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| 2008 U.S. Olympic Team Trials
Track & Field
University of Oregon, Hayward Field - Eugene OR
June 27 - July 6, 2008
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New apparel line for Team USA designed for speed, options
 | | Some of the apparel elements. |
By SteveU, photos from nikemedia.com
One of the most joyful moments of the 2008 Olympic Trials has been the public unveiling of the new Nike USA Track and Field uniforms last Monday, June 30, to be worn by all Team USA members in Beijing. The unveiling took the form of the 23 Nike athletes who had qualified for the team to date doing a flag-waving victory lap before 20,000 fans gathered at Hayward Field for that evening’s events.
And with that teddy bear of a shot putter, Reese Hoffa, leading the charge, the event couldn’t help but be a lot of fun.
“We debuted The Swoosh at the 1972 Olympic Trials,” noted Nike Media Relations Manager Jacie Prieto. “But traditionally the Nike way is a larger-than-life debut or unveiling. We wanted something organic for this, though, for the track and field fans, and we thought this was perfect.”
 | | The full "We The People" graphic | The Nike uniforms were on display most of last week for select media members to preview. The Nike Swift System of Dress is designed to be lightweight and give athletes plenty of choices.
Featuring the Nike Swift materials the company has just introduced, the uniforms are intended to reduce weight to achieve less drag and lead to faster times. Prieto said the uniform has seven percent less drag than the Athens version, and that wearing the new Nike Swift Suit translates to a benefit of about two-hundredths of a second in the 100 meters.
The apparel uniform line features different types of tops, shorts, and even gloves and arm coverings, designed to appeal to men and women in different events. Athletes can customize the uniform to their preferences and aerodynamic needs. Of particular note are the gloves and arm coverings which are dimpled like a golf ball. The idea is to reduce drag and allow the arms to slice through the air faster than they would uncovered. The company says that in testing, its design team found that compared with bare skin, the gloves and arm coverings reduced drag by 19 percent and the socks by 12.5 percent.
Some of the Nike athletes, like Sanya Richards, have already been seen wearing the arm coverings.
The apparel also includes Nike Aerographics and the “We the People” graphic. The vast graphic, created by design director Mark Smith is said to be inspired by various cultural elements and design influences. It’s also designed to “leverage” the Aerographics technology by incorporating mesh into the garments without adding extra materials. No single uniform incorporates the entire design, but rather specific parts of it.
The designers of the graphic were drawn to tattoos and the story of many cultures coming together under the goal of victory. On the one hand, the graphic has Celtic, African, Native American and Hispanic cultural elements. On the other, it represents the Statue of Liberty with a torch, the Stars and Stripes, the date (1776) of the signing of the Declaration of Independence and more.
Then there’s the footwear, a new line that features Nike’s lightest distance spikes (Zoom Matumbo) and middle distance spikes (Zoom Victory Spike). Both are lighter, for example, than the gold spikes Michael Johnson wore in the 1996 Olympic Games. The shoes feature Flywire technology, which Prieto said features an upper from which layers are stripped away, yet has the qualities of a “suspension bridge,” in supporting the foot.
These shoes, alone with The LunaRacer+ and LunarTrainer+, which incorporate Lunarlite technology in an ultra light midsole, will be available at retail for consumers beginning in July and rolling out through October. Singlets and shorts with the Nike Swift fabrics also are available at retail.
The Nike Team USA members who toured the track for the uniform unveiling.
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