LeBron James. Draymond Green. Ben Simmons. Tyler Ennis.
What do all of these NBA players have in common?
Their game-day jerseys have been, to varying degrees, torn during live action.
Here is LeBron’s rip:
Um, hey LeBron. You have a sliiiight tear in your jersey pic.twitter.com/1zS7Ii8P2u
— SB Nation (@SBNation) October 18, 2017
And Ennis’:
Tyler Ennis’ jersey was torn in the #Lakers’ preseason opener against the T’Wolves. Wonder if this becomes a persistent problem #Nike pic.twitter.com/YpDlu7GotG
— Ryan Ward (@RyanWardLA) October 18, 2017
And Green’s:
i wonder if Nike regrets making the NBA jerseys out of recycled wrapping paper pic.twitter.com/xLT5SYbQZe
— Dan Favale (@danfavale) October 28, 2017
And, finally, Simmons’:
Hold up…
( via @AdamLefkoe) pic.twitter.com/8KHbs14z07
— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) November 4, 2017
Hardly a good look, right? Fear not, though. Nike, who manufactures the Association’s jerseys nowadays, is taking this matter very seriously.
From ESPN.com’s Darren Rovell:
The company, which signed an eight-year, $1 billion deal with the NBA that began this year, said in a statement provided to ESPN on Monday night that the initial product presented to teams needs more reinforcement.
“Nike has always put the athlete at the center of everything we do and we have worked hard to create the most advanced uniforms in the history of the NBA,” the company said in the statement. “They are lighter and deliver great mobility and sweat wicking characteristics, and the feedback from players has been overwhelmingly positive. However, during game play we have seen a small number of athletes experience significant jersey tears. We are very concerned to see any game day tear and are working to implement a solution that involves standardizing the embellishment process and enhancing the seam strength of game day jerseys. The quality and performance of our products are of utmost importance and we are working with the NBA and teams to avoid this happening in the future.”
Torn jerseys, while mostly funny, are not a good look for Nike—particularly after they went out of their way to call the James incident an anomaly. They’re smart to address this issue now, before these uniforms become even more of a punchline.
My question: How does this work? Do they just completely change the material? And what happens when they’ve perfected the product? Do they roll them all out posthaste? Replace them as rips happen? Wait for next season? And then, from there, what happens to the current jerseys? Do they donate them? Give them away to the respective players? Toss them into an incinerator to remove all traces of their functional mistake?
Welcome to 2017. We care about ripped jerseys to the extent we’re wondering when they’ll be remedied and what will happen to the original versions. The NBA, almost needless to say, is doing pretty well if we’re devoting this much brainpower to something so ostensibly negligible.
