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NWSL teams leak Nike uniforms

Jeff Kassouf March 17, 2013 19

Now less than 30 days until inaugural kickoff, the National Women’s Soccer League still has not officially announced Nike as a league partner despite teams leaking Nike gear in photos and video. As early as two months ago, NWSL clubs had Nike gear at the college draft in Indianapolis.

In the wee hours of Sunday morning, following a 2-0 loss to Japan’s INAC Kobe, Seattle Reign FC unveiled their Nike kits via Facebook:

Seattle Reign FC unveiled their Nike uniforms on Sunday morning.

This comes after the Washington Spirit leaked a photo of that same jersey in red:

The design is the Nike women’s Hertha jersey. It seems, according to what is alleged (we never saw the original tweet) to be a tweet deleted by Portland Thorns FC owner Merritt Paulson, that the jerseys this season will be “cookie cutter” due to the quick turnaround. That makes sense, given that NWSL only became official in November and uniform plans usually begin a year in advance.

The most alarming thing here is that the NWSL still has not announced the Nike deal, which is not and never was any sort of secret. Three teams now (see Portland’s video below) have shown photos or video with players in Nike gear. So where is the NWSL announcement? The same waiting game is on for an announcement about a TV deal.

Women’s Professional Soccer and Puma invested a lot of money and marketing efforts into uniform reveals. Each year it was the league’s signature event outside of soccer — one that could attract even the non-soccer fan. If time constraints causes teams to have basic jerseys in Year 1, than skipping such an event is understandable (and just how cost-effective it was is also a factor). But no announcement yet?

How teams are outfitted in gear and sharing photos of it without any league announcement is tough to understand. But at the same time, it isn’t really at all.

UPDATE: Some more photos from our correspondents are below. Meg Linehan has photos from Boston, where the Breakers are wearing plain Nike tops with no team logo. Thad Bell has photos from FC Kansas City training.

FC Kansas City:

(Photo Copyright Thad Bell for www.equalizersoccer.com | http://www.tpbphoto.com/)

Boston:

 

The Boston Breakers train at Harvard University ahead of the 2013 NWSL season on March 17, 2013. (Photo copyright Meg Linehan | www.equalizersoccer.com)

POSTED IN » Analysis, NWSL
About the author: Jeff Kassouf View all posts by Jeff Kassouf
  • Steglitz49

    The video is very charming. Thank you.

    Regarding uniforms, please can we have home kits that are instantly recognizable so we do not have to think?

    Though regularly they are tweaked a bit, there is no problem immediately recognizing Arsenal, Barcelona or Göteborg, for example. Likewise, as soccer developed all those years ago, teams seem to have been pleased to share their design with teams in other countries to help them, so the same jerseys turn up all over the place in Europe.

    The away uniforms can vary from year to year but with only 8 teams one hardly needs an away kit, does one?

  • http://www.phasedma.com Anthony

    The good news is they sell a men’s version of the Hertha jersey. Now the guys would just have to find the patch to iron on right?

  • Terry Lash

    Maybe the reason that no announcement about the Nike jerseys has been made is the shortage of NWSL personnel, who have a lot of issues to handle. What is the staffing of NWSL HQ?

  • http://twitter.com/hercircumstance hercircumstance

    I hardly see Seattle playing an actual game in their kits as being a leak. What else were they supposed to wear? It doesn’t seem like the league see’s this particular reveal as important. Considering how generic the kits are it shouldn’t be a surprise.

    • http://twitter.com/JeffKassouf Jeff Kassouf

      It’s the world’s biggest, arguably most recognizable athletic wear brand acting as what will likely be the biggest national sponsor of a fledgling women’s league. The financial importance of that shouldn’t be understated. I would think the league would actually want to play that up, even if this year’s jerseys are bland. Instead, we have more silence.

      • vert2013

        Silence and half a$$ed announcements seems to be the norm for NWSL.

        • Steglitz49

          You can always send them a check and take over the sponsorship.

      • Steglitz49

        Things are brewing in Chicago, Jeff ….

        • http://twitter.com/JeffKassouf Jeff Kassouf

          I’m aware, thanks.

      • http://twitter.com/hercircumstance hercircumstance

        Maybe they are waiting for the NT members to be under contract and have them show off the Nike kits. No one but the die hards are paying attention right now anyway. Launching a relationship with X player vs that Nike relationship with Morgan in a kit is a big difference. Meanwhile, you can’t fault teams for playing in their kits for games the league knows in advance about. The teams have been pretty good with their PR. The league not so much.

  • vert2013

    Seattle also said on their FB account that the teams only had 2 kits to chose from. Seems kinda odd though, even if they had to go with off the shelf kits Nike has dozens to chose from, why limit them to 2?

  • Derek

    They seem nice though. Surprised they didn’t just make subtle differences. (Stripe going vertical for one team, diagonal another,, double stripe for another, etc.) Good for the first year. Bet the Thorns will be the first to make a new custom design for the next season.

    • Derek

      Thorns are selling unisex merch now in the Timbers store also. I’m sure others are also.

  • NYRick

    If Nike told each team to wear colored burlap sacks with the Nike swoosh, AND THEY AGREED TO BE THE KEY SPONSOR OF THE NEW LEAGUE, I’d say yes to that.

    Federations subsidizing salaries is one thing. Key corporate sponsors like Nike is what will keep the league solvent, at least initially. Hopefully, Panasonic plays a big role too. I know they were heavily involved with the USWNT victory tour.

    Also, anyone know the status of a TV deal for the NWSL, if there is one being worked on? Fox Soccer or MSNBC sports channel? It would be so great if they could get a game of the week on during the whole season. In addition, are all the games going to be streamlined live online for each team. So if I was a Sky Blue fan, I can watch their games live or really any other team in the league playing on their respective days? Just curious if anyone knows anything about that?

    • http://twitter.com/hercircumstance hercircumstance

      Fox Soccer is closing down and Fox Sports 1 is starting up. I believe Hope was recently at an event for them so maybe they are in the running for showing NWSL games. They will be more like ESPN and playing more than just soccer so there will be some competition. But it was a good sign Hope was there. http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/more/news/20130310/media-circus-fox-sports-1/

      • http://twitter.com/BostonRedSoccer Boston Red

        I noticed they were advertising rugby & Aussie football today, so I’m guessing the soccer menu will be cut back.

    • Derek

      NWSL tweeted about upcoming information regarding TV/Streaming. I’m sure they’ll have their own online streaming. But I wouldn’t be surprised if NBC Sports Network got some games. They need more programs anyway.

  • http://sportsmyriad.com Beau

    Maybe Nike will actually have an NWSL presence in stores. Our local Puma store never had anything WPS.

  • Steglitz49

    Any details (apart from the bald score) about the Reign’s matches in Japan?