With 13 federations qualifying for this summer’s FIFA Women’s World Cup, Nike has more partner federations than any other brand qualify for the World Cup. Nike worked with each of their 13 partner federations to design its respective new National Team Collection, including kits and lifestyle apparel. Each collection “is inspired by each country’s distinct identities and diverse communities” and incorporates “cultural and historical elements to boldly represent each country on and off the pitch.”
Select Nike National Team Kits are available in limited quantities beginning April 3. All home and away jerseys and items from each federation’s apparel collection will be available in early June.
Nike has introduced new leak-proof technology meant to give athletes more comfort when competing during their period. The technology will be offered as a base layer to all 13 national teams that wear Nike and are competing at this year’s Women’s World Cup.
The goal, senior apparel innovation project manager Lisa Gibson told The Equalizer, is to combat what Nike calls “the dropout formula” that sees girls dropping out of sports at twice the rate of boys by age 14. That does not happen exclusively because of menstruation, she says, but they know it to be a factor.
“We wanted to create a product that would keep people in sport and also just give people peace of mind while they’re playing their sport, engaging in that movement,” said Gibson, who competed for Great Britain’s water polo team at the 2012 London Olympics.
The World Cup will serve as grand debut for the technology at an inflection point in the movement toward more player comfort. Last year, England’s women’s players expressed a desire for the team to stop wearing white shorts over menstruation concerns; Nike is England’s uniform supplier. The U.S. is expected to wear blue shorts with its white jersey tops as much as possible.
FIFA’s detailed rules about uniforms require players to wear matching coloured underwear if the base layer is at all visible. That has been a particular problem for white shorts. Gibson says the Nike Pro Short, which serves as a base layer, will be available to Nike-sponsored teams in the necessary colours to match their World Cup uniforms.
Gibson says the product line, called “Nike Leak Protection: Period,” arrives after four years of development that included 20 iterations of materials and 30 rounds of prototypes “so that it really moves in synergy with your body.” Nike’s various technology teams designed a two-layer system in which the top layer next to the skin wicks and absorbs fluid, and the second layer is a membrane that acts as a barrier to leaks. They purposefully used synthetic blood rather than water in testing, and the final material has been tested on “hundreds of athletes for thousands of hours including football players.”
Here is every Nike 2023 Women’s World Cup kit:
USA
Behind every new soccer kit these days is a detailed story, and the new primary kit that the United States women’s national team will wear at this year’s World Cup is unabashed with its narrative: the U.S. is the epicenter of women’s soccer.
The look bucks the usual trend of a plain-white primary kit for the United States. The white base remains, but laid over it is a pattern of spots best described as a paint splatter. Nike designers were inspired as much by the visuals of a popular art movement as they were the story behind it.
“Specifically, the team were inspired by abstract expressionism, which is the international art movement that started in the 1940s,” Charlotte Harris, a senior women’s apparel designer at Nike, told The Equalizer. “It’s when the epicenter of art shifted from Europe to the U.S., which we think is really interesting because that’s similarly what the USA team has done for women’s soccer.”
Canada
The Canada National Team Collection continues the focus on the country’s traditional red and white color scheme. The red and black home kit features an “evolution of their iconic geometric maple leaf design”, while the away kit uses simplicity to highlight the traditional colors.
New Zealand
The New Zealand National Team Collection utilizes the country’s unique and iconic culture and landscapes to honor the World Cup co-hosts. The home kit “pays homage to its landscapes” through a new take on the classic Silver Fern pattern. The distinct allover pattern was created using black and silver spray paint techniques. The away kit, all white with a bright futuristic blue accent, is inspired by the 1991 qualifying squad.
Australia
For one of the World Cup’s host nations, Nike created Australia’s National Team Collection to celebrate the “diverse country and community and is an invitation to all Australians to join in and embrace this once-in-a-lifetime moment and iconic team.” The home kit features a marbling pattern created by hand. The turquoise away kit color is meant to represent a nation that is “vibrant, energetic, and forward-thinking.”
Brazil
The Brazil National Team Collection is inspired by the Amazon, thematically connecting the home and away kits with a “tropical foliage pattern.” Utilizing Brazil’s classic yellow, the home kit “highlights the beautiful Amazon ecosystem through the pattern’s knit textures.” The away kit carries through the tropical foliage pattern as it appears on the sleeves in “bright jungle colors.”
China
China’s National Team Collection purposefully spotlights China’s historically traditional colors of red and yellow. The home kit is “inspired by the iconic xiangyun symbol, a traditional Chinese stylized cloud associated with good luck and good fortune.” The home kit uses red as its primary color while the away kit features the other traditional color with a “bright yellow hue.”
England
The England National Team Collection is “inspired by the Art Deco movement and design of the legendary Wembley Stadium.” The home kit’s off-white color scheme is “modeled after the original Wembley’s chalky white brick exterior in 1923” while also paying “homage to the 1984 England women’s team, the country’s first women’s team assembled for a major tournament.” The away kit “brings in the first expression of blue in the team’s history” with a geometric pattern that nods to the Art Deco movement.
France
France’s National Team Collection is inspired by Orphism, an art movement popularized around the time that the first French women’s football teams were playing, in the 1920s. The light blue and lilac colors featured on the home kit resembles the kits of those 1920s teams. In an Orphism art style, “the white away kit features a bespoke, hand-painted pattern cut into hexagon shapes.”
Korea
The overall theme of the Korea National Team Collection is inspired by “the country’s youth culture and globally renowned fashion style.” For the home kit, Korea’s traditional red color is juxtaposed with vibrant pink side panels, a color new to Korea’s kits, meant to create a “distinctive look reflecting the youthful spirit of the country and the team.” The color blocking of the white away kit is inspired by Korean fashion with the split side panels pointing to “traditional ideas of balance and opposites on the Korean flag.”
Netherlands
The home kit is grounded in the iconic bright orange national color. The away kit pulls inspiration frome the red, blue and white colors of the Dutch flag, focusing primarily on the blue and combining the shape of the lioness on the national team crest with geometric modern patterns.
Nigeria
The Nigeria National Team Collection blends the country’s traditional local prints and patterns with current styles from the fashion scene of Abuja. In an electric green color scheme, “the home kits features a bespoke pattern on the cuffs and sock ribbing inspired by traditional Nigerian artwork and textiles.” The away kit, a darker forest green, “combines modern shapes with traditional prints; the up-close details on the graphic pattern pay homage to the team’s ‘Super Falcons’ name.”
Norway
The Norway National Team Collection uses color-blocking combinations to mix and match the colors of Norway’s national flag, featuring them prominently
Portugal
The Portugal National Team Collection combines nods to modern art and fashion with the country’s traditional craftsmanship and maritime roots to represent Portuguese heritage. The red home kit is inspired by the country’s flag to convey national pride. The away kit features a “vibrant color scheme and bespoke pattern inspired by the country’s famous calçada Portuguesa designs.”
Source: equalisersoccer.com
