A leopard can’t change it’s spots, unless it represents Leigh. Leigh Leopards have released a new shirt for the Challenge Cup Final which has sent fans into overdrive.
The new shirt, which the Leopards will wear at Wembley in next weeks Challenge Cup Final, has had the full backing of the Leythers as huge queues were seen at the Leigh Leopards store yesterday.
@LeighLeopardsRL queue for merchandise. It would seem they are doing a roaring trade and the Leopards have caught on big time! @BBCRMsport pic.twitter.com/z9OttSM05t
— Trevor Hunt (@TheTrevorHunt) July 31, 2023
A video posted to social media shows the full extent of the queue, in which some Leigh fans waited two hours to get their hands on the shirt.
So much hate for the Wembley shirt yet Leigh fans have queued for 2 hours yesterday and today resulting in selling out and more shirts being ordered! You may not like it and that's fine but it's been a rebranding masterclass all season, record sales 🐆 https://t.co/LAA037UHrB
— 🐆Leytherlass🐆 (@carriemc7) August 1, 2023
Derek Beaumont also took to social media to comment on the size of the queue. “Never take off this leopard shirt aka jaguar, need more staff and a bigger store,” he posted.
Never take off this leopard shirt aka jaguar🙈 need more staff and a bigger store 😂@LeighLeopardsRL pic.twitter.com/CwkHnf2vBA
— Derek John Beaumont (@derek_beaumont) July 31, 2023
The shirt has been described by the club as “the final piece to cement the rebrand of the Leigh Leopards”. The shirt was released last week, and will be worn when they take on Hull KR in next weeks Challenge Cup Final, the clubs first since 1971.
Upon its release, the shirt received mixed reviews; however these posts show the Leythers are well and truly buying into the rebrand, and will be in their thousands when they travel to the capital.
Commenting on the release of the shirt, Derek Beaumont said: “When we were considering the kit design to launch the rebrand and had set our minds on the design, we then couldn’t decide whether to go full colour or black and white and had both designs sampled.”
He added: “Whilst we really liked the full colour version, we opted for the blank canvas approach which worked out well for us in the end as it enabled us to bring back some red as we transitioned opinion through the early stages.
Furthermore, he said: “When discussing with Jukesy (Club CEO Neil Jukes) I said: ‘How good would it be to evolve the leopard into life in full colour if we made the play-offs or even the Challenge Cup Final?’ If we did neither we would use it for the last game of the season against Wigan Warriors, to signify the success that the Leopards had come to life as an established Betfred Super League club.”
“This meant ordering the shirts well in advance of knowing we would be at Wembley,” he said. “But I was confident we would at the absolute minimum be wearing it against Wigan and largely confident that it would be sooner in the play-offs.”
The club initially announced that only 1000 shirts would be available, due to the turnaround, however yesterday the club confirmed that an extra 500 replica shirts had been made available.
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