by: Claude Clayborne
Monday morning, I headed to New York out of Fort Lauderdale/Hollywood Airport with one thing on my mind, the NFL was free from the tyranny of Reebok as their uniform manufacturer. Speculation about how much Nike would “Oregonize” the NFL with this takeover had reached an all-time high and I was headed to NYC as one of the lucky few that was invited to attend the release event.
I stepped out of LaGuardia airport dressed in shorts and flip flops, because I live in Florida and Mother Nature quickly reminded me that seasons do exist. I have a bad habit of forgetting that the rest of the country is not in perpetual summer when I travel. Even though New York has some of the best fine dining in the world, in true 6Magazine fashion, I found a Popeyes for a late lunch. I stayed at the Mondrian hotel which is tucked away in the eclectic SoHo district. I was blown away with how nice this place was and how unique it looked. I wondered to myself as I looked at my view of downtown if Nike’s latest innovation would somehow mimic dolphin skin with a revolutionary polymer to give the Miami Dolphins an advantage in the rain?
It’s always cool to come to these Nike trips because you get to catch up with old friends like John Gotty (The Smoking Section) Doug Farrar (Yahoo Sports Shutdown Corner) Bear Heiser (National Football Authority), Will Brinson (CBS Sports: Eye On Football) Larry Luk (Epidemik Coalition) Marcus Troy (MarcusTroy.com), Eddie Maisonet(The Sportsfan Journal), Sy Reeta (The NFL Chick) and a host of others. If I forgot you, I apologize. The entire media outfit met at Teqa for dinner in Murray Hill and I must say the corn on the cob is the stuff of legend.
The next day at the event, I found myself in awe not only of the new Nike Elite 51 uniforms but the players that modeled them as well. Nike brought out the big dogs – 32 player reps from each team: Andy Dalton, Kam Chancellor, Mike Vick, Ndamukong Suh, Big Ben, JerMichael Findlay, Wes Welker, Andre Johnson, Champ Bailey, Darren McFadden, Dwayne Bowe, LaGarrette Blount (best interview!) and more. I quickly tried to calculate the sheer amount of salary in the room, but since I am used to dealing with my paltry budget it did not compute. I refocused on the Nike System of Dress the players were wearing. I think changing the name from jersey to S.O.D. is so kick-ass. Hopefully more people start to adopt this term, because from now on I will refer to any uniform as S.O.D. Nike spends so much time focusing on making the uniform one piece of equipment that the sole purpose is to facilitate athlete success. I stood back looking at the Seattle Seahawks S.O.D. amazed. It looked as if it had to be created from strictly an aesthetic perspective, but the truth is that the aesthetic appeal is simply a by product of the Elite 51 jersey. It is designed fit, comfort, safety and durability in mind and the awesome design is coolest cherry on top.
The question of the day was why didn’t every team look like the Seahawks. At the end of the day, it wasn’t the NFL that rejected the change, but the owners. Nike gave every owner the option to select best design and innovation and it was up to them to accept it or not. The Green Bay Packers, Atlanta Falcons, Carolina Panthers, Oakland Raiders and the Philadelphia Eagles declined new jerseys. The other 27 teams that accepted the new jerseys had only slight design changes with Seattle Seahawks being the exception, but every team got an overhaul of technological improvements.
Features of the Elite 51 jerseys include:
LIGHTER –The Nike jersey and pant, wet or dry are lighter than previous versions
FLYWIRE TECHNOLOGY– Eliminates layers, reduces weight, and provides lockdown fit
ZONED MESH VENTILATION – Provides cooling zones for optimal thermoregulation
ZONED STRENGTH – High tenacity, stretch material, for light weight lockdown strength.
CUT FOR MOBILITY – Four-way stretch, hydrophobic materials enable range of motion wet or dry.
STRETCH TWILL NUMBERS – Four-way stretch even on numbering system
CUSTOMIZABLE BASELAYER PADDING – Nike Pro Combat Hyperstrong baselayer with integrated lightweight, Deflex padding offering customizable flexible protection.
DEFLEX PADDING – Lightweight, flexible impact protection integrated into top “hit zone” areas
ALUMINUM D-RING BELT – Aircraft-grade aluminum D-ring belt reduces weight.
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers, LaGarette Blount had a problem with the fact that his team didn’t get a full overhaul like the Seahawks. He had this to say,
“We are the youngest team in the league, we should be the Oregon of the NFL. I wish we had done what Seattle did. I may have to talk to Mr. Glazer (Bucs owner).”
We began discussing music, if the Bucs will take Trent Richardson in the draft, and various “LaGerreticisms” and he was hands down the best interview of the day. After some investigation, I realized that an NFL team is only allowed to change their jersey once every five years so expect some awesome changes in a few years when some teams can legally change uniforms. Another highlight of the day, Mike Vick shook my hand, MIKE VICK SHOOK MY HAND, FOOL. I guess me and Tashard Choice are in the same boat now, but who cares. Big Ben Roethlisberger very laid back and fun to interview. JerMichael Finley of the Packers and Justin Blalock of the Atlanta Falcons were side by side and since they both went to Texas, and myself being an Oklahoma Sooner alum I couldn’t resist throwing the Horns down before I interviewed them. I’m convinced that Justin Blalock will be a nuclear engineer after he retires from the NFL, this guy is smarter than everybody on Earth. Brian Urlacher and Ndamukong Suh both look like people that you would never want to meet up with in a dark alley.
Just like that the event was over. I had a ton of material write about. The world had finally seen what the Nike Elite 51 jerseys were all about respecting tradition but infusing the ultimate in technology to deliver the safest, lightest S.O.D. the game has ever seen. A thought occurred to me on the bus ride back to the hotel, Nike has a generational stronghold on football for the foreseeable future. An athlete from say Mesquite, TX can wear a Nike Pro-Combat jersey in high school, play college football at a school that outfits their team in Nike and then, Lord-willing make it to the NFL and wear the Elite 51 and future variations of it. There will now be athletes who spend their entire career from pee-wee to the pros wearing nothing but Nike.
My cousins husband runs a boutique in the Bronx called, Embode, so I headed up there to meet him for a while. Guess who shows up? Fat Joe! We ended up chopping it up all afternoon watching the Pacers vs. Knicks game and discussing how rap has changed since he started rapping in the early 1990s. He told me,
“The best in anything — basketball, rap or football all work like they never have seen any success. And the key to life is your work ethic, plain and simple”.
I headed back to Manhattan to finish my night by going out. I started out at Kiss and Fly in the Meatpacking District (GIRLS! GIRLS! GIRLS!) and finished the night at Green House where Seattle Seahawks safety, Kam Chancellor, who was at the Nike event earlier in the day as the Seahawks Nike player rep, was celebrating his birthday. Kam recognized me from the event earlier that day. We partied like we were going to split the bill, which we absolutely did not. I always have a blast at these events. I get to meet new people and learn about the constant innovations that Nike provides its athletes. Nike’s mantra — “Engineered to the exact specifications of championship athletes” rings truer now than ever with the release of the Elite 51 System of Dress.