Nike unveiled the new team kits for the Football Ferns and the Matildas this week. Photo / BrettHemmings.com
Nike unveiled the new team kits for the Football Ferns and the Matildas this week. Photo / BrettHemmings.com
In the 1970s the term “the future is female” started making its way into society. It began as an empowering slogan for New York City’s first women’s bookstore, Labryis - founded by lesbian feminists.
At the time, the slogan was underground. Used almost exclusively by lesbians and feminists who wore the words proudly on t-shirts and badges while attending rallies and protests.
For nearly 40 years the phrase sat in the back pocket of society and it wasn’t until 2015 when it would finally emerge into the mainstream. Now, it’s used widely by large companies and influential women provoking an impact Labryis only dreamed of.
But with the revival of the phrase comes new meanings, new intentions and new modern challenges to overcome. One of those is how we can create a future where females don’t have to fight for basic needs such as leakage-protecting undergarments.
In 2021, Adidas was the first major sportswear brand to produce period-proof activewear. They hoped to improve sports participation for millions around the world. Last year Puma followed suit collaborating with Modibodi to create a leak-proof underwear collection after their survey found one in two teens skip sport because of their period.
This week, Nike unveiled their own leak-proof initiative starting with the Football Ferns World Cup team kit.
Football Ferns new team kit:
Nike unveiled the new team kits for the New Zealand Football Ferns ahead of the World Cup. Photo / Nike
Earlier this year the Herald reported that the Football Ferns team kit was in for a significant change.
FIFA rules require athletes to wear the same colour underwear as their team kit so for the Football Ferns that historically meant white underwear and when a person is menstruating, understandably, that’s likely the last colour they want to wear.
So after years of wearing an all-white at-home kit, the high-performing female athletes had had enough. They asked for a form of comfort that any menstruating person could empathise with. This is where Nike’s newly designed Football Ferns team kit comes in.
Speaking at the unveiling, Jordie Katcher - Nike’s VP of Women’s Global Sports Apparel - said on average female athletes who are performing while menstruating will be distracted for the first nine minutes of each game due to leakage concerns.
Sarah Walsh, Head of Women’s Football and former Australian soccer player added her thoughts, that “If the menstrual cycle was a man’s issue it would have been solved years ago.”
But it’s only just started its journey to being solved.
New Zealand Football Ferns new away kit. Photo / Nike
The new Football Ferns at-home kit is a completely black fit with their emblem - a silver fern made to look like it was delicately spray painted onto each top.
Their away kit pays homage to the 1991 qualifying squad kit and sees the bottoms completely void of white. Instead, they have opted for the turquoise colour paired with a complimenting turquoise and white top.
Sharing her thoughts on the new kits, Football Fern Hannah Wilkinson said, “That blue colour is an amazing change and even better the absence of white shorts now is fantastic for women with any kind of period anxiety.” She added, “It just helps us focus more on performance and shows a recognition and appreciation of women’s health.”
As well as including leakage support, the kit offers sweat protection options for active females because while some wear their sweat-like armour, others want theirs to be hidden.
‘Game changing’ new range:
Nike has unveiled a new 'game changing' leakage protection line. Photo / Nike
Nike’s unveiling and recognition of menstruating bodies doesn’t stop with the team kits though, they have taken onboard feedback to create their new range - something the brand claims is “game-changing”.
After surveying tens of thousands of women around the world to find out how they can make their products more comfortable for people who are menstruating, Nike has created an absorbent liner with a two-layer membrane with the same thickness as a 10-cent coin so menstruating athletes can perform without leakage fears.
Lisa Gibson, senior apparel innovation project manager for the Nike Advanced Innovation Collective, said “By age 14, girls are dropping out of sport at twice the rate of boys. And by age 17, an age at which most have gone through puberty, 51 per cent will have quit.”
While those rates aren’t all in relation to periods and menstruation, the fear of bleed-through while playing sport is a big part of the decision making and Nike is “looking at the world through her eyes” and adapting its products to suit so it can help minimalise the impact periods have on women’s decision to play sport.
How we can support female athletes
Nike has unveiled a new 'game changing' leakage protection line. Photo / Nike
Periods and cycles have historically been a taboo topic, rarely spoken about and the consequences of that mean there are plenty of myths and misinformation out there. Something that benefits nobody.
Speaking at Nike’s unveiling event this week, Lydia O’Donnell, co-founder of Femmi and distance runner, said, “For those who don’t know the sports science stats only six per cent of sport science studies are actually being done on women so there’s a huge lack of information when it comes to the female physiology.”
O’Donnell said she too used to live in ignorance of her cycle and the impacts it had on her body so much so, she lost her period entirely. The frightening moment led to a big change for the former athletic runner and now, she is helping others use their cycle to their benefit.
“I learnt how incredible female hormones are, I learnt how amazing menstrual cycles are. Up till that point if I got my period it was almost like either we don’t speak about it or we try and get rid of it to train harder and lose your menstrual cycle so I learnt that a period is really powerful.”
And if the past two years - and sportswear giants’ approaches to periods - are anything to go by it seems others are also learning of its power.
It’s something our Labryis founders would be proud of because even though it took us 40 years to acknowledge, we now know for sure that the future is female.
