Nike's Volt

[gdu]

While Iam excited for Nike to take over the NFL, at the same time Iam terrified that this will carry over to the NFL along with their Pro Combat designs. These just look terrible. As others have said it worked for Oregon because the uniform was designed around that color. I pray to god that the NFL wont allow Nike to add colors to uniforms that arent team colors BFBS included.

The NFL won't. Individual teams (just like in college) would get to make that decision.

[gdu]

I feel like I may be completely wrong on this(or the people who told me are). I heard the reason they wore that color was to honor the military, like yellow ribbons. I was told that by some of my coaches who surprisingly almost as interested in sports uniforms as I am. Like I said, this may be wrong but I'm just putting it out there.

I can't even imagine that being true.

[TheOldRoman]

This color invading the NFL would be worse than the pink breast cancer stuff.

I don't think Nike will be able to color bomb NFL teams like that because 1)the NFL has a rule that uniform changes (minus minor tweaks) have to be worn for 5 years, and 2)Nike changes their colors each year. However, I expect pretty much all new alternate uniforms to be Nike waiving their dicks around. Being that Nike would market certain type of alternate uniforms whereas Reebok more or less said, "here is an alt, you can wear it twice per year," I expect Nike to push the NFL to allow for one-off alternates changed yearly and to increase the times per year alts can be worn. I also fully expect that within 5 years Nike will have a handful of teams wearing pink jerseys during October.

[Billy B]

I think the pink during October thing comes more from the NFL right now than Reebok. I wouldn't expect any increase to come because Nike is taking over. Off the top of my head, I can't think of any Nike college team that's done more for breast cancer now than the NFL does and they have a lot more freedom over college teams than they'll have over the NFL. I think the overuse of pink is just the NFL saying "look how much we care!"

[Kevin W.]

I feel like I may be completely wrong on this(or the people who told me are). I heard the reason they wore that color was to honor the military, like yellow ribbons. I was told that by some of my coaches who surprisingly almost as interested in sports uniforms as I am. Like I said, this may be wrong but I'm just putting it out there.

Wait, that's Oregon's excuse? If it is, that's the biggest horse backtrack I've ever heard.

[gordie_delini]

What's that - Kevin W. trolling and hating on Oregon in a topic about Nike? Shocking!

[Kevin W.]

Huzzah for unnecessary personal attacks!

[IceCap]

What's that - Kevin W. trolling and hating on Oregon in a topic about Nike? Shocking!

Well Oregon did start this mess.

This volt stuff is a prime example of uniforms being more about the manufacturer then the team. It's a trend that I, a sports logo and uniform enthusiast, dislike.

I feel like I may be completely wrong on this(or the people who told me are). I heard the reason they wore that color was to honor the military, like yellow ribbons. I was told that by some of my coaches who surprisingly almost as interested in sports uniforms as I am. Like I said, this may be wrong but I'm just putting it out there.

I can't even imagine that being true.

Me neither. I really hope Nike doesn't try to go that route. That's just to much bs to take at once.

If you want to add something to your uniform to honour the military wear a small, discrete yellow ribbon patch. Don't whore yourselves out to Nike and wear their ugly, blinding corporate colour. How that honours the men and women risking their lives in the service to your country is beyond me.

[TheOldRoman]

I think the pink during October thing comes more from the NFL right now than Reebok. I wouldn't expect any increase to come because Nike is taking over. Off the top of my head, I can't think of any Nike college team that's done more for breast cancer now than the NFL does and they have a lot more freedom over college teams than they'll have over the NFL. I think the overuse of pink is just the NFL saying "look how much we care!"

While everything you said was true, I said before that we were rapidly approaching pink uniforms, and that was before Nike got the contract. Sure, the NFL's "we care more than you do" attitude is what started it, but Nike will say, "Hold on a minute, why don't we use this as an opportunity to care even more than thought humanly possible. Let's sell pink jerseys which just so happen to have other random colors and show off our new space-age materials, with a percentage of the proceeds going to cancer charity (zero is a percent)." While Nike has done the stupid breast cancer unis in college basketball before, it hasn't encountered a sport where the league sanctions wearing pink for an entire freakin' month. I think the biggest lock is that Nike will get the NFL to relax its rules about alternate uniforms, both the times they can be worn and the number each team can have. Nike is just itching to come out with one-off "rivalry" jerseys for the Cowboys-Eagles games and other such nonsense.

[guest23]

The weird thing is this is totally acceptable in soccer...

http://www.examiner.com/images/blog/replicate/EXID32838/images/2010_World_Cup_USA_Landon_Donovan_Algeria_Winning_Goal.jpg

The reason being that soccer teams do not regulate what footwear the players use. They are free to use whichever brand/style/color they please. That colorway seen in the photo of silver and orange was Nike's primary colorway for the World Cup. Therefore the players who wore Nike shoes used them. Still, they're free to use say a yellow Adidas shoe, or a black Umbro model, or whichever. It is up to the player and not deemed a part of the actual uniform.

But as you can see, the various colors do not creep into the actual team uniforms. They are only utilized within the footwear.

the question I asked myself during the cup was if the players had an option to wear cleats with their national team colors or did nike only make them cleats in the corporate orange?..were they contractually obligated or compensated?

I was really suprised at first as I thought there would have been a bigger opportunity to do a variety of special editions based on each team's colors (brazil, portugal etc.) but I guess nike said fvck it we're going 100% corporate with our shoe campaign so neon orange for all.

[aawagner011]

The weird thing is this is totally acceptable in soccer...

http://www.examiner.com/images/blog/replicate/EXID32838/images/2010_World_Cup_USA_Landon_Donovan_Algeria_Winning_Goal.jpg

The reason being that soccer teams do not regulate what footwear the players use. They are free to use whichever brand/style/color they please. That colorway seen in the photo of silver and orange was Nike's primary colorway for the World Cup. Therefore the players who wore Nike shoes used them. Still, they're free to use say a yellow Adidas shoe, or a black Umbro model, or whichever. It is up to the player and not deemed a part of the actual uniform.

But as you can see, the various colors do not creep into the actual team uniforms. They are only utilized within the footwear.

the question I asked myself during the cup was if the players had an option to wear cleats with their national team colors or did nike only make them cleats in the corporate orange?..were they contractually obligated or compensated?

I was really suprised at first as I thought there would have been a bigger opportunity to do a variety of special editions based on each team's colors (brazil, portugal etc.) but I guess nike said fvck it we're going 100% corporate with our shoe campaign so neon orange for all.

I do not know the specifics in terms of new release shoes for contracted players. Though I don't think there is such a "fvck it, let's go 100% corporate" mindset with soccer. The way it works generally with soccer footwear, when they release new models, they will initially debut in a limited number of colorways. As the lifespan of that current model continues on, they release newer colorways until they release the next model. It's not like Nike has stock of thousands of different colorways for all the various national and club teams they sponsor. That just gets a bit crazy. Occasionally, players get special treatment and are able to receive specific colors or designs specific to them or their team.

Such an example would be Clint Dempsey, twice having worn custom models of the Mercurial Vapor shoe.

At the end of the day, Nike (along with other brands) cannot be able to supply team specific colored shoes for every team they sponsor. For one thing, the players are free to wear whatever brand they want. So for an example, you've got the USA team, where a large portion of the team wears Nike. However, there are still Puma wearers (Brian Ching), Adidas wearers (Agudelo, Altidore), etc. So you're not going to get an entire team to buy into a certain brand or color. Because of this disconnect between uniform supplier and the player's ability to wear whichever brand they want (not to mention lack of guidelines as to what colors are acceptable), brands produce shoes in various colorways which attract more buyers.

I guess I have just been accustomed to the footwear not being a part of the team uniform. It really isn't, as the decision should be up to the player. I do wish they would choose more muted colors, however.

**Also as a side note- part of the reason lately for brighter colors is due to visibility. I don't think it applies so much to other sports (like how they tried to use it as reasoning for Syracuse lacrosse), but it definitely helps in soccer. Looking down the field, the vibrant shoe sticks out better on the pitch and makes it easier to pick out a pass. I can vouch for this in experience playing myself. There was a similar psychology used for Chelsea goalkeeper Cech a few years back where Adidas made his kit bright orange. The idea was that if an opposing player received the ball and looked up to shoot, he would immediately see the orange and subconsciously shoot at it. I don't know the effectiveness of that one, but it's an interesting concept. I do believe in the shoes, though.

[gdu]

The weird thing is this is totally acceptable in soccer...

http://www.examiner.com/images/blog/replicate/EXID32838/images/2010_World_Cup_USA_Landon_Donovan_Algeria_Winning_Goal.jpg

The reason being that soccer teams do not regulate what footwear the players use. They are free to use whichever brand/style/color they please. That colorway seen in the photo of silver and orange was Nike's primary colorway for the World Cup. Therefore the players who wore Nike shoes used them. Still, they're free to use say a yellow Adidas shoe, or a black Umbro model, or whichever. It is up to the player and not deemed a part of the actual uniform.

But as you can see, the various colors do not creep into the actual team uniforms. They are only utilized within the footwear.

the question I asked myself during the cup was if the players had an option to wear cleats with their national team colors or did nike only make them cleats in the corporate orange?..were they contractually obligated or compensated?

I was really suprised at first as I thought there would have been a bigger opportunity to do a variety of special editions based on each team's colors (brazil, portugal etc.) but I guess nike said fvck it we're going 100% corporate with our shoe campaign so neon orange for all.

Nike made the shoes they made and players could wear them or not wear them.

[gdu]

The weird thing is this is totally acceptable in soccer...

http://www.examiner.com/images/blog/replicate/EXID32838/images/2010_World_Cup_USA_Landon_Donovan_Algeria_Winning_Goal.jpg

The reason being that soccer teams do not regulate what footwear the players use. They are free to use whichever brand/style/color they please. That colorway seen in the photo of silver and orange was Nike's primary colorway for the World Cup. Therefore the players who wore Nike shoes used them. Still, they're free to use say a yellow Adidas shoe, or a black Umbro model, or whichever. It is up to the player and not deemed a part of the actual uniform.

But as you can see, the various colors do not creep into the actual team uniforms. They are only utilized within the footwear.

the question I asked myself during the cup was if the players had an option to wear cleats with their national team colors or did nike only make them cleats in the corporate orange?..were they contractually obligated or compensated?

I was really suprised at first as I thought there would have been a bigger opportunity to do a variety of special editions based on each team's colors (brazil, portugal etc.) but I guess nike said fvck it we're going 100% corporate with our shoe campaign so neon orange for all.

I do not know the specifics in terms of new release shoes for contracted players. Though I don't think there is such a "fvck it, let's go 100% corporate" mindset with soccer. The way it works generally with soccer footwear, when they release new models, they will initially debut in a limited number of colorways. As the lifespan of that current model continues on, they release newer colorways until they release the next model. It's not like Nike has stock of thousands of different colorways for all the various national and club teams they sponsor. That just gets a bit crazy. Occasionally, players get special treatment and are able to receive specific colors or designs specific to them or their team.

Such an example would be Clint Dempsey, twice having worn custom models of the Mercurial Vapor shoe.

At the end of the day, Nike (along with other brands) cannot be able to supply team specific colored shoes for every team they sponsor. For one thing, the players are free to wear whatever brand they want. So for an example, you've got the USA team, where a large portion of the team wears Nike. However, there are still Puma wearers (Brian Ching), Adidas wearers (Agudelo, Altidore), etc. So you're not going to get an entire team to buy into a certain brand or color. Because of this disconnect between uniform supplier and the player's ability to wear whichever brand they want (not to mention lack of guidelines as to what colors are acceptable), brands produce shoes in various colorways which attract more buyers.

I guess I have just been accustomed to the footwear not being a part of the team uniform. It really isn't, as the decision should be up to the player. I do wish they would choose more muted colors, however.

**Also as a side note- part of the reason lately for brighter colors is due to visibility. I don't think it applies so much to other sports (like how they tried to use it as reasoning for Syracuse lacrosse), but it definitely helps in soccer. Looking down the field, the vibrant shoe sticks out better on the pitch and makes it easier to pick out a pass. I can vouch for this in experience playing myself. There was a similar psychology used for Chelsea goalkeeper Cech a few years back where Adidas made his kit bright orange. The idea was that if an opposing player received the ball and looked up to shoot, he would immediately see the orange and subconsciously shoot at it. I don't know the effectiveness of that one, but it's an interesting concept. I do believe in the shoes, though.

Sure they could (they do in the NFL, NBA, Olympics, etc...); it just in't a big deal in soccer. Visability has been more important than matching in soccer.

[aawagner011]

The weird thing is this is totally acceptable in soccer...

http://www.examiner.com/images/blog/replicate/EXID32838/images/2010_World_Cup_USA_Landon_Donovan_Algeria_Winning_Goal.jpg

The reason being that soccer teams do not regulate what footwear the players use. They are free to use whichever brand/style/color they please. That colorway seen in the photo of silver and orange was Nike's primary colorway for the World Cup. Therefore the players who wore Nike shoes used them. Still, they're free to use say a yellow Adidas shoe, or a black Umbro model, or whichever. It is up to the player and not deemed a part of the actual uniform.

But as you can see, the various colors do not creep into the actual team uniforms. They are only utilized within the footwear.

the question I asked myself during the cup was if the players had an option to wear cleats with their national team colors or did nike only make them cleats in the corporate orange?..were they contractually obligated or compensated?

I was really suprised at first as I thought there would have been a bigger opportunity to do a variety of special editions based on each team's colors (brazil, portugal etc.) but I guess nike said fvck it we're going 100% corporate with our shoe campaign so neon orange for all.

I do not know the specifics in terms of new release shoes for contracted players. Though I don't think there is such a "fvck it, let's go 100% corporate" mindset with soccer. The way it works generally with soccer footwear, when they release new models, they will initially debut in a limited number of colorways. As the lifespan of that current model continues on, they release newer colorways until they release the next model. It's not like Nike has stock of thousands of different colorways for all the various national and club teams they sponsor. That just gets a bit crazy. Occasionally, players get special treatment and are able to receive specific colors or designs specific to them or their team.

Such an example would be Clint Dempsey, twice having worn custom models of the Mercurial Vapor shoe.

At the end of the day, Nike (along with other brands) cannot be able to supply team specific colored shoes for every team they sponsor. For one thing, the players are free to wear whatever brand they want. So for an example, you've got the USA team, where a large portion of the team wears Nike. However, there are still Puma wearers (Brian Ching), Adidas wearers (Agudelo, Altidore), etc. So you're not going to get an entire team to buy into a certain brand or color. Because of this disconnect between uniform supplier and the player's ability to wear whichever brand they want (not to mention lack of guidelines as to what colors are acceptable), brands produce shoes in various colorways which attract more buyers.

I guess I have just been accustomed to the footwear not being a part of the team uniform. It really isn't, as the decision should be up to the player. I do wish they would choose more muted colors, however.

**Also as a side note- part of the reason lately for brighter colors is due to visibility. I don't think it applies so much to other sports (like how they tried to use it as reasoning for Syracuse lacrosse), but it definitely helps in soccer. Looking down the field, the vibrant shoe sticks out better on the pitch and makes it easier to pick out a pass. I can vouch for this in experience playing myself. There was a similar psychology used for Chelsea goalkeeper Cech a few years back where Adidas made his kit bright orange. The idea was that if an opposing player received the ball and looked up to shoot, he would immediately see the orange and subconsciously shoot at it. I don't know the effectiveness of that one, but it's an interesting concept. I do believe in the shoes, though.

Sure they could (they do in the NFL, NBA, Olympics, etc...); it just in't a big deal in soccer. Visability has been more important than matching in soccer.

I suppose they could have created World Cup team specific shoes, but what I was getting at is that this argument could easily extend into club teams which would require they supply them as well. Somewhere along the line, there will be teams wearing the generic color shoes where we would be having the same debate.

Of course, as you said, it's not as big a deal in soccer, and yes, visibility is a crucial part in the game.

[JohnnySeoul]

I think the pink during October thing comes more from the NFL right now than Reebok. I wouldn't expect any increase to come because Nike is taking over. Off the top of my head, I can't think of any Nike college team that's done more for breast cancer now than the NFL does and they have a lot more freedom over college teams than they'll have over the NFL. I think the overuse of pink is just the NFL saying "look how much we care!"

While everything you said was true, I said before that we were rapidly approaching pink uniforms, and that was before Nike got the contract. Sure, the NFL's "we care more than you do" attitude is what started it, but Nike will say, "Hold on a minute, why don't we use this as an opportunity to care even more than thought humanly possible. Let's sell pink jerseys which just so happen to have other random colors and show off our new space-age materials, with a percentage of the proceeds going to cancer charity (zero is a percent)." While Nike has done the stupid breast cancer unis in college basketball before, it hasn't encountered a sport where the league sanctions wearing pink for an entire freakin' month. I think the biggest lock is that Nike will get the NFL to relax its rules about alternate uniforms, both the times they can be worn and the number each team can have. Nike is just itching to come out with one-off "rivalry" jerseys for the Cowboys-Eagles games and other such nonsense.

Even if Nike is "itching" to do anything, the NFL has extremely strict uniform rules. Nothing drastic is going to happen in 2012 except for new materials that will supposedly improve the game (whatever that means). End of story.

[gdu]

The weird thing is this is totally acceptable in soccer...

http://www.examiner.com/images/blog/replicate/EXID32838/images/2010_World_Cup_USA_Landon_Donovan_Algeria_Winning_Goal.jpg

The reason being that soccer teams do not regulate what footwear the players use. They are free to use whichever brand/style/color they please. That colorway seen in the photo of silver and orange was Nike's primary colorway for the World Cup. Therefore the players who wore Nike shoes used them. Still, they're free to use say a yellow Adidas shoe, or a black Umbro model, or whichever. It is up to the player and not deemed a part of the actual uniform.

But as you can see, the various colors do not creep into the actual team uniforms. They are only utilized within the footwear.

the question I asked myself during the cup was if the players had an option to wear cleats with their national team colors or did nike only make them cleats in the corporate orange?..were they contractually obligated or compensated?

I was really suprised at first as I thought there would have been a bigger opportunity to do a variety of special editions based on each team's colors (brazil, portugal etc.) but I guess nike said fvck it we're going 100% corporate with our shoe campaign so neon orange for all.

I do not know the specifics in terms of new release shoes for contracted players. Though I don't think there is such a "fvck it, let's go 100% corporate" mindset with soccer. The way it works generally with soccer footwear, when they release new models, they will initially debut in a limited number of colorways. As the lifespan of that current model continues on, they release newer colorways until they release the next model. It's not like Nike has stock of thousands of different colorways for all the various national and club teams they sponsor. That just gets a bit crazy. Occasionally, players get special treatment and are able to receive specific colors or designs specific to them or their team.

Such an example would be Clint Dempsey, twice having worn custom models of the Mercurial Vapor shoe.

At the end of the day, Nike (along with other brands) cannot be able to supply team specific colored shoes for every team they sponsor. For one thing, the players are free to wear whatever brand they want. So for an example, you've got the USA team, where a large portion of the team wears Nike. However, there are still Puma wearers (Brian Ching), Adidas wearers (Agudelo, Altidore), etc. So you're not going to get an entire team to buy into a certain brand or color. Because of this disconnect between uniform supplier and the player's ability to wear whichever brand they want (not to mention lack of guidelines as to what colors are acceptable), brands produce shoes in various colorways which attract more buyers.

I guess I have just been accustomed to the footwear not being a part of the team uniform. It really isn't, as the decision should be up to the player. I do wish they would choose more muted colors, however.

**Also as a side note- part of the reason lately for brighter colors is due to visibility. I don't think it applies so much to other sports (like how they tried to use it as reasoning for Syracuse lacrosse), but it definitely helps in soccer. Looking down the field, the vibrant shoe sticks out better on the pitch and makes it easier to pick out a pass. I can vouch for this in experience playing myself. There was a similar psychology used for Chelsea goalkeeper Cech a few years back where Adidas made his kit bright orange. The idea was that if an opposing player received the ball and looked up to shoot, he would immediately see the orange and subconsciously shoot at it. I don't know the effectiveness of that one, but it's an interesting concept. I do believe in the shoes, though.

Sure they could (they do in the NFL, NBA, Olympics, etc...); it just in't a big deal in soccer. Visability has been more important than matching in soccer.

I suppose they could have created World Cup team specific shoes, but what I was getting at is that this argument could easily extend into club teams which would require they supply them as well. Somewhere along the line, there will be teams wearing the generic color shoes where we would be having the same debate.

Of course, as you said, it's not as big a deal in soccer, and yes, visibility is a crucial part in the game.

Nike makes hundreds of different shoes each year. Making colorways specific to each soccer team they represent wouldn't be any harder than making specific uniforms for them (which they already do). There is plenty of money in soccer to do it if they wanted. The only reason they don't is because it has never really mattered in soccer. If clubs wanted shoes to match their uniforms, they would tell Nike and it would happen.

[TheOldRoman]

Even if Nike is "itching" to do anything, the NFL has extremely strict uniform rules. Nothing drastic is going to happen in 2012 except for new materials that will supposedly improve the game (whatever that means). End of story.

I know they have strict rules, which is why I said I believe Nike will plead with the NFL to loosen up on the rules. Unlike Reebok, Nike is big on crazy designs to be worn once which serve to only shill a supposedly revolutionary fabric or template. They will ask the NFL to change their rule which state that a team can only wear one given alternate over a three (I believe) year span. I don't think we will see anything too crazy in 2012, but you'd better believe Nike will do something ridiculous in the NFL sooner or later. They will leave their mark on at least one team, and others are going to get silly alternates.

[JohnnySeoul]

Even if Nike is "itching" to do anything, the NFL has extremely strict uniform rules. Nothing drastic is going to happen in 2012 except for new materials that will supposedly improve the game (whatever that means). End of story.

I know they have strict rules, which is why I said I believe Nike will plead with the NFL to loosen up on the rules. I don't think we will see anything too crazy in 2012, but you'd better believe Nike will do something ridiculous in the NFL sooner or later.

Oh, there's no doubt they'll try. But there's also no way the NFL will allow it. The NFL even goes crazy over shoes (i.e. Ochocinco's "Bengals" reeboks that they forced him to remove prior to kickoff).

[TheOldRoman]

Even if Nike is "itching" to do anything, the NFL has extremely strict uniform rules. Nothing drastic is going to happen in 2012 except for new materials that will supposedly improve the game (whatever that means). End of story.

I know they have strict rules, which is why I said I believe Nike will plead with the NFL to loosen up on the rules. I don't think we will see anything too crazy in 2012, but you'd better believe Nike will do something ridiculous in the NFL sooner or later.

Oh, there's no doubt they'll try. But there's also no way the NFL will allow it. The NFL even goes crazy over shoes (i.e. Ochocinco's "Bengals" reeboks that they forced him to remove prior to kickoff).

True, but that is one random clown wearing a crazy design. Nike is an entirely different thing being a business partner of the NFL. I don't think they will make the entire league pro combat or anything that bad, but at least one team will get full-on Nikefied. I believe they will have far more influence on the NFL than Reebok has, particularly with alternates. I think they will push the NFL to allow "themed" alternates where Reebok never has. I hope the NFL stands their ground.

[pcgd]

The reason I brought it up in the first place was its interesting to me in every other team sport there are rules or its tradition for the whole team to have the same color shoes (more or less) So in the NFL or NBA the whole team wears black or white based shoes. MLB same deal. Each company might have a different look around those shoes but the Oakland A's will always have a base color of white, the Cardinals red, the Chicago Bears Black, etc. Its not like that in soccer.

I'm not saying I'm against it or for it, just interesting to me that its the only sport that shoe color is not part of the uniform. There is no question they could do it. All companies could offer a white, black, red, and blue shoe and it'd match 100% of team colors (default could be white or black of course) but its just not tradition to do that. The player can do whatever they want and that was interesting to me.