Many of the world’s leading players, including Cristiano Ronaldo, Robinho and Ji-Sung Park will take to the pitch in South Africa this summer wearing the most environmentally-friendly and technologically-advanced kit in football’s history.
For the first time, all of Nike’s national teams, including Brazil, Portugal and the Netherlands, will be wearing jerseys made entirely from recycled polyester, each one produced from up to eight recycled plastic bottles.
To make the 2010 national team kits, Nike’s fabric suppliers sourced discarded plastic bottles from Japanese and Taiwanese landfill sites and then melted them down to produce new yarn that was ultimately converted to fabric for the jerseys.
This process saves raw materials and reduces energy consumption by up to 30 percent compared to manufacturing virgin polyester. By using recycled polyester for its new range of national jerseys, Nike prevented nearly 13 million plastic bottles, totaling nearly 254,000 kg of polyester waste, from going into landfill sites. This amount would be enough to cover more than 29 football pitches. If the recycled bottles used to make the jerseys were laid end-to-end they would cover more than 3,000 kilometres, which is more than the entire coastline of South Africa.
The national team kits represent an important step in the process to make all Nike products more sustainable.
In addition, all the national team kits have been designed with each country’s national culture and identity in mind. Nike understands the pride athletes experience playing for their country so each kit has been designed to represent the heritage and unique football culture of the nine national teams.
Kit Innovations
Considering the environment doesn’t mean sacrificing the innovative performance elements of Nike’s kits. For this summer’s finals, the kits have been designed to keep players drier, cooler and more comfortable, allowing them to maintain an optimum body temperature and perform at their best on the pitch.
Improved Nike Dri-Fit fabric, now 13 percent lighter than previous Nike kit fabrications, helps keep players dry by drawing sweat to the outside of the garment where it evaporates. Ventilation zones have been placed on each side of the jersey to enhance breathability, and are combined with a fabric that increases air flow by up to seven percent compared to previous kits. Air can now pass across a player’s whole torso, keeping him cooler. These ventilation zones consist of up to 200 tiny laser cut holes which are backed by Nike’s innovative halo application. This treatment prevents ripping without reducing air flow.
The Nike kit shorts also have additional ventilation zones placed below the waistband and near the base of the spine, so this area prone to high sweat levels will now be significantly drier.
The jersey’s new double knit structure not only gives it a sleeker appearance, while offering 10 percent more stretch than the last Nike national team kit jerseys , but also boasts a new dynamic fit'Β cut to follow the natural contours of the body while still allowing for maximum airflow and movement.
Players will also incorporate the unique benefits of Nike Pro Combat into their respective national team kits. Featuring an engineered system of dress, Pro Combat includes Slider and Impact shorts for added protection against light impact and abrasion along with a therma Mock that protects players’ necks against harsh conditions.
The teams wearing Nike’s new national team jerseys in South Africa are: Brazil, the Netherlands, Portugal, USA, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand, Serbia, and Slovenia.
What the hell is up with he overhead picture – there is an England kit included and that’s sponsered by Umbro?
why the hell is that England kit in there?
how good do those Nike boots look!
Nike own Umbro…
yeah.. nike bought umbro long time ago..
those nike jerseys are 100x better than all the adidas jerseys combined. great job nike
That ‘England’ jersey is actually Serbia!
ok then explain the england logo behind him and the fact that its jermain jenas wearing the jearsy
hahaha, great publication there on England’s away kit -displaying them on nike’s party, only after the kasabian! nice one, umbro π
love the whole environmental friendly idea by nike. people nowadays are more concerned about this kind of issues π
umbro is kind of somehow related with nike, so that would explain jenas(sponsored by nike) wearing the england kit.
one of the most weird thinks that i have seen, umbro and nike…
yes, nike owns umbro, but they are different brands hehehehe, very funny.
hey ben the serbia kit is that with the yellow stripe over the chest.
Yeah nike owns umbro, also look how many are weary the new Mercurial Vapor Superflies – probably an advertising stunt. Also what does everyone think of the australian away kit
thats true, the nike kits are just the best !!!
i remember the Mexico 2006 worldcup kit, beautiful, and in the other side adidas, with their usual template that is used in all the kits, only with color modification
i’m pretty sure that the english football crest has the three lions on it….and umbro released the new england kit months ago
martincillo
serbias kit is the white shirt, white shorts, red socks
the yellow stripe on the chest is the socceroos away kit
Yeah, Yeah, the recycled fabric is a great plus, but I find designs so simple and none catched my eye.
Adidas teams France (soon to be Nike), Germany, Argentina, Spain, Mexico, Paraguay, Japan, Greece, etc. do they look like just one template changing colors? Come on, adidas is far better in soccer than Nike
yes i said past models hehehhe, but really you like the japan kit ???
hey sergew thats true,
do you like the portugal “bulgaria style” jersey???
Are you guys serious? It’s obviously NOT an England kit. Its Serbias kit and hes in all three of the pictures. Thats not Englands logo either…. Its somewhat close but seriously guys I cant believe you think thats Englands kit.
are you blin dalton ???
look the background and you will see the countries’ crest, and yes, there is the england crest
lol @ Dalton Martin:
that IS the england kit because nike owns Umbro as the about 10 or more other people before me have said lol serbia’s is on the far left (green with yellow stripe).
besides, if the red one is serbia’s then what is the one far left then? also don’t you think it strange to put serbia up the front next to brazil? with all due respect to serbia, all the “big” teams are closer to the middle/front like brazil, holland, portugal etc.
The green with the mountain design on the far left is Slovenia’s kit. The all white kit on the far right is Serbia’s. As many people have said on this, Nike own Umbro, so it is probably safe to say there’s no problem between the two companies in letting everyone know of this, hence why the England kit is probably there with the rest of the Nike kits.