Braintree Rugby Club launches textile-inspired 2026/27 kit

The club unveiled its 2026/27 playing and warm-up kit at a sponsors’ evening, with a design rooted in the town’s sporting and textile heritage.

The kit is the result of a collaboration with the Warner Textile Archive and features two historic textile patterns dating back to around 1900 and 1930.

 Braintree Vixens will wear the same kit design as the senior men's sides for the first time in a move to bring all of the club together under their new branding One Club. Your Journey (Image: Braintree Rugby Club)

Nigel Brand, chairman of Braintree Rugby Club, said: "The evening was about bringing together the people and businesses who support our club, giving us the opportunity to thank them personally and show them how important their support is for a grassroots club.

"We’re incredibly proud of the new kit and particularly of the story behind it.

"Working with the Warner Textile Archive has allowed us to bring together two very different parts of Braintree’s history and community.

"We now have designs created in our town generations ago, reimagined on a shirt that will be worn by the next generation of Braintree Rugby Club players."

Guests at the sponsors’ evening watched senior squads training, heard plans for the upcoming season, and viewed the new kit.

The 1900 textile design features lions rampant and fleurs-de-lis, both prominent in the club’s crest.

The second design, from 1930, is an abstract Art Deco pattern originally created for a cotton and rayon textile.

Robert Rose, director of the Warner Textile Archive Trading Company, said he was "delighted" the two distinctive original Warner Textile Archive designs had been incorporated into the club's kit.

The Warner Textile Archive is housed in the original Warner and Sons mill in Braintree and contains around 100,000 items.

Warner and Sons produced fabrics for royal weddings, funerals and palace decorations.

Nigel said: "Discovering the lions and fleurs-de-lis within the Warner archive gave the collaboration an even greater significance because those same motifs are already such a recognisable part of our club badge.

"We would like to thank everyone who joined us for the evening and, most importantly, all of our sponsors for their continued support of the club."

The new kit will be worn throughout the 2026/27 season.