Textile Exchange

NIKE INTRODUCES 2010 NATIONAL TEAM KITS DESIGNED FOR INCREASED PERFORMANCE WITH LOWER ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT

Jerseys worn in South Africa and available at retail made from 100 percent recycled polyester, diverting 13 million plastic bottles from landfills

During this summer’s world cup, Nike offered the most environmentally-friendly and technologically-advanced kit in football's history. For the first time, all of Nike’s national teams, including Brazil, Portugal and The Netherlands, wore jerseys made entirely from recycled polyester, each one produced from up to eight recycled plastic bottles.

To make the 2010 national team kits, Nike’s fabric suppliers sourced discarded plastic bottles from Japanese and Taiwanese post consumer recycling centers and then melted them down to produce new yarn that was ultimately converted to fabric for the jerseys.

This process saves raw materials and reduces energy consumption by up to 30 percent compared to manufacturing virgin polyester. By using recycled polyester for its new range of national jerseys, Nike prevented nearly 13 million plastic bottles, totaling nearly 254,000 kg of polyester waste, from going into landfill sites. This amount would be enough to cover more than 29 football pitches. If the recycled bottles used to make the jerseys were laid end-to-end they would cover more than 3,000 kilometres, which is more than the entire coastline of South Africa.

The teams that wore Nike’s new national team jerseys in South Africa were: Brazil, The Netherlands, Portugal, USA, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand, Serbia, and Slovenia.  Away national team kits are available at local Nike store locations, on nike.com and nikefootball.com.

The national team kits represent an important step in the process to make all Nike products more sustainable.

For more information on Nike’s sustainability efforts go to http://www.nikebiz.com/crreport/.