Did you notice? In Season 80 of the University Athletic Association of the Philippines (UAAP), some playing shorts are getting shorter – exposing more varsity skin than we’ve seen in decades.
Sean Maganti, Tyrus Hill and Kurt Lojera of the Adamson Falcons, Javi Gomez de Liaño of the University of the Philippines and Carlo Escalambre of the University of Santo Tomas are some of its “bolder” exponents.
But I’m not going to discuss the creeping fashion changes in the UAAP just now. What I’ll focus on are the amazing changes and edgy innovations in the new National Basketball Association (NBA) jerseys.
For one thing, the unis, made by Nike starting this year, are in a word : cool. And not just literally. There are a lot of eye-popping new things and jaw-dropping new features that you’ve never found before in playing uniforms.
Let’s begin by saying this is going to be a more colorful NBA season as far as playing uniforms are concerned. The partnership with Nike (which is synonymous with Innovation) has brought a new style, a new outlook and a new attitude to what NBA players will be wearing starting Season 2017-2018. Gone is the traditional rule of teams wearing their light-colored uniforms at home. The NBA is eliminating its “Home” and “Road” uniform designations such that color can clash with color (not just against white) wherever the game is played. Home teams get to choose which of their four team uniforms they will wear at home. (Each team has four jerseys to choose from). The visiting team must now wear a contrasting uniform from their own wardrobe.
Not just the look, but the feel of the unis has changed. Backed by 25 years institutional knowledge and guided by 3D-body maps of players that include heat and sweat maps, Nike engineers and designers focused their re-examination on three areas: movement, thermoregulation and fit. Research showed that “no athlete moves quite as diversely as a basketball player. During an average game, a player may cover more than four miles with full-speed bursts that last about 1.6 seconds. An athlete can change directions every two seconds, totaling 1,000 per game. Some jump up to 42 times with an average liftoff time of .16 seconds.”
Nike had to figure out how to create a uniform that would run, cut and jump with each player, as well as gather information on temperature regulation. There were countless hours of rigorous testing, including everything from snag and burst testing to pilling and wash testing, as well as creating atlas maps—a process that involves taking a digital body scan to evaluate sweat zones, contact zones and where basketball players need full range of motion.
Because the team was working with an engineered knit fabric, they were able to program the knit structure to create a three-dimensional zone to allow air to flow through, and placed tiny nodes on it to help prevent it from sticking to the skin.
Designers modified the uniform based on range of motion information gleaned from the maps, including scalloping the back of the jersey around the shoulder (rather than using the continuous rib design that’s always previously been used) and shifting the motion vent on the short toward the front so that when a player makes a cut or is on defense, it opens in a spot that allows them to move more freely.
Beyond the function and style details, Nike also considered the strong emotion that athletes had for their colors and their uniforms. Thus, besides their Association, Athlete Mindset, Icon and Community uniforms, Nike also made NBA Statement Uniforms for the teams.
The Statement Edition uniform sets the tone for big games or rivalries and is inspired by the team’s desire to make a bold statement every time they step on the court. For each team, the aesthetic expresses the specific spirit of the current roster. Teams such as Boston, Chicago and Cleveland chose black base to convey a sense of strength and power for their Statement Edition look.
Chicago’s pays homage to its historic use of pinstripes, while Cleveland’s displays the franchise’s secondary logo, for example. Milwaukee’s Statement Edition uniform has the team’s powerful new Buck logo front and center.
Meanwhile Denver, whose city’s famous mile-high altitude is viewed as an advantage, chose to emphasize that. Philadelphia has its team’s Sixers script emblazoned in white. The champion Golden State Warriors pays respect to the culture and legacy of its hometown: Oakland. Flipping an iconic graphic, the Warriors Statement Edition uniform reads “The Town” above a new team crest, which employs Oakland’s family Oaktree (a design found on street signs and sourced by the team through Oakland’s city government).
There are other amazing new things about not just the team uniforms, but also the Nike socks and shoes, but let me reserve that for a later story. What is probably most jaw-dropping about the uniforms that fans and consumers can actually get a piece of is the digital “magic” in the jerseys and shorts.
Now Nike and the NBA allows consumers to tap in to personal, next-level access to athletes, exclusive offers and the game they love using their smartphone and NikeConnect technology.
Launching on September 29, this innovative marriage of apparel and digital technology gives NikePlus members and NBA fans access to incredible product, customized content and exclusive experiences through the NikeConnect logo on their jersey’s jock tag. Once they get the all-new Nike NBA jersey, fans can download the NikeConnect app (available for iOS 11 and Android (iPhone 7 or newer; Android devices with NFC capability) globally) and launch the NikeConnect app on their smartphone.
Next, they tap the smartphone on the tag at the bottom of the Nike NBA Jersey, where a special NFC chip is located under the NikeConnect logo. The experience will launch automatically on the smartphone where they can sign in with the NIKEPLUS account. From there they can tap in any time to unlock team and player content such as pre-game arrival footage and highlight packages.
On game day, they can get additional access to exclusive offers. Information including a pre-game countdown to tip-off, an in-game score or a post-game final score, where and when a team is playing next, plus player stats will be available as well. There is a “Team” feed, which is a combination of performance and off-court highlights, including recap videos and GIFs, related to a jersey’s player and team. Fans can tap in to this content for greater detail or tap and hold to share externally with friends online.
Wow.