I consulted on Newcastle United's new kits and Adidas have some 'really exciting' plans
Craig Buglass can rest easy. The former Nike and Puma designer was one of the first people in the world to see Newcastle United's new kits after acting as a consultant for Adidas. The only catch? The Geordie was unable to tell a soul about what he saw. Now, the secret is finally out.
"If that's the start of things to come, it's going to be pretty exciting, is it not?" he told ChronicleLive following the launch of the shirts earlier this summer. "I'm no longer consulting for them at all now, but some of the conversations we were having were really exciting.
"I gave them a few pointers about who they could collaborate with locally so it will be interesting to see if they take that on board and what they come out with. It sounds like they're talking to the right retailers and getting the right people involved. What they have got planned for Newcastle for the future is really exciting."
Buglass was the first to play down his involvement - insisting he 'can't claim too much for it' - but the boyhood Newcastle fan understandably described his advisory role as 'such a proud moment'. Buglass had previously designed shirts for Brazil, England, Barcelona, Manchester United, Arsenal and Juventus but this? This was right up there after a friend at Adidas ran the designs past him during a meeting in Manchester and subsequent video calls thereafter.
"I just said, 'In my opinion, you're missing a trick," Buglass recalled. "'I would get all of the different crests on there. I would see if you could put some of the stuff on the back of the neck and really research it even more. Look at the magpie feathers.' It doesn't take a genius to figure all of that out.
"All I was trying to get them to do was to think of the community and think of what those crests mean to all the different generations. I remember the NUFC badge from the [Peter] Beardsley and [Paul] Gascoigne era. It was one of the best crests Newcastle had and I loved the circle one with the magpie in the middle as well."
There is certainly no shortage of crests on the kits. The magpie badge, used between 1976 and 1983, sits on the back of the neck of the home shirt while the black NUFC crest that followed is on the front of the third kit. However, Buglass would have made a subtle change to that strip.
"If I was hypercritical of one thing, it's that they didn't give Newcastle the trefoil [retro Adidas logo] on the third kit, especially when they have launched it with Manchester United, Arsenal and a few of the other clubs," he said. "They hit the post with that frankly speaking.
"It's probably more of an internal thing where it's been promised exclusively to what they would class as their A-clubs if you like, but I do believe that's what Newcastle will be classed as very quickly because the sales of the product will show in time."
You only had to glance at the huge queues for the home shirt at the club shop in Newcastle or the long line for the third kit in Tokyo to get a hint of those sales figures, but the fact remains that the Magpies are still building a fanbase across the globe. Buglass, for instance, pointed out how in his local Adidas shop in Dubai, the Newcastle kits are 'tucked away in the corner' whereas Al-Nassr, Manchester United and some of the suppliers' other clients are front and centre.
However, this is still an important first step. Not only do Newcastle need on-field success to become a global force - the black-and-whites require a kit supplier like Adidas to help take the club into these markets over an extended period of time. After all, it was not so long ago that it was challenging for fans further afield to even get their hands on a shirt in store.
"What Adidas give you is the same type of enthusiasm that the new owners have for the club," Buglass added. "They want to see Newcastle go global. They want to sell the shirts all over the world."