SCOUTING REPORT: THE WORLD’S JERSEY BY NIKE F.C.
The World Cup is coming up in a little over a month, and I cannot help but get excited for the world’s biggest sporting event. I attended the 2014 World Cup in Brazil and plan to attend this year’s edition in Russia. While in Brazil, I experienced people of all different backgrounds and nationalities from across the globe come together to celebrate soccer. Thanks to our friends over at Pro Direct Soccer we get a first hand look at the Nike FC, Nike’s sub-brand of soccer, recently released jerseys collection which illustrates the global power and unity of the beautiful game. Let’s take a deeper look at the latest collection.
Overall Design: The five variations of the jersey collection is separated by different national flags, as well as the actual template of the designs. The templates are differentiated through the use of black space, and the flags to display a star, a diagonal, horizontal, and vertical stripe, and an arrow-like shape pointing towards the left. All designs have the bold signature “Nike FC” in gold, as well as the main badge-logo created specifically for this drop. Overall my first impression of the pieces was impressive; they definitely caught my attention. Seeing them in person also helped me capture some of the details that I did not see in images. The whole jersey, front and back, has an embedded checkered detail to the fabric with the overlapped NFC logo from the badge. I like how the colors are vibrant from the different flags, but all of them have a solid, strong base of black for a nice contrast. I like the different take of the various templates as each jersey spews out different emotions. My least favorite version is the one with the star template as it looks a bit disproportionate and draws unwanted attention to your belly…
Score: 4/5 (fan of all four minus the star template)
Functionality: The first thing I noticed when I picked up all of the jerseys were that they were relatively heavy. When a shirt or a jersey has some weight it definitely gives you the impression that it is of high quality. I must say I was impressed with the quality of the fabric and how all the pieces were put together. Would I wear these on the pitch though? Probably not, as I mentioned they are pretty heavy and will definitely weigh you down on the pitch.
Score: 3/5
Uniqueness: Have I recently seen anything like this come out of a major sportswear company like Nike? I certainly have not (and please let me know if I’ve missed any), and to come out with it in five different variations was a good move in my opinion. Not only do these jerseys look good, but they also stir emotions and creates a sense of national pride for those people whose countries have been represented. They’re also unique in how they were constructed. The part of the shirt where the flags are being illustrated is double layered. The fabric of the flags on the top and the black base fabric on the bottom, hence the reason behind the weight of the jersey.
Score: 5/5
Details: This collection is all about details on details on details. In general, I’m a fan of Nike F.C. for its simplicity, but these jerseys use the simplicity of its logo across the chest and present contrasts in design with a loud noise of detail all over the shirt. As mentioned above, the jersey is engraved with the checked pattern of the overlapped NFC logo. The neck tag inside the shirt reads “Nike F.C. The World’s Football Club,” and includes the silhouette of the five different variations of the collection in gold. A neat move. The badge logo contains some of the nation’s flags that are participating in the World Cup surrounding the NFC logo, and some that are not participating this summer like the USA. The flags being used in the designs don’t really have a connection to the World Cup as I also see the Chinese flag in one of the shirts when they have not qualified for the tournament since 2002. I guess it’s a nice touch to include other nations, but being a Korean American myself, it hurts me to not see our flag in the any of the versions.
Score: 4/5
You can now purchase the Nike F.C. jerseys from Pro:Direct Soccer.
