American sports kit manufacturer, Nike has come out with details of the line of issues, factors and ideas that inspired their new range of jerseys and other attire for Nigeria’s national teams, which many observers have already tagged as better designs than what the company produced in 2018, megasportsarena.com reports.
The new range was officially unveiled on Sunday, with several photo shots of modeling by Alex Iwobi from Everton of England, Samuel Chukwueze (Villarreal of Spain), Wilfred Onyinyen Ndidi (Leicester City of England) and William Troost-Ekong (Udinese of Italy) for the Eagles, as well as Asisat Oshoala (Barcelona Femeni of Spain) and Rasheedat Ajibade (Alveldes of Norway) for the female national team, Super Falcons.
The new range will take over from the iconic garbs that Nike produced for the 2018 World Cup in Russia, which set many tongues wagging across the world and buyers rushing to be part of the frenzy, but an early hint has already emerged that there could even larger sales this time out.
Such is the great expectation of demand for the Super Eagles’ new home jersey, which comes in traditional green-and-white Nigeria’s national colours, with the white portion running down the middle from top to bottom and bordered by green-edged parts in a semblance of the country’s flag.
Nike explained that the design was inspired by Nigerian traditional fabric patterns, with a strong balance between ultra-modern retro and African cultured design and the company dropped their previous dependence on a template of structures in favour of hand-drawn patterns.
Although Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) did not provide any official statement announcing the new kit, there were snippets on the soccer governing body’s verified Twitter handle as well as those for the Eagles and Falcons, with each of the players also showing off in the fresh attire.
They all took to their various social media handles to splash photographs of themselves wearing the various collection in the new range, which includes home and away jersey and shorts, match balls, sneakers, training kits, flowing gown (agbada), hoodies, supporters apparels and flags.
Nike disclosed in a promotional write-up that there are already high expectations that the new range will outshine the collection of 2018, which earned the Eagles a non-official award as the best dressed team at that year’s World Cup and later went on to be voted number five on the cards of catchy designs ever donned by any football team in the game’s history.
Nike stated in their promo: “In addition to the art of designing football kits, science is always at the forefront of the process. It all starts in the lab, where Nike captured data on more than 300 footballers and football-specific movements.
“The design team leveraged 4D visualization tools to bring the product to life before creating samples. This process helps Nike analyze how the kits will perform on body with regard to stretching, draping and fit.
“Using generative design, Nike then knitted kits that are 55 percent faster wicking, 13 percent more breathable and with 10 percent more stretch than Nike’s previous kits. The precision knitting is reinforced where needed and vented in areas prone to heat.
“The results, upon close inspection, reveal a highly intricate knitting structure, while not distracting from the national pride artistry from afar. The extensive array of federations donning the Swoosh each have unique histories and cultures.
“In 2020, their distinctive attributes are celebrated with highly differentiated collections. Building upon the learnings from the successful 2018 Nigeria Collection, Nike undertook deep cultural immersions and collaborated with each federation to ensure the designs truly resonated.
“From hand-drawn prints to custom fonts, each team’s look will be its own. Counter to templatization, Nike designers had 65 chassis options available to them across varying necklines, sleeves, cuffs, badge placement, etc.”
The NFF’s post on Twitter read: “New kit alert! 2020-2022. #Team9jaStrong #SoarSuperEagles #SoarSuperFalcons;” after which Troost-Ekong said he was excited to model the new attire and expressed confidence that the Eagles will do well wearing the jersey, adding: “Ready to defend my new stripes. So proud to wear the new Nigeria kit. NAIJA Stand Up.”
