Western Australia’s newest national rugby league franchise, the Perth Bears, has hit another key milestone in its pre-launch journey, pulling back the curtain on its first official home kit for the 2027 NRL premiership season that carries deep historical ties to the founding of Australian rugby league itself.
Unveiled to the public on Friday, just days before the NRL’s Storm versus Manly clash in Perth this weekend, the new jersey centers on the iconic red and black hooped design that first became synonymous with the North Sydney Bears, one of the sport’s eight original foundation clubs when top-grade rugby league launched in Australia back in 1908. To further cement this intergenerational connection, the 1908 founding year and North Sydney’s original team crest are featured on the jersey’s back collar, anchoring the new expansion franchise to the code’s earliest origins.
Perth Bears Chief Executive Anthony De Ceglie framed the jersey reveal as a major step forward for the expansion club, describing the Bears project as the most compelling new development in Australian sport right now. “While our club is a new entity built for the west coast, it does not come without a rich shared history,” De Ceglie explained. “We are building forward on the foundations laid by both the North Sydney Bears and decades of rugby league development in Western Australia. We could not be prouder to carry these iconic red and black colours into a bold new era, while still honouring the legacy that got us here.”
The new jersey has already locked in a strong slate of commercial partners ahead of the team’s 2027 debut: global secondhand retail network Cash Converters serves as the principal partner, insurance brand Budget Direct holds the premier partner position, and Penrite Oil, Atlas, and XFM join the lineup as major founding partners.
This jersey launch comes on the heels of another key announcement for the franchise, just one day prior: English international forward Morgan Smithies became the latest high-profile recruit to sign on with the Bears, penning a long-term deal that will see him leave the Canberra Raiders at the end of the current NRL season.
Club head coach Mal Meninga, one of the biggest legends in Australian rugby league, stepped forward to model the new kit during the unveiling, and expanded on the franchise’s dual mission of honouring its past while building a unique new identity for Western Australian rugby league. “It’s really important to acknowledge our shared history, but also to carve out a new identity for the Bears here on the west coast,” Meninga said. “A bear doesn’t shy away from a challenge; a bear stands up, a bear is bold and courageous, and that is exactly the identity we are building for this team. Our whole focus is on building a club that both Western Australia and North Sydney can be proud of, and we will deliver a team that lives up to that legacy.”