The willingness of the second biggest sports manufacturer in the world to open their doors wide to the Black Ferns and give them the VIP treatment is a good indicator of how women’s rugby has grown. The fact Adidas also let Rugby World come along for the ride was just an added bonus.

We made the trip to Adidas’ global headquarters in Herzogenaurach, Germany to not only have a nosy around the campus and archive, but to find out what the manufacturer does for its partners and the technology it is pushing to find that sporting edge.

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The taxi ride over from our hotel in Nuremberg, the nearest city and airport, took around 20 minutes. The grand structures and entrances are quite a sight when you arrive, they do call it the Disneyland of Adidas after all. But what really grabbed our attention was the walkway down to the main building adorned with the iconic three-stripes logo.

Adidas’ football boots have been worn by the likes of Lionel Messi, David Beckham and Jude Bellingham. NFL superstar Patrick Mahomes, a three-time Super Bowl champion with Kansas City Chiefs, is another high-profile athlete of theirs and many famous names from down the years have their footprints on the floor.

Adidas rugby legacy

The name that stands out for us, of course, is the late, great Jonah Lomu. After seeing Lomu’s hefty size-13 footprints outside, we made our way in and navigated the 346-acre site – which is reminiscent of a plush uni campus. We then got to see the real deal with a pair of original Lomu Adidas boots, signed by the man himself, and stored safely in the Adidas archive/mini-museum on site. Refreshingly, the archive is not open to the public and therefore not yet monetised to within an inch of its life like most attractions.

All we have to do to gain access is don the soft white Adidas gloves we’re provided with to protect the condition of the relics inside and be on our best behaviour. The archive is maintained at a strict 18 degrees and houses some 40,000 items. We pass through rows of original Adidas trainers from the Sixties and Seventies and heaps of football memorabilia before we get stuck into the real prize, the match-worn boots Jonny Wilkinson used to kick the winning drop-goal when England’s men won the Rugby World Cup in 2003.

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It’s pretty cool to hold a piece of real rugby history in my hands, there’s even lumps of Australian turf still wedged in between some studs. A moment that conjured real chills and not just because of the air con-controlled atmosphere. An old-school high-ankle Adidas rugby boot from years gone by reflects the changes the game has undergone. It feels like it weighs a ton comparatively.

The All Blacks and Black Ferns were also given this grand tour at a separate time and an array of their shirts are on display. Every World Cup edition is hanging up and some, like the 1999 number, are even signed by the full squad. There are even some Adidas All Blacks sliders laid out for us to inspect. The days of just the bare essentials are long gone.

Where the magic happens

Before long, our time in a sports fan’s paradise is up. A truly phenomenal experience, it’s reassuring in this relentlessly fast-paced world that there is a physical treasure trove being maintained. Company employees, including the Norwegian CEO Bjorn Gulden, whizz past us on the Adidas-branded bicycles that are reminiscent of London’s ‘Boris bikes’. But we are on foot and heading for the Adi Dassler Sportplatz, an outdoor pitch where the Black Ferns are due to train.

An obvious perk of working here is getting to meet and watch some of the world’s best sporting talent in action and there are plenty of staff sidling in next to us on the pitchside benches to get a glimpse of the reigning women’s Rugby World Cup champions in action. After training, we chat to lock Maia Roos on the pitch and it’s fair to say the New Zealand women are having as good a time as us – with a few additional freebies thrown in!

The on-site restaurant (it’s far too plush to be called a canteen), known as Half-time, delivered in style with some German Spaetzle, a kind of mix between dumplings and ravioli. It was a delicious lunch all the same. Refreshed and revitalised, it was time for the real business and a trip to athlete services.

To understand what the entire Black Ferns squad were going through and in the name of science, I volunteered to be both body and foot scanned. Almost instantly a whole host of statistics that I never knew even existed popped up from the body scan and this data, when collected from the elite athletes, goes a long way to determining the make-up of the latest New Zealand jerseys.

Matt Fielding, son of dual-code England international Keith, is Adidas’ category director for specialists sports and oversees the rugby programme from Herzo. The body data collated creates an anonymised avatar that reflects the shape of players and the numbers go into a spreadsheet where the creation team of developers, designers and patent makers pick it up and go to work.

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“They try to work out the average and where the body shapes are changing,” says Fielding. “They compare it to previous and start building the jersey around that with all the measurements, as you would do with a tailor on Savile Row. “The more information, the better. A cross-section of five players is okay but a cross-section of 35 players is brilliant as we can then cover every eventuality.

“We’d normally ask the physios and strength & conditioning guys about the personal development plans for players and what they are going to be looking like. Are they losing weight? Or gaining muscle? So you can build that in but you are trying to create one jersey for all of them.

“You are trying to cater for all three Barrett brothers, who are so different. So it’s difficult to get it right but we’ve pretty much nailed the balance season on season.”

The increased professionalisation in the women’s game has also driven a change. Lisa Lehmann, director for athlete servicing in specialist sports, adds: “We look into different measurements specifically. We always need to find a balance and define how body types in general change.

“If the game is getting more professional, does the body get learner in certain areas and more muscular in others? So it’s about understanding what those differences may mean for apparel.” Adidas released their first bespoke Black Ferns shirt just before Covid hit in 2020, a few years after the 2017 Women’s World Cup which New Zealand won. It really made an impact and cut through.

The challenge wasn’t just collating all the data – body shapes in the Pacific are different from those in Europe – but also embracing femininity, as requested by the players. So it’s about the right colour, shape and pattern, as well as tailoring the same shirt to work for every position. It’s no easy task. The shorts are also different to the men’s when it comes to modesty.

Fielding adds: “We need to make sure we are doing what’s right. Little intricacies, like trying to avoid a white short and making sure it doesn’t move too much.

“Most women will want to wear an underlayer, so making sure that the short reacts to that correctly. The cut line around women’s legs, making sure they’ve got freedom of movement and building it around the female shape, not the male shape we were using before.”

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Developing world-class kit

Then you factor in that some players like to lift on the shorts at lineout time, some prefer them nice and tight, while others need them loose. Given there’s a whole host of other personal preferences, it can be quite the maze to navigate for even a respected kit manufacturer. To begin with, the major obvious difference between the men’s and women’s kit was the appetite in sales.

Fielding adds: “We really struggled to retail it and to have an audience that wanted to buy into women’s rugby in 2017. “At one point we were trying to raise an order of 100 units. Now we are selling over 20,000 jerseys. You can see how far it has come.” These days the differences are slightly more nuanced. “The collar is shaped differently to the men’s. To the naked eye, the men’s and the women’s are exactly the same jersey except for the collar.

“The collar is built around the needs of the women. We worked with the team and asked if they wanted a rugby collar or a football collar or something different and they wanted something feminine with the cut lines that made it look different.

“In previous versions it was black, so you wouldn’t have really seen it. This is the first time we’ve given them a white collar in a long, long time – since they were wearing men’s jerseys. It really pronounces that difference. The team were super happy with it but now is the time to also look to the future.

“We are looking at the rugby collar we brought back on the men’s side – we want that identity back in rugby. We’ve let (high)performance dictate the design a little bit too much. Now you can’t grab the collar any more, it’s an infringement, we can revert back to the collar and you see it with other jerseys as well.

“The identity is key, the culture of rugby is key and we need to build that in and make sure we’ve got what’s right for the consumer too.” On the men’s side, the exact pro jersey that the All Blacks wear is not for sale.

Fielding says it’s about “respecting the black” and the honour it is to have earned the shirt. He does wistfully reminisce about the one time they got close to persuading NZR to budge. Alas. All Blacks get a shirt for every game while Adidas’ club sides like Munster may be sent something like 600 for an entire season.

Fielding adds: “We just have to tell the kitman: ‘Don’t boil it!’” As already mentioned, boots are unrecognisable from 30 or 40 years ago but there has also been significant change of late. Fielding explains: “We feel like we started that (the trend of boots for different positions). In 2011 we brought in four different models – so a boot for every position. It was looking at the front five, who need that traction for scrummaging, the set-piece and dynamic positioning for entering rucks and mauls.

“Then we saw the back row as needing something different. We did studies on the scrummaging to see where they actually put their pressure on and we saw it was all from the toe. So in 2011 we had the FF80 – the first shoe with a toe stud. It took a while to bring in and get comfortable because it’s a different stud configuration, but it was born from the fact that whether you are on the flanks or at No 8, you are driving from your toe and not from your heel or mid-foot.

“Then we realised you have the control player and the speed player. The controller needs to get the ball around the pitch through boot as well as passing and directional movement. The speed guys just want something really lightweight. So we can take inspiration from sprinting and from the way which football looks at their hierarchy of boots – you have a speed player and a box-to-box player.

“I think it was around 2019 that we went down to three shoes because we saw that most players in the backs now kick. Most back-rowers want to wear a speed boot as they are just as fast.

“Look at the Savea brothers (Ardie and Julian), you’ve got one at No 8 and one on the wing and they’re both as fast as each other. So it’s little adjustments that mean we are following the game as it changes in real time.

“Recently for the (men’s) World Cup in 2023, we went down to two. You had the front-five traction boot and everybody else – even second-rows – wants to have the multi-directional speed.

“We went from it being a kicking story to speed – whether it’s attack or defence, you have to cover the holes wherever the team needs it. We are flowing with that and finding out how we can improve and where the game is going next. The coaches, physios and players are telling us and we are trying to introduce that.”

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The colours of the boots have changed too. “There’s still the staunch parent who says, ‘No, you wear black’ and the idea that if you wear coloured boots you’ve got to be pretty good,” says Fielding. But Adidas are always one step ahead. They have an entire colour team who are planning 18 months in advance and seasonally, too.

“We like to have a colour story that flows through the range so everyone feels connected. The All Blacks and the Black Ferns wear our shoes, so you need to have a connecting story or something that makes them feel comfortable.

“We want to know which colour will work and we clearly want to show up on the pitch. We want the visibility and we want people to see Adidas. Then, we are taking insights from consumers rather than athletes. The athletes will tell you one thing but what people want to buy is something completely different!”

It is still a money-making business after all. Adidas boots go up to size 14 or 15, so there’s very little custom work needed at all. The idea is that every athlete can pick boots out of the box and get going straightaway. Although with professionals wearing boots five times a week, the big forwards might train in the lighter models and save the heavy-duty pairs for match days.

Lehmann tells us: “The Kiwis usually have a bit of a wider foot shape, so understanding that maybe we need to stretch a boot before they actually wear it to make it easier to break in. We can do orthotics, so insoles if that’s needed – we have the equipment.”

They also travel to major events, like last year’s Paris Olympics. While player feedback is key, sometimes even the best of the best have to be told what’s right for them. Fielding adds: “The players sometimes don’t know what they need, they want what they want.

“We try to educate a little bit and emphasise that if you’re 120kg, you need support where you need it.

“That’s why it’s slightly more robust than what a football boot may be. We know players kick, so we have asymmetric lacing which opens up the sweet spot. We work with kicking coaches to have elements like a wet grip on it.”

These days even studs can be hollowed out to try and find that little 1% advantage. Essentially the name of the game is making things as lightweight as possible while not sacrificing any strength or stability. It’s an impressive operation but not perfect. When Sonny Bill Williams’s shirt ripped in the 2011 World Cup against Tonga, he tore off his whole sleeve, carrying on in a custom vest before being forced to put a new shirt on shortly after. It’s fair to say Adidas employees were watching that saga unfold from behind the sofa.

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Fielding says: “The photos were amazing – well not for us! But it is the benchmark for us as in ‘never again’. Never have a jersey rip on the pitch, that’s the worst thing. It’s a reminder. “Anyone who works in rugby with us tends to not watch it like they used to. ‘Don’t grab on to that!’ Or if a player starts doing his laces. It is a different viewing experience!”

Next up, it’s a women’s-specific boot that will be released in time for the World Cup on English soil later this summer. An exciting development which is sure to be modelled by Adidas’ newest athlete Ilona Maher, last month’s Rugby World cover star.

Only the very elite on Adidas’ roster get the athlete servicing experience due to capacity, so I feel very lucky to have had a small taste of what it’s like to walk in their shoes – even if the foot scanner did recommend I needed to go down half a size. I guess technology isn’t flawless after all!

One thing’s for sure, Adidas will be at the forefront of cutting-edge technology, taking bits from other sports and bringing it to rugby.

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