The Stormers and adidas turned back the clock to step into the future as rugby mates once again in a partnership and identity relaunch that spoke to everything exciting about the future and tangibly memorable about a rich and storied history of rugby in the province, writes Mark Keohane.
After eight years apart, adidas reignited its iconic partnership with the DHL Stormers, returning as the official technical sponsor and unveiling the bold new 2025/2026 home and away jerseys.
‘It’s the brand I have always associated with rugby in this province,’ said Stormers veteran and Springboks World Cup winner Deon Fourie. ‘When I started playing it was blue and white hoops and adidas. Now, nearly 20 years later, it is the blue and white hoops and adidas. It feels good. It feels special and with it comes the responsibility to ensure we represent our partners like we represent ourselves and our supporters.’
The Stormers are rugby Kings in the Western Province/Western Cape and adidas (in the singular) is and in the plural (are) the sportswear king in the Western Province/Western Cape. You think adidas you think Manchester United, Liverpool and the Stormers.
In the summer of 2025/26, in the URC and the EPL, it is adidas once again in love and aligned with the Stormers and Liverpool.
Personally, I have always been a rugby disciple of the blue and white hooped identity. Pre-unity and post unity, rugby in this province was blue and white hoops. From schools provincial sides to the very best big boys.
Professionalism and regionalism catered for a new audience for so much of the past two decades, an Americanisation of brands and colours without an identity or necessary respect for tradition. This was sold as being all in the name of a new audience and commercial merchandising programmes.
Finally, a lightbulb moment, and an acceptance that tradition can walk alongside a new generation if there is education and inspiration. This is what the Stormers home and away playing kits represent.
The home jersey is steeped in all the traditions of rugby in the province, with the Red Disa given a rightful place in the march towards to 2030 and beyond.
The black shorts and socks dovetail with the rich history of the jersey design.
‘Reunite the Stripes’ is what the home jersey screams. It is, to quote the marketing speak, a celebration of the rich history but is fused with evolutionary modernity. It is a statement of legacy and a symbol of unity. It is worn with heart and carries the hopes of the Cape, past, present and rising.
The home strip reinforces a rugby identity that should never have been altered, but it is the away jersey that really speaks to the city of Cape Town because the concept of ‘Remix the Stripes’ is inspired by the streets of Bo-Kaap, a place that was home to me and my partner Gillian (Caroline) for five years.
Rose Street was our daily paradise and every postcard picture of Bo-Kaap was our view every morning.
The jersey speaks to the electric hues of lucid pink, lime burst and lucid cyan. It screams joy, Die Tweede Nuwe Jaar, the Minstrels, freedom, energy and individuality. The away jersey is as real as the home jersey. There is a story to tell behind both jerseys and that story speaks to rugby in the province and to the streets and sports fields of Cape Town.
I lauded the rationale and delivery behind the Stormers rebrand for the 2025/26 season and am equally awed by the thought and delivery of the identity of the Stormers, in their playing kit, for 2025/26 and beyond.
STUNNING STORMERS REBRAND IS A REBOOT INTO THE FUTURE
This is no marketing gimmick or a play to get a generation off their smart phones and into the DHL Stadium.
This is a an acknowledgement of a 100-plus years of why rugby in this province is without comparison as a sport and why it will remain so in the future.
There is a salute to every community within Western Province and every rugby story, past, present and what we hope to hear in the future.
I love it.
Stormers coach John Dobson, in seeking the #TrueColours of the Stormers on his appointment as coach, told me pre Covid his mission statement would be to develop a team that made all of Cape Town smile and was true to their roots and the colours they see in the mirror, which can’t be masked, be it about their performance, their commitment or their behaviour.
JOHN DOBSON IN 2019 ON THE STORMERS AND TRUE COLOURS
With #CapeTown Dobson meant all of the Cape.
In #TrueColours fashion, Dobson’s Stormers have done this since the move to the DHL Stadium post Covid and the introduction of the United Rugby Championship, which they won in the inaugural year.
Now Dobbo’s Stormers, the ones who made all of us rugger buggers smile, get to play in the colours that made rugby people in this province smile for more than a century.
Did I mention that I love it?
Finally, the identity of rugby in this province is back, visually and in a mission statement that gets the past, gets history but so gets the now and the future.
The new DHL Stormers jerseys will retail at R999. The Home jersey is available from 19 September, and the Away jersey is available from 3 October at select adidas retail stores, adidas.co.za, and select sports retailers.
Photos: lizmarierichardson.smugmug.com
