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Rugby America provides high-quality uniforms and edgy off-the-field graphics for rugby enthusiasts.
Rugby players take a beating playing their brutal niche sport, and they know screen printer Rugby America Ltd. understands the rough, rowdy and proud nature of the game and its players. This credibility among "ruggers" attracts an international client base to the Petersburg, 'Ill.-based online store.
Through www.liquidrugby .com, the company focyses on the obscure sport, of club rugby, selling not only uniforms and equipment, but also a slew of off-the-field rugby items featuring some wild graphics and earthy phrases.
Their uniform designs for teams from Guam and Australia to Canada the United States and Europe are striking.
Equally arresting, but in a different way, are the outrageous designs and sayings on off-the-field T-shirts, hats and other accessories. The Web site is full of visual and verbal Rouble entendres that link rugby terms with behavior that ruggers find hilarious.
Company president and owner Jim Carlberg has played rugby for more than 20-years, so he knows his primary audience intimately. Rugby teams play hard and they celebrate - win or lose - with abandon. Carlberg's designs reflect that party-hardy attitude.
"I was always able to have a good feel for what the players and fans like to wear," Carlberg says. "And we are able to give them apparel that they cannot go to a store and buy. You won't see apparel like this hanging on the shelves."
The primary reason rugby apparel is hard to find is because the sport is still relatively obscure in the United States, although participation is growing nationwide. The rugby market can be divided into several main categories: youth under age 19, collegiate men's and women's, club side men's and women's, and the professional/international level.
Rugby America's T-shirts typically aren't found in mainstream retail stores, thanks to their wild and racy graphics. Many Americans associate the rugby look with preppy, striped team jerseys, but Rugby America deals only with off-the-field apparel (in part to avoid conflict since the company has at times done prints for jersey manufacturers). These garments have graphics with a much sharper edge and somewhat aggressive themes inspired by the rough nature of rugby.
"Our sport is a touch more hard-core than your run-of-the-mill college...