New Pumas jersey spits in the face of tradition
Roar Rookie By rsamuel10, 19 Jun 2012 rsamuel10 is a Roar Rookie
- Tagged:
- All Blacks, Argentina Rugby Union, nike, Rugby Union, wallabies
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As I browsed through the rugby news this morning, I stumbled upon something that seemed like blasphemy.
The sky blue-and-white hoops of the Argentina jersey, donned by the Pumas since at least the 1960s, had been replaced by something else.
A predominantly white jersey with blue shoulders.
I can’t help but think this move was entirely the fault of Nike, rather than the UAR.
How can a team so passionate be willing to throw away decades of history, pride and heritage in favour of a jersey that appears to resemble the Uruguay team more than the Pumas?
I’d be willing to put money on the players’ disdain of the jersey.
The opinions of Argentina fans online confirmed my belief that the jersey is also wildly unpopular among the fans.
Would Agustin Pichot, in his passion-fuelled and fervent 2007 World Cup speech that began with “this is more than a jersey!”, approve of this new move?
I’d assume not.
What Nike has done is completely spit in the face of tradition.
Then again, we’re not exactly unacquainted with Nike’s ways.
The 2011 black England jersey sparked much controversy and was viewed as some as Nike’s attack on Adidas, the manufacturers of the All Blacks jersey.
Unfortunately, we’ve come to the point where the decisions of large corporate sponsors and manufacturers are the be-all and end-all.
If the players don’t get a say, why would the fans?
We’ve also had the lime green of the Highlanders and the Bulls’ pink away jersey.
Honestly who makes these decisions?
The yellow, blue and maroon represent the provinces of North Otago, Otago and Southland.
What does lime green represent?
The Bulls’ pink jersey looks more like something worn by the lead singer of a 1980′s glam metal band.
The All Black of New Zealand has been around since the early 1900s and is nothing short of a legacy.
It is a jersey that is respected and steeped in tradition.
Now, imagine if it was thrown out in favour of black-and-white hoops, or a green-and-gold jersey?
There would probably be riots.
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- Explore:
- All Blacks, Argentina Rugby Union, nike, Rugby Union, wallabies
June 19th 2012 @ 1:12am
King of the Gorgonites said | June 19th 2012 @ 1:12am | Report comment
I think the headline is wrong. Should it not read pumas?
June 19th 2012 @ 1:12am
Carnivean said | June 19th 2012 @ 1:12am | Report comment
What a wildly inappropriate headline. Currently says “New Wallabies jersey spits in the face of tradition”, in case it is changed.
Have the Argies taken on a new nickname as well?
June 19th 2012 @ 11:26pm
rsamuel10 said | June 19th 2012 @ 11:26pm | Report comment
Sorry about that, I didn’t choose the title anyway
June 19th 2012 @ 1:31am
bluerose said | June 19th 2012 @ 1:31am | Report comment
i like the old school Wallabies adidas jersey, maybe bring that back but with the modern day material but im just glad they got rid of that awful yellow jersey colour from last year.
June 20th 2012 @ 6:56pm
The Great G Nepia said | June 20th 2012 @ 6:56pm | Report comment
One thing they’ve got to do with the wallabies kit is bring back the old green and gold stripped socks. The current ones are shocking.
June 19th 2012 @ 1:37am
Johnno said | June 19th 2012 @ 1:37am | Report comment
- A great article bringing in some great points about this concept of tradition.
-But my take on tradition is this. It is an overrated concept , that is used to suit specific agendas with in a sport or a society or an industry, Specific agedness not as a whole.
-Forever in history times and technology and the world evolves and changes, and with that tradition evolves and is no different.
-Nothing stays forever, otherwise we would be a really backward place. So whenever anyone protests it is basically a natural concept that has been around forever when change happens.
-So traditions must evolve and if there is an initial jersey change then so be it, but long term it may be for the better, if more jerseys are sold and new traditions formed in a new jersey, or if multiple jerseys are sold like the epl soccer teams.
-Money is now part of pro sport to pay the bills of these expensive stadiums and merchandise plays a big role in that.
-So for all those people who are against changing traditions i have these arguments or points.
-Many so called traditionalists wanted rugby to stay amateur and not go pro.
-Should rugby now go back to being amateur to suite these so called traditionalists.
Of course not.
-Should the rugby world cup a massively multi million dollar successful pro sports tournament. Should that be closed down to suit some old traditionalists who only wanted rugby played between the home unions and a few southern hemphishpere nations.
And did not want rugby to go ahead.
-Should the 6 nations kick out Italy out and go back to the 5 nations, as it broke with tradition and expanded. SOme traditionalist would want that. Well I say just look at the massive crowds that italy got this year when they played there 6nations games vs England and scotland at the big national stadio Olympico stadium in Rome.
-And another one ODI world series cricket in the 70′s upset these so called traditionalists, as are now some of these so called tradtionislists upset about the rise of T20. Should T20 now be banned to please test cricket loving only cricket fans, who in my opinion test cricket limited itself to only playing a few teams 10 , where as T20 has branched out to new markets Canada and Holland who led by great bowling from dirk Nannes the aussie player with duthc heritage beat england in a T20 match at the T20 world cup in england in 2009.
-So basically times and traditions change, and i only in reality see many traditionalists in reality, as closed minded people or people or groups who have specific agenda and usually that means controlling or dominating a sport , and are threatened by a sports expansion, or merchandise changes, and use the word tradition or the traditionalist to manipulate fans into staying loyal with there market.
-ANother example of this merchandise change has been in soccer. The cardiff city bluebirds play in the english championship which is 1 division below EPL. They have been bought by an Asian consortium. And have changed there jersey to red from the traditional blue to capture more Asian tv viewers and merchandise sales in Asia huge population over just 1 city cardiff, as red is a color many Asian nations identify with.
And some cardiff city fans are upset and saying corporate greed and that sort of spin and argument. Well i say pro sport is about making money and attracting as many new fans and expanding. so good on cardiff, and good on the Argentina national team.
-A nation where amateurism at club level seems to still be happening due to the backward tradionislists there.
-Heck typewriter companies were upset when computers came out and used it as a marketing spin to stay alive and sell typewriters over computers, by saying be a traditionalist and stay with a type writer.
-And now with print media changes in Australia and the world many of these so called traditionislits in the industry are complaining about the digital media, and want newspapers to be the main news.
-And when tv came out many radio companies were outraged and saying to there audience to stay tradionislist and just listen to the radio.
-So traditions change and you just have ot embrace the,. And the word tradition, or traditionalists is often a tainted word that is manipulated to suite specify agendas with in sport wether it be teams or in merchandise or in global expansion, and in all industries.
June 19th 2012 @ 3:12am
peeeko said | June 19th 2012 @ 3:12am | Report comment
yes some traditions change but some are worth keeping
June 19th 2012 @ 10:15am
kiwidave said | June 19th 2012 @ 10:15am | Report comment
But the blue and white hoops of Argentina are not outdated like a typewriter, nor have they received any sponsors money to change. So why fix what isn’t broken?
June 19th 2012 @ 10:51am
HardcorePrawn said | June 19th 2012 @ 10:51am | Report comment
Only some Cardiff City fans are upset at the change of shirts from blue to red?
From what I’ve seen it’s pretty well all Cardiff City fans that are upset.
Bear in mind that Cardiff City’s previous badge featured a bluebird, their nickname too is the Bluebirds. The badge has been re-designed to accommodate a red dragon (the bluebird is still present, but tiny now), and their nickname is likely to change before the season starts. This is a proud team representing the Welsh capital, now they resemble fierce rivals, and fellow Welsh team competing in the English leagues, Wrexham, a team who have always played in red with a dragon on their badge.
The talk in Cardiff is that City’s matches are likely to be boycotted, with potentially a new rival team (in a similar vein to AFC Wimbledon) started by the fans.
While the additional finances might see the perennial play-off hopefuls finally get to the Premier League it is not nearly enough to see them competing with the likes of the two Manchester clubs or Chelsea.
If the new owners of Cardiff City wanted a team that plays in red (the reason being that the colour signifies luck in Asia), then they should have invested in an existing team that plays in red, God knows, Wrexham could have done with it!
June 26th 2012 @ 1:30pm
Matthew Skellett said | June 26th 2012 @ 1:30pm | Report comment
Absolutely right Johhno! What is ‘tradition’ anyway ? It’s just something(could be anything like opening a sardine can with a jackhammer) that someone did once and he/she liked it so much they decided they would do it again , again and again for ever after -there is NO INTRINSIC VALUE IN FOLLOWING ‘TRADITION’ people so let’s all move on shall we ?
June 19th 2012 @ 2:49am
chris said | June 19th 2012 @ 2:49am | Report comment
Wish they have v necks instead of this horrible round tight neck hybrid Soccer/Cycling tops which a lot of former players over 30 can not wear due to the tightness of these tops showing off a beer belly.
Haven’t bought a Rugby jersey for at least 8 years.
June 19th 2012 @ 3:07am
Frank O'Keeffe said | June 19th 2012 @ 3:07am | Report comment
“How can a team so passionate be willing to throw away decades of history, pride and heritage…”
Ask the 1998 Wallabies.
June 19th 2012 @ 7:20pm
sheek said | June 19th 2012 @ 7:20pm | Report comment
Actually Frank – ask the 1997/98 Wallabies…..!
June 19th 2012 @ 7:48am
Uncle Argyle said | June 19th 2012 @ 7:48am | Report comment
Yes I thought that Reebok inspired half pizza like garb was absolute PISH!
I am all for the ADDIDAS three stripe circa 1979! (Tony Shaw hair style optional. Stan Pilecki can attest to those shorts being able to comfortably supply ample room for a pack of Winfield Red 25′s….and a lighter!)
June 19th 2012 @ 8:04am
Justin2 said | June 19th 2012 @ 8:04am | Report comment
Yup, the 3 stripe was a classic strip.
June 19th 2012 @ 9:13am
Christo the Daddyo said | June 19th 2012 @ 9:13am | Report comment
As long as the Wallabies jersey is predominately gold I don’t really have a problem with having slight modifications done to it for marketing reasons. If you don’t like the current version, don’t buy a replica.
Life’s too short to worry about things like this.
June 19th 2012 @ 9:20am
kovana said | June 19th 2012 @ 9:20am | Report comment
So….. Its a Argentina Jersey… But the title says Wallabies….
June 19th 2012 @ 9:37am
Gary Russell-Sharam said | June 19th 2012 @ 9:37am | Report comment
I too am a little put off by the recent wallabies jersey. far too much gold (or canary yellow) it is now on the shorts. I despaired when they did away with the collar and the v neck on a rugby jersey that was what set it apart from league, soccer and AFL. Now they have them so tight that the props look like they are wearing corsets.
In the days gone past the jerseys were always too big and hung on most players like a sail and I’m happy to see that they have made them a tighter in fit but surely there is a happy medium to be had. The biggest problem in the scrums is that the props can’t get a proper bind because the jerseys are too tight.
Tradition is something to be revered, while I agree with change to advance technology there should be restraint on big corporate companies to not interfere with tradition when designing new jerseys. The rugby counties should have this written in their rugby laws that corporation should not interfere with the traditional colours.
As said in one other post how would you call the All Blacks as such if the jerseys had another predominant colour. This is hapening to the Pumas and the Wallabies in the past and now they look like canaries. England did a stupid thing last WC with a black away strip. Who’s stupid idea was that??? The same as the All Black a few years ago with a grey strip??? The problem is that big companies get these stupid ideas from advertising gurus etc that may not have even played rugby and they lumber these silly fads on to teams because they think that some young fans might like them. Change is inevitable that is just evolution. However some things are not meant for change. The Jersey that a country plays under and for, should uphold the traditions of that Country and not be fiddled with willy nilly at the whim of a big corporation