Canterbury did the right thing in producing a Women’s kit that fans could buy earlier this week.
But it took a turn in the wrong direction when they used models with the jersey superimposed for the Women’s kit but three international players for the men’s.
It’s the kind of error that will always be seized upon and whoever coined the phrase that the devil is in the detail was spot on.
It sent the wrong message but in fairness as soon as they became aware of the misstep the brand did at least apologise.
“As a brand, we believe in putting our hands up if we get something wrong,’ they said in a statement issued yesterday.
“To announce that our new Ireland Women’s pro jersey was available for pre-order, we super-imposed the jersey’s image onto a model to share this exciting development with our dedicated female players and fans.”
“It was always, and remains, our intention to photograph female players in the new jersey and we remain committed to supporting the talented women in our rugby community on and off the field.”
“While the image was primarily designed for our website, which also features male models, it has understandably caused frustration. We accept this was an error and apologise for any upset caused.”
“At Canterbury, we believe that rugby is for everyone and we’re united by our mutual love of the game. We look forward to sharing our ‘A New Horizon’ campaign to support the launch of our Ireland Women’s Pro jersey in October, with the same commitment and dedication that we have for all our teams.”
The brand went on to pledge that it would never happen again and backed this up by sharing content from players under the #íamenough hashtag.
Sometimes it takes a mistake to highlight something to a wider audience. The judgement, as we have seen clearly this week in other areas, is more important in terms of the person or brand’s reaction to that mistake.
It’s not out of the woods yet but Canterbury is pointing in the right direction.
