, which works great in a mono colour, so it’s a great brand/logo to have front and centre of any shirt.
MC – We know that getting a kit right is vital, so what would the consequences of getting it wrong be?
CF – It’s more than just financial, that’s really important of course, as it’s the bedrock of the retail calendar. Kits are a big part of the build-up to a new season, fans look forward to seeing them, and ultimately the designs tell the story of, and represent the club.
It’s the players’ uniform at the end of the day. One day we may get it wrong, in any creative process, particularly at a club like ours where we try to be progressive and take a calculated gamble, it’s possible. One day there’s a chance something will slightly miss the mark. We of course try and mitigate that in the feedback and sign-off process, to reduce that risk. But for now, particularly with 2023 feedback and sales, it’s as good as it’s ever been!
MC – With the advantage of hindsight, what was/is the greatest success story for 2023, and what was the biggest missed opportunity?
CF – I think achieving a situation where there’s at least one kit everyone likes across the three designs is a success, along with us recording our strongest-ever kit sales by Round 1.
(Credit: Hull KR)
The home shirt is nice, modern, fresh, everything we should be about… if people think it looks like a football shirt from one of the world’s biggest clubs and sports manufacturers Nike, I’ll take that! I see that as a compliment.
The Queensland shirt tells a great story, and it’s important we build a narrative around those big moments in the club’s history to pass down to the next generation. With the traditional band in situ, I can see why this has been a hit with ‘traditionists’.
Diamonds I suppose is the perfect hybrid of taking a piece of heritage from the 1990s and bringing it bang up to date. It felt like a gamble, but it worked.
The biggest missed opportunity is most definitely, not ordering more of the home shirt hoodies which was a new item we trialled. Also, not doing some additional ranges based on the diamond shirt. On reflection, that would have been a really smart and popular range to sit alongside it.
(Credit: Hull KR)
MC – What is your favourite kit of 2023 and why?
CF – It’s changed daily for about a year, and I usually make my final decision once I’ve seen every kit have at least one game played in it, which won’t happen until we travel to Catalans on March 18th, but I’ve settled on the Diamond kit. I think it will go down as a classic. As I mentioned, I was most nervous about that one out of the three. it felt like a gamble, but it has seemed to really hit the mark.
MC – What else merchandise-wise could we expect to see during the 2023 season?
CF – We have gone big and gone early, so the core ranges were out earlier than before and in big numbers. It’s a fine balance, particularly with how early we order and submit our numbers, but we wanted to be in a position where we had a full stock of everything at the first game. Usually, the popular stuff is gone by then, so we have focused on perhaps fewer ranges, but more per size, per range to sit on the shelves a little longer.
Fans in the East Stand will have noticed a new small pop-up store near the turnstiles, and we will be adding something for the West Stand supporters too. That will take us to four locations across the stadium on game day. That new ‘tiny’ East stand store took more money at the Leigh game than the whole stadium used to take on a gameday in 2018… We are very proud of that small win and stat. It acts as a marker of progress for the department.
The annual military range continues to be popular, so that is back with a fresh twist for 2023. Then it might sound strange, but we aren’t too far off 2024 ranges, they’ll be with us and on sale in 7 months.
MC – I think it’s safe to say that 2023 has been a hit in terms of kit design. I personally believe this is one of, if not the best trio of Hull KR shirts in the modern era. How do you top it that 2024?
CF – That’s the challenge, it was on my mind a lot when I saw the reaction to the 2023 shirts, but it’s why we get up in the morning. Everything at the club is about how can we make it 1% better than the day before, or 10% than the year before. It’s what drives us.
We have a great partner in Oxen, and some talented staff in the back office, so between us, it’s our goal to top it again for 2024. I think we’ve done it with the designs we’ve got, but as ever, the proof will be in the fan reaction and ultimately sales. The 2024 alternate shirts in particular are outstanding again, I can’t wait to launch them. One of them has a real chance of going in my all-time top 3 from the last ten years, that’s how much I like it
I’ll begin to start worrying about how we top that in 2025 any day now…
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