Football may have already come home after the Lionesses’ historic Euro win in the summer, but the men’s team has a chance of back-to-back success for England with the World Cup in less than two months.
Having reached the final of Euro 2020 and the semi-finals at the last World Cup in 2018, England are hoping to make it all the way to Qatar and if they do, at least Harry Kane, Raheem Sterling, Declan Rice and others will look good. .
Today Nike Unveils England 2022 World Cup Kit – Or Should It Fit? – and with nods to Euro ’96 and Italy ’90, plus a few Easter eggs, there’s plenty to talk about. Here we have the exclusive summary.
The new England home kit for the 2022 World Cup.
It’s more technical than ever
Or so says Aaron Barnett, Nike’s senior director of apparel. The Lebron James Innovation Center on Nike’s Portland campus is where the magic happens, and all manner of motion capture is used to inform the uniforms. “We always map all of our kits to athletes’ bodies for heat maps and sweat maps, and this year the fourth dimension is ours that our team was able to engineer against the body in motion. It’s very different than if you’re assigning something to a static figure. So if we need to add more structure in the shoulder, more airflow in the chest, we can design at the yarn level.”
If that sounds technical, that’s because it is. Dri-FIT advanced is Nike’s top-tier apparel product and while you may have seen it appear in other sports, the 2022 World Cup will mark the first time it’s been used in football kits. England’s 2022 World Cup kit has been two years in the making and Barnett says it’s surprising how many decisions are now based on data.
England 2022/23 Match Home Kit
The most sustainable England kit to date
“Sustainability is one of the things that’s always top of mind,” says Barnett. Around 70 percent of Nike’s carbon footprint comes from raw materials, so in recent years the team has focused on the materials used to ensure its products are the best on the market. “Our goal has always been to create products that are the best for gamers and also the best for the planet,” adds Barnett. “The entire collection is made from more than 75 percent recycled materials, which is a big step forward. And we also had 75 percent fewer prototypes from start to finish.”
Source: www.gq-magazine.co.uk