Nike and Mamelodi Sundowns launch 2011/12 club kit

At the launch of the new Club kits at the Nike Store in Menlyn Park Shopping Centre, Pretoria on Tuesday, Nike and Mamelodi Sundowns Football Club officially unveiled the Club’s new home and away kit for the 2011-2012 season.

This season Mamelodi Sundowns Football Club will play in a new home kit inspired by the traditional yellow and green club colours, infused with a distinctive sublimated pro-gold geometric stripe print. 

The tradition and the heritage of the South African ‘Brazilians’ are rooted in the home shirt design. 

The body of the new home shirts will feature the iconic Sundowns yellow which have been subtly infused with a new geometric gold stripe.  The classic, refined collar features the traditional Sundowns green which extend down the shoulders to the sleeve.

On the back of the shirt below the neck reads ‘Sundowns’ while the inside front, on the back of the crest, reads ‘The Sky Is The Limit’, which is Sundowns’ renown motto.

The body of the new away jersey features a bespoke geometric stripe print in the Club’s traditional away colours of blue and white, making the shirt look fast and contemporary.

While these geometric stripes are partly influenced by modern aesthetics, it is the Club’s motto - ‘The Sky is the Limit’ that inspires this unique, authentic design, and reinforces the Club’s commitment to a vision of growth and success in the new season.

The home shorts are blue with a single white stripe at the back and are paired with white socks featuring the blue trim.  The white away shorts feature a single blue stripe at the back and are paired with blue socks with a white trim.

The new kits are made from Nike’s ground-breaking recycled polyester – which for the first time includes both the shirt and shorts.

Each complete kit is made up of up to thirteen reclaimed plastic water bottles.  This new manufacturing process reduces energy consumption by up to 30% compared to manufacturing traditional polyester and saves nearly 100 million plastic water bottles from being dumped at landfill sites.

The lightweight kits are 13% lighter than previous versions, and actively regulate the players’ body temperatures on the pitch to help keep them dry and cool at all times through use of Nike Dri-FIT technology.  This technology draws sweat away from the player’s body through the material where it can evaporate.

Temperature regulation is helped by ventilation zones, consisting of hundreds of tiny laser cut holes from the under arms to the waistband, allowing air to circulate to help keep players dry, cool and comfortable.

For the first time the club crest on the front of the shirt is heat transferred, making it even lighter and crucially allowing this area to now be ventilated as well.

The shirt has a new aerodynamic fit this season, now slimmer and more athletic, providing 17% more stretch than the Sundown’s shirt of two years ago. While a bonded hem offers a streamlined look that reduces irritation caused by chafing.

The new kit will be available in retail from 14 July 2011. The authentic replica shirt will be available at the recommended retail price of R599.95, and the authentic stadium shirt is priced at R399.95.

There geometric stripe prints are available in both shirts for the consumers with specific garment features such as double-folded single stitching and single needle double-folded sleeve cuffs being standard in the authentic replica shirt.