Written by Mike Carter, Hull KR Shirts.
The 2023 season in the eyes of most Hull KR fans has absolutely flown by. From losing to nil at Featherstone Rovers in a pre-season friendly to beating our City rivals 40-0 on their own patch. This was followed up by a mid-season slump and a fruitful Challenge Cup run that led us down Wembley Way. We managed to pick up some form in the latter stages of the season, leading to a first home play-off fixture in over a decade. During those latter stages and for the first time in my memory, Hull KR revealed a shirt for the following season, whilst tries were still being scored!
This is a move that we have come to expect of the likes of Manchester City in the Premier League, but Hull KR have followed many of their footballing counter parts with this latest marketing strategy, and I for one are all for it!
Once again, the kits for the 2024 season have been manufactured and produced by Oxen. A relationship that has absolutely flourished during a time that’s seen Hull KR wear some of their greatest ever shirts, in my opinion, obviously. It appears that 2024 has started exactly where 2023’s high bar left off…
Let’s get started…
A shirt launch has to start somewhere, and this came very much out of nowhere on Friday 15th September and it began at 12:00 pm. A side profile photo of Mikey Lewis draped in a Hull KR flag was posted to clubs’ official social media channels, with an eluding caption. A close-up look, by zooming in, would allow you to see a slight sneak peak of the 2024 Hull KR home shirt. Many of us were fairly sure that we could see a red band on what appeared to be a white shirt. This came as a huge shock to me, personally, after what we’ve been told about their sales history. They’ll be a bit more on this later.
We didn’t have long to wait for a further glimpse as the clubs’ principal partner Connexin got involved in the fun at 4:00 pm. In the past, these posts have been spread out over multiple days, so you can see the club are trying to act with real pace here. The fact that this is in season, and not been used to plug an out of season time period, could be the reason for this. In this update, the 2024 home shirt was clearly visible, allowing supporters to see more of the famous broad red band on a white shirt, a design that has been synonymous with Hull KR since the 1920s.
At this stage, it was relatively easy to see how this kit was going to look, but it did leave me with many unanswered questions. What colour would the sleeves, shorts and socks be? Would their be any design elements not on show? Soon enough, all of these questions would be answered.
Well, here it is… The 2024 Hull KR home kit, and it is a beauty. It sees Hull KR return to a white shirt, with a broad red band for the first time since 2020, as for three seasons in a row we’ve worn predominantly red based shirts. This is something that I have personally enjoyed seeing. I am not for one second against seeing us play in a white shirt with a red band, I like that too. Some of my all-time favourite shirts have been based around this design, but it may take me some getting used to after allowing myself to fully buy in on home shirts with a ‘red base’ to them. I think what will help with that is the red sleeves, shorts and socks. Even though we have more white in 2024, there is still a lot of red to counter balance that.
When the penny dropped that the kit was going to be a white shirt with a red band, I was in complete shock. The message that has been delivered out of the club for many years now has been that white shirts with red bands don’t sell well as other home shirt designs. This communication came to Hull KR Shirts directly from Craig Franklin during our interview article from as recently as March 2023. So what has changed? That’s probably the million dollar question in East Hull at the moment. I am sure the reasons are very much founded, with multiple pieces of analysis judged. Hopefully it is a calculated risk that pays off.
The club, in my opinion, has severely backed its supporters’ wishes with the design of this kit. Effectively giving back to the masses with a design that historically hasn’t sold as well as others in the Super League era, possibly with an implied but unsaid message of ‘go on then, prove us wrong’.
(Credit: Hull KR)
I spend a lot of time on social media as well as talking to people to gauge the general reaction for kit launches of most, if not all Super League clubs’ but as you’d expect, I always cast my eyes much more closely over the Hull KR kit launch comments. Statements that could be deemed as negative were very few and far between this time around. I would almost go on to say that the positivity towards the shirt was unanimous, in a way that is unprecedented in the time that I have been compiling these reviews.
Anyway, enough of that. Let’s move on to the kit! We’ve covered that the shirt is white with a broad red band with added red piping, but let’s get a bit deeper. When I saw the shirt for the first time, the first thing that jumped out at me is the red sleeves. We’ve used red sleeves on a white home shirt in the past, most notably in 1986-89 on the famous Hanson White Print/Mansfield Beers shirts, but this hasn’t been a feature of a Hull KR shirt since 2009. Within the design of the sleeves is a pattern of dye sublimated ‘Robin Icons’. This is a clear nod to the past coupled with a nod to the future. A brilliant use of juxtaposition, and it works!
(Credit: Hull KR)
I absolutely love sleeve details and patterns, whether they are included in the design or part of a manufactures branding, so this is a great feature for me. We’re currently in the growing stage of the Robin Icon. Not everyone knows who or what it represents, but the theory is that one day, they will!
(Credit: Hull KR)
The collar is one that Oxen has used previously. It is very similar to that which was used on the England RL shirt in 2021. The cut-out is smaller on the 2024 home shirt, and the colours have been inverted, but there is enough here for me to draw some comparisons. It is a more restricted collar than we’ve been used to, but I’ve found it okay whilst wearing it so far.
Every sponsor on the kit features in either red on white or white on red. I say it year-on-year, but every single one of these partners deserves to be complemented, as without them the kit would be nowhere near as aesthetically pleasing. Think of Warrington or St Helens in 2023. Both clubs have nice shirts that are let down by out of place sponsors just stuck on the front.
The front of the shirt sees IRS in their usual upper chest spot, which has been theirs on the home shirt since 2015. Aspire Academy’s logo is on the right of the chest (as wearing) and from a visual perspective is applied much better on the 2024 home shirt than it was on the 2023 home shirt. The branding appears on a white section of the shirt, allowing for the red to be embroidered this time (instead of the white) meaning it doesn’t look as ‘blocky’ as it did on the red of the 2023 home shirt.
(Credit: Hull KR)
Principal partner Connexin, is once again the front of shirt sponsor after agreeing a new two-year-deal which will see their branding feature in the front of shirt portion of all playing shirts until at least the end of 2025. Their branding is a tad on the large side, but if that is my biggest issue, I’ll take it!
(Credit: Hull KR)
Both Richardson’s Food and Safety Consulting Ltd and the University of Hull both feature again as sleeve sponsors. RFS has moved from the left sleeve to the right, and UoH has moved up slightly but remains on the left sleeve. Those Robin Icons on the sleeves are great, aren’t they!
(Credit: Hull KR)
Where is Super League competition logo?
Something that is conspicuous by its absence is the Super League branding that appeared on all three shirt releases in 2023. We’ve spoken about the cycle being broken in terms of league position and the threat of relegation, meaning that it hasn’t always been possible to include this within a design for dye sublimation. That hasn’t been the case in 2023, so it could have been included, so why hasn’t it? My opinion on this is that when the shirt went into production, it may not have been known which company was sponsoring the competition in 2024, baring in mind the shirt goes into production months ahead of its release. It is very much possible that it still might not be known to clubs who will sponsor the competition in 2024 and beyond.
Also, for what it is worth, with IMG’s current involvement in the sport, there have been rumblings over a new name for Rugby League’s premier competition in Europe, therefore this could have also been a factor. It is much better to be safe than sorry in this situation.
What about the back?
As we move around to the back of the shirt, we find Harrison Solway and Hirebase’s branding, once again, in red. Above the Harrison Solway branding is the another Robin Icon in the same place as it was during the 2023 season. For the 2024 season, I would predict that we will revert back to the red name and number set for this kit, which will look absolutely brilliant, as it did in 2019 and 2020.
You’ll notice that the red band doesn’t continue all the way around the back this time, unlike 2019 and 2020. This will make it better for supporters to personalise their shirts and allow the shirt to replicate the player specification shirts a little bit more than it would have if the band had continued all the way around the shirt.
(Credit: Hull KR)
The 2024 home shirt will be worn with red shorts and socks. This move will allow for red to still be the dominant kit colour, even though it doesn’t actually feel like it will when you see the shirt by itself. The shorts have a consistent design element to them, too. The side panels on the shorts are effectively the front of shirt design with a broad red band, with red piping appearing on a white side panel. Lovely stuff.
(Credit: Hull KR)
The brand partners that appear across the shorts all appear in white. ‘Hull KR Shirts‘ sponsor and friend Steve Leaming Plant as well as ESM and Instamod join the long list of companies who’ve allowed their branding to be used in red or white for the benefit of the kit.
There is one final point that I would like to make about the timing of the release of the 2024 home kit, and this is something that, in my opinion shows how much the club’s retail arm has grown and developed over the past 10 years. I can remember a time when the club would struggle to get shirts in stock for Christmas. Our 2021 shirts were released without a front of shirt sponsor. Our 2022 shirts were released with heat applied back of shirt sponsors due to sponsorship agreement delays. We saw a huge improvement when we released our 2023 shirts, and that has now been taken to the next level with the earliest release, probably in the clubs history. Couple this with attendance records, booming retail and wins on the field. East Hull is the Rugby League place to be!
(Credit: Hull KR)
The work the sponsorship and commercial team has undertaken to get us to this stage is fantastic. All but one shirt sponsor from 2023 has continued their pledge again in 2024, and in such time that the shirt could be placed into manufacturing and production to be available before the conclusion of the 2023 season.
(Credit: Hull KR)
In a similar move to 2023, the home kit was revealed using various player models throughout the clubs’ many teams. First team players Mikey Lewis, Elliot Minchella and Kane Linnett were joined by former England international and current Hull KR Women’s player Kayleigh Bullman-Hook and England’s World Cup winning PDRL captain Connor Lynes. This is something that I’ve really enjoyed seeing, and is hopefully something that will continue into the future, too.
Is it possible that the 2024 home shirt could be worn before the end of the 2023 season?
I raised this question as a rhetorical one, I didn’t think that it would be worn and now that the 2023 season is over for the Robins we know that to be true! We could have worn it at home against Leigh in the play-off eliminator, but the following ‘draw’ of Wigan (away) and (potentially) Catalans Dragons or St Helens in the Grand Final, it ruled out any possibility due to kit clashes. One last thing is for certain though, we have one beautiful looking kit to wear at Craven Park in 2024!
The 2024 home kit can be purchased by clicking here. The kit is available for immediate dispatch, and can also be purchased from the Hull KR store at Sewell Group Craven Park.
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