Nike Unveils Suit for USA Track and Field Team

trackfocus.com

Nike unveiled its Turbospeed suit, the official apparel for the USA Track and Field team for the London Summer Olympics alongside ex-Oympic champions Jackie Joyner-Kersee, Carl Lewis, and Michael Johnson.

Designed for the London Olympics, Nike’s new Rocket Red track uniforms and trio of medal stand jackets seem as fit for action movie heroes as for athletes. The brand claims these uniforms are its “swiftest track apparel to date”. Nike says the suits could shave up to 0.023 seconds off 100-meter sprint times.

“It felt like the right time to go red,” explained innovation creative director for Nike, Scott Williams. “It’s very bold, and that inspiration came from talking to our athletes about what they were feeling in competition.”

Fashion into Tennis?

imagevia: tennisgrandstand.com

Cross fluxes between fashion and sport: comfy materials and new colors that break the wall of conventional style and rules to fashion. But the elegance of beauty remains.

Fashion into tennis or tennis injected to fashion? The two worlds have always been very well linked, and have been equally influencing each other. You just need to imagine René Lacoste, the French tennis player of the 20s who invented the fabric called jersey petit piqué, which still at the present time feature the polo shirt with the crocodile. The fabric was lighter and more transpiring, compared to the cotton that had been used to that day, and the short sleeves and the comfortable collar aimed at making the tennis players’ movements easier. The Lacoste polo shirts were initially invented to play tennis, but later became reference pieces of clothing also for other sports, such as golf, and maybe one of most famous and worldwide recognizable clothing elements.

An element that influenced the sport and tennis wear is undoubtedly the evolution of fabrics. The new materials helped the athlete to have a superior and more body heat loss, and this goes in favor of the sport performance. On the other side, these materials allow some chromatic effects that were unimaginable with the natural fibers, and this is entirely in favor of the show. In this techno logic context, some world sport giant companies entered, such as Adidas and Nike, which hold the cartel of the best athletes’ sponsorships: Nadal and Federer, to name just a few. 

A further step to unite the connection between fashion and tennis would be the creation of clothing lines by the big designers. Something that has been started by Adidas and Stella McCartney, with the collaboration of tennis champion C. Wozniacki.

Pumped Up Kicks

The best selling item in the whole world and every person on earth has at least a pair of them. No one knows from where they came from, but everyone wants them and will be wanting them forever. 

No surprise,we’re only talking about shoes.Call them what you like: Trainers, sneakers,or Tennis shoes, but the concept is all the same for them,a rubber sole and uppers available in various kinds of material and color. Even in Ancient Greece, athletes were already wearing special shoes to help them during the Olympic Games. Indians used to cover the soles of their feet with latex from carving rubber’s barks. We would have to wait until the XIX century before a sneaker-like model was created. In that period, thanks to a clay mold, the shape of a foot sole was created with a rubber, the sole was put to the upper part of the shoe. Attracted by this  new experiment, Charles Goodyear  worked on rubber, until he would create a series of shoes.The very first people who benefited from this new type of shoe were tennis players, who swiftly embraced these shoes to play with.

1986 Olympic Games in Athens

That's why, they were called "tennis shoes" at first. Before long, the World Cup and the Olympic Games in 1986 in Athens would help in the spread of sneakers in the sporting world. But when the first basketball shoes came out in 1919, no one could ever have guessed their great success, even in time. Between teenagers and sneakers it was really love at first sight, and soon enough they became the symbol of young rebels. 

James Jean wearing All Star

James Dean used to wear All Stars, many rock bands were then photographed wearing sneakers from different brands and models, a symbol for emancipation which would become a mass phenomenon. As time went by, sneakers were used to match elegant office suits,showing an easy chic taste. Giorgio Armani himself, was the forerunner of this trend. 

In the US, the market was booming thanks to the overwelhming love American's have for a healthy lifestyle.Only in the 80's, over 30 million people have used them to run. That’s why in time studies have been carried out on sneakers, applying new and advanced technologies to make them even more fitting to every sport.

      

"I run with 600 Million Legs" Adidas Ad

In 1978, Nike introduced the Air technology that featured pressurized gas capsulated  in a cushioning between the sole and the upper of the shoe. Thanks to this innovation, and more, Nike’s annual sales are up to 10 billion dollars! If you love technology, this is exactly what you need: in 2005,Adidas started to the market Adidas One, a smart shoe capable to compress and decompress its sole every four steps you make, controlled by a small computer which is able to automatically calculate algorithms and adjust the soles of the shoe! Trainers at present not only belong to the sporting world, but are invading street fashions all over the world, and many shoe brands are born beside the most popular ones. 

Vintage fashion is showing a revised model of the past; new sneakers suggest a retro taste, but they will never be out of fashion.