“GREEN GAME” DELIVERS ENHANCED PERFORMANCE AND REDUCED ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT

Brazil and Holland to Wear National Team Kit Jerseys Made Entirely From Recycled Polyester for Friday’s Showdown in South Africa

When Brazil play Holland in Port Elizabeth on Friday afternoon, players on both teams will take to the pitch wearing the most environmentally-friendly and technologically advanced kit in football history. The jerseys are made entirely from recycled polyester, each one directly produced from up to eight recycled plastic bottles.

The plastic bottles are diverted from Asian landfills, then chopped into flakes and melted down to a solution from which yarn is produced. This is then knitted into the fabric used to make the shirts. All national team shirts created by Nike for summer 2010 (whether worn by players or available for fans) use this process.

The kits are part of Nike’s ‘Considered Design’ programme, which aims  to reduce or eliminate toxics and waste, increase the use of environmentally preferred materials and use Nike innovation to create more sustainable products.

Nike National Team Kit Highlights:

• •   Nearly 13 million plastic bottles have been diverted from landfill by using recycled polyester for Nike-sponsored national team jerseys, preventing a total of         around 254,000 kg of polyester waste, from being buried at landfill sites.
• •   This would be enough to cover more than 29 football pitches, and if each recycled bottle used to make these jerseys was laid end to end they would cover over 3,000 kilometres, more than the entire coastline of South Africa.
• •   This saves precious raw materials and reduces energy consumption by up to 30% compared to manufacturing virgin polyester.

While reducing the environmental impact of production, Nike’s national team jersey delivers the best performance on pitch. The improved Nike Dri-FIT fabric, now 13% lighter than previous Nike kits fabrications, keeps players dry by drawing sweat to the outside of the garment. The innovative ventilation zones along each side of the jersey and below the waistband on the shorts significantly increases air passing through the fabric to keep players cooler.