Nike design director describes Naija kit design process

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Nike design director describes Naija kit design process

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How Nike turned Nigeria’s World Cup kit into a fashion phenomenon
Nike Design Director Pete Hoppins on this year’s hit jersey.
By LUIS PAEZ-PUMAR
June 11, 2018

When a World Cup kit is good, it becomes iconic. Due to the competition’s quadrennial nature, each time the world’s biggest sporting event comes to town is one of a very limited number of opportunities to show the **** out. Not only do hometown fans rush to swoop up their selection’s latest offering, but so too do neutral fans who want to find a reason to support more teams than just their own.

Come World Cup time, some countries, like France and Brazil, double down on their storied tournament history, choosing to always opt for the traditional over the sublime. Others, however, take their time on the world stage to exhibit what makes their own personal brand of swag. Enter Nigeria ‘18.

When Nike revealed its full lineup of World Cup kits for this summer's games, Nigeria's was the obvious star. Sure, eyes may have paused at Australia’s wild yellow kits, or the classic cut of England’s all whites, but it was one flashy white-and-green jersey that stole the show. Nigeria’s triangle patterned home kit became not just the best one revealed for this tournament; it instantly became the hottest piece of soccer gear since Juventus’s Drake-modeled pink jersey from the 2015-2016 season.

Alongside the Super Eagles’s hit jersey, Nike also released a collection of other gear, including track jackets, bucket hats, and boards shorts, all boasting the same shades of green and that distinct pattern. When the collection went up for sale on June 1, it sold out within minutes; some estimates had it at three minutes, speeds typically associated with the presales for Beyoncé tickets, and not merchandise for a soccer team expected to crash out in the first round.

To get a better sense of how an instantly-iconic World Cup kit comes to life, we hit up Nike FC’s Design Director Pete Hoppins, who is in charge of not just the jerseys worn in Russia this summer but also the apparel that brings the “story” of a country to life through soccer. We also asked him for his thoughts on making the Nigeria kit, and why he thinks the buzz around the Super Eagles reached such a din in the run-up to the jerseys being released.

When does planning for a big tournament like the World Cup happen from a design point of view?

We work to a timeline, a plan...if you have to make 100,000 jerseys or a million jerseys, those jerseys have to be manufactured and shipped. We have a calendar that is over two years out from the event. For example, we’re designing Euro Championship jerseys for 2020 right now. We’re almost finished. The kick-off for the process starts even earlier than that sometimes, as much as three years out. For the World Cup ‘18, it was a three-year process.

Once you know who you need to make jerseys for, what does the process look like for coming up with designs?

We use the big moments in time, Euros or World Cup, to rally behind a new innovation. A new aesthetic for Nike Football. We start off working with our innovation partners within designs to create a chassis for the kit, a new innovation. That is often a fabric or yarn that’s going to increase performance; lighter weight, or faster drying than before. That’s the goal: improve on the chassis of the uniform with design. To align with that innovation, we create a new aesthetic and look for Nike Football. That can be something that helps tell the story of that innovation, or a mood and feeling that we want to portray to the world. We want to also help the players feel faster and more skillful than they have ever felt before. Eventually, we’ll land on an innovation that we want to lock down, that we’re super proud.

How much influence do the countries have on the designs?

We get briefed by the various countries or clubs around what they want in their kit...or what they don’t want to see. If you take Brazil, for example, it’s going to be yellow. There’s no skirting around that one, this is what it’s going to be. That’s more about us bringing out the soul of Brazil into something that is always a yellow jersey. On the away kit, we can try something else, though, like a print or something that brings out the spirit of the people.

Some countries will have very specific briefs of what they want, others won’t. We’ll always do our own research ourselves, within those countries, to capture the mood and feeling of that country and what they want to stand up for. Each country is completely different, what suits their style. Brazil, it’s always clean and purist, always vibrant but it also has this kind of toughness to it. Then you look at someone like France, and it’s always about sophistication and style. WIthin that, there are still some shared Nike filter that brings the entire collection together.

The big hit seems to be the Nigeria kit this time around. What made you decide to push the design on their home kit into such a unique direction?

With the Nigeria kit and collection, what we wanted to do is take a team who there is less expectations on from the media and fans in terms of both on the field performance and kit design. There is less pressure to not mess with the kit than, say, England. While no one expects Nigeria to challenge for the World Cup, we felt that there’s something going on with Nigeria as a young team. There’s a confidence in all these young players, they’re going to go for it and we were attracted to that. We’ve been following them from afar, and the players on social media...a lot of them are playing in some of the top clubs in Europe, and there’s that boldness that aligns in Nigeria and Lagos and in London. We thought that there’s something in here to do something different.

Once that idea, that this should be different, was settled on, how did the design process move along?

A guy here named Matt Wolff, he designed this home kit. He was inspired by the classic 1994 kit with the eagle wings. We kept pushing the design and pushing it and pushing it to see how far we could go until we were like...that just looks fire. We had this super energetic kit on a team where we think we can get it through the board. Ultimately, our client is the board, the president of Nigerian soccer has to sign off on this. We had more traditional backup options, in case they didn’t go for it. Some wouldn’t; we’d never push this on England. But we wanted this, so we went above and beyond to present it. Another of our design directors here, a guy named Daniel Farron, got a team of designers across Nike and asked them, “We’ve got this kit, what else do we want to do?” He went about and helped build this whole collection using various designers to really build on the kit and create this energetic moment around Nigeria. Everyone here thought this was the craziest thing going here, this is mad.

Why do you think the Nigeria kit was such a big success off the bat?

It just hit in the media and online, it just hit in the right moment where the stars aligned with a design that resonates with people. It was the right kind of thing to do at the time. Often, you’re dealing with an older generation to get these kits signed off on, and they won’t always go for newer ideas, even if you know that’s the thing the kids will be into. Fair play to Nigeria though for letting us go for it. The results are amazing and Nigeria is now everyone’s second favorite team. *laughs*

Was the collection a key part in that reception for you?

Often, the kit might have an amazing story but sometimes you only have one platform to tell it. If you look at this one from a collection point of view, it’s like, “Why wouldn’t you do that?” Not everyone wants to wear the uniform, but there’s something for everybody there. Every other company would love to have the assets that Nike does, and we’re trying to stretch them into the world of fashion and culture, not just performance.

Was Nigeria the hardest kit to design this time around? It feels like it could have been a challenge to settle on a design that’s so much different than the typical World Cup kit.

Nigeria was actually the easiest! That’s everyone having fun. We worked closer with the players and the Nigerian federation to make that happen. The hardest were Brazil and England, just like always. It’s got to be a yellow kit and a white kit, respectively. You have to deliver that. Otherwise, you’ll be shot. [laughs] How do you move those forward every two, four years? Especially when you’re trying to innovate the performance. We’re not just going to add things to the kits for the sake of it.

What Nigeria is hopefully going to allow us to do in the future is show that some of the more traditional teams that if you are willing to be creative in the partnership, you can ultimately have something more culturally relevant that connects with the youth.
Last edited by muzines on Wed Jun 13, 2018 9:23 am, edited 2 times in total.
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Re: Nike design director describes Naija kit design process

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Even though this is long, I thought it was interesting to see the insight behind this kit and collection, and actually how much Nike have invested in this. It seems they also worked closely with the NFF and Pinnick. Very interesting that they actually loved the kit so much they developed the whole collection to push it.

Based on this and their level of excitement internally at Nike, you can understand how the 3 million pre-orders happened. I believe they told their outlets that they had something out of the box coming, and when it was launched - the level of excitement was off the charts.

If Nigeria can capitalize on this, I believe Nike will look at us as an emerging market and a good platform to introduce radical designs. This can translate into millions for the NFF and our players.

Really cool.
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Re: Nike design director describes Naija kit design process

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JUST WONDERING...


...would Nike come up with something new for CAN?
(You don't have to read between the lines to see that the gentleman is saying you can mess with Nigeria, but not England or Brazil)
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Re: Nike design director describes Naija kit design process

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Bell wrote:JUST WONDERING...


...would Nike come up with something new for CAN?
(You don't have to read between the lines to see that the gentleman is saying you can mess with Nigeria, but not England or Brazil)
Bell
I get the impression that we are low risk in terms of design acceptance and at the same time, we are open to new ideas and our energy and youthfulness makes us ideal candidate for such vibrant designs.


Well, considering most of us have always thought we wanted jerseys that are not templated but unique to the SE, they were spot on.

We are guinea pigs that survived their experiment and even thrived.
Last edited by pajimoh on Wed Jun 13, 2018 8:45 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Nike design director describes Naija kit design process

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Pinnick has won me over period. Thunder fire any of those mago mago chairman Wannabees. The whole social media is buzzing with something positive about naija for once....this is what sports ....football especially should be doing for us. Another 10 years for the egg head ......he deserves it.
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Re: Nike design director describes Naija kit design process

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Bell wrote:JUST WONDERING...


...would Nike come up with something new for CAN?
(You don't have to read between the lines to see that the gentleman is saying you can mess with Nigeria, but not England or Brazil)
Bell
He is not hiding it lol like some conspiracy, it was openly stated.

Brazil being the best team in World Cup history have become obsessed with their kit, England as perhaps the most marketed league and with some degree of delusion of grandeur, have also formed their own obsession with their kit.

Nigeria is a younger footballing nation in the grand scheme of things, having only qualified in 94, never reached the finals stage of the WC, so our tradition is more 'fluid', it is in the works. Classic for teams such as Brazil spans decades, classic for us, apart from the shade of green, is probably a more fluid concept.

As Nigeria becomes better as a footballing nation, we too will become obsessed with continuity and rigid structures and traditions, and we too will begin churning out the same stale kit year in year out, with 1 line removed or the Logo made a littler bigger or smaller.

It is not a 'bad thing' to be open to suggestion as we are. Classic is good, but let us be real, most classic kits are crap, people like them because of sentiment, which is fine.

He is not saying that Nigeria can be walked all over, but that Nigeria is less obsessed with the kit.
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Re: Nike design director describes Naija kit design process

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oloye wrote:Pinnick has won me over period. Thunder fire any of those mago mago chairman Wannabees. The whole social media is buzzing with something positive about naija for once....this is what sports ....football especially should be doing for us. Another 10 years for the egg head ......he deserves it.
I have read comments on social media rating and slating us. More rating than slating. I think that makes it a winner. Hate it or love it, you just can't ignore it.
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Re: Nike design director describes Naija kit design process

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Bell wrote:JUST WONDERING...


...would Nike come up with something new for CAN?
(You don't have to read between the lines to see that the gentleman is saying you can mess with Nigeria, but not England or Brazil)
Bell
From tha article, he also said they had less risky alternatives for the presentation, but that the NFF went with the bold option. I even suspect the away jersey is their safe template if the NFF rejected the design. The last line also says that they are hoping that the success of the kit enables these countries to become more open to trying new things.
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Re: Nike design director describes Naija kit design process

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I hope going forward we might now consider using other colors instead of just green and white...at least for the away strip. A little black was used in this one but not too pronounced.
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Re: Nike design director describes Naija kit design process

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Tbite wrote:
Bell wrote:JUST WONDERING...


...would Nike come up with something new for CAN?
(You don't have to read between the lines to see that the gentleman is saying you can mess with Nigeria, but not England or Brazil)
Bell
He is not hiding it lol like some conspiracy, it was openly stated.

Brazil being the best team in World Cup history have become obsessed with their kit, England as perhaps the most marketed league and with some degree of delusion of grandeur, have also formed their own obsession with their kit.

Nigeria is a younger footballing nation in the grand scheme of things, having only qualified in 94, never reached the finals stage of the WC, so our tradition is more 'fluid', it is in the works. Classic for teams such as Brazil spans decades, classic for us, apart from the shade of green, is probably a more fluid concept.

As Nigeria becomes better as a footballing nation, we too will become obsessed with continuity and rigid structures and traditions, and we too will begin churning out the same stale kit year in year out, with 1 line removed or the Logo made a littler bigger or smaller.

It is not a 'bad thing' to be open to suggestion as we are. Classic is good, but let us be real, most classic kits are crap, people like them because of sentiment, which is fine.

He is not saying that Nigeria can be walked all over, but that Nigeria is less obsessed with the kit.
I agree completely.
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Re: Nike design director describes Naija kit design process

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Ok, the kit is bold, daring, different. Enough already, eve of the tournament proper, couldn't care less if they decked out in loin cloths, with lion head togas...Its the meat of the matter that matters. Are the lads ready to dig deep, go the extra yard, put in the tackles, take the yellow cards when needed? If theres a melee, are they all ready to go steaming in? There has to be an alertness, the refs will be firm but usually fair within the first few exchanges...Nigeria must be quick off the mark, get the let them know they're in a game challenges during the permissible period. Bag the early rounds, points in the bank, from the 4th round onwards, it'll be hard to get a by for such.
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Re: Nike design director describes Naija kit design process

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Coach wrote:Ok, the kit is bold, daring, different. Enough already, eve of the tournament proper, couldn't care less if they decked out in loin cloths, with lion head togas...Its the meat of the matter that matters. Are the lads ready to dig deep, go the extra yard, put in the tackles, take the yellow cards when needed? If theres a melee, are they all ready to go steaming in? There has to be an alertness, the refs will be firm but usually fair within the first few exchanges...Nigeria must be quick off the mark, get the let them know they're in a game challenges during the permissible period. Bag the early rounds, points in the bank, from the 4th round onwards, it'll be hard to get a by for such.
There’s a million threads on CE. You should gladly comment on all the others if this is not your cup of tea.
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Re: Nike design director describes Naija kit design process

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Great stuff.

Can only imagine the frustration some designers would feel working on certain countries. Glad to see this all came together and everyone’s happy
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Re: Nike design director describes Naija kit design process

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I'm not sold on the kit. I prefer the away kit.
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Re: Nike design director describes Naija kit design process

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Dammy wrote:I'm not sold on the kit. I prefer the away kit.
That's the beauty of the kit. They are not waiting for you to be sold. More than enough have bought into it already. They can't even meet demand. They left you behind a long time ago :tic:
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Re: Nike design director describes Naija kit design process

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I prefer the design of the gear we flew into Russia in. I hope the NFF mass market that soon.
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Re: Nike design director describes Naija kit design process

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cic old boy wrote:I prefer the design of the gear we flew into Russia in. I hope the NFF mass market that soon.
I personally won't wear a mass produced dashiki. I can't imagine going to church and wearing the same with a few other people like it's a uniform. Jerseys yes, going out clothing, no
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Re: Nike design director describes Naija kit design process

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pajimoh wrote: I personally won't wear a mass produced dashiki. I can't imagine going to church and wearing the same with a few other people like it's a uniform. Jerseys yes, going out clothing, no
Why would you go to church in green and white?
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Re: Nike design director describes Naija kit design process

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cic old boy wrote:
pajimoh wrote: I personally won't wear a mass produced dashiki. I can't imagine going to church and wearing the same with a few other people like it's a uniform. Jerseys yes, going out clothing, no
Why would you go to church in green and white?
Why not? I'm in Africa. In Ghana, every first Sunday of the month is normally white with whatever colour. You then have weddings, christening etc that traditionally people like to wear white
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Re: Nike design director describes Naija kit design process

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pajimoh wrote: Why not? I'm in Africa. In Ghana, every first Sunday of the month is normally white with whatever colour. You then have weddings, christening etc that traditionally people like to wear white
Sorry, I forgot about Aladura churches. :taunt:
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Re: Nike design director describes Naija kit design process

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pajimoh wrote:
Bell wrote:JUST WONDERING...


...would Nike come up with something new for CAN?
(You don't have to read between the lines to see that the gentleman is saying you can mess with Nigeria, but not England or Brazil)
Bell
I get the impression that we are low risk in terms of design acceptance and at the same time, we are open to new ideas and our energy and youthfulness makes us ideal candidate for such vibrant designs.

Well, considering most of us have always thought we wanted jerseys that are not templated but unique to the SE, they were spot on.

We are guinea pigs that survived their experiment and even thrived.
That's what I got from the long story as well. This time it worked, I hope it will work next time for us and Nike.
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Re: Nike design director describes Naija kit design process

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Dammy wrote:I'm not sold on the kit. I prefer the away kit.
Personally, I don't like the kit, but I am beginning to change my mind, little by little :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:
And the BIBLE says: The race is NOT for the swift, neither is the battle for the strong nor ... but time and chance makes them all.
Ecclesiastes 1:18: For in much wisdom is much grief and he that increases knowledge increases sorrow.
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Re: Nike design director describes Naija kit design process

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oloye wrote:Pinnick has won me over period. Thunder fire any of those mago mago chairman Wannabees. The whole social media is buzzing with something positive about naija for once....this is what sports ....football especially should be doing for us. Another 10 years for the egg head ......he deserves it.
oloye, sorry. We 're moving Pinnick forward. After a great World Cup,Pinnick will have to take over FIFA! :thumbs:
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