For this summer's World Cup in South Africa, Nike has introduced what they're touting as the most environmentally friendly soccer uniforms ever to grace the pitch.
In just 100 days, 32 countries will battle throughout nine South African cities for the right to earn soccer's most prestigious trophy. Nine of those squads – including the United States – will be outfitted with Nike jerseys made from recycled polyester. According to the company, each will be comprised of eight recycled plastic bottles.
With this green jersey effort, Nike prevented (by its calculations) nearly 13 million plastic bottle from entering global landfills. And besides being good for the environmental, the new threads are designed to keep players drier and (most importantly) help them maintain their optimum core temperature while hoofing it around the field for 90 minutes a pop (assuming there's no extra time). The sides of each jersey have ventilation zones that comprise as many as 200 miniscule holes to allow air circulation, and the tighter-fitting jerseys are optimized to be more aerodynamic, stretching 10 percent more than previous uniforms.
You can check out all the jerseys on NikeSoccer.com starting Wednesday. Even cooler for the American team is that this year's uniforms honor those worn by the 1950 World Cup team, which defeated England 1-0 in the biggest upset in American soccer history.
The United States' first-round foe this June 12 in Rustenburg? Oh, yeah. Game on.
