Posts Tagged ‘World Cup’
Written by Enid Burns on 08 September 2010
As football season starts here in America, it’s still worth thinking about the sport the rest of the world calls football, what we call Soccer in the U.S. Just in time for fall ‘futball’ Nike introduced its Total 90 Tracer ball. The new ball is designed for consistency, accuracy, touch and visual acuity. The ball has hand-sewn seams, improved bladder tension and the surface texture you expect to kick around the field. The surface texture is actually a micro-textured casing, which regulates airflow equally across the ball’s entire surface. The ball is then less prone to wobble, and takes a more direct, arrow-like flight. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: football, Nike, Nike Equipment Innovation Test Lab, Soccer, World Cup
Posted in Equipment, Pro Sports | No Comments »
Written by Peter Suciu on 25 June 2010
adidas World Cup Jabulani Ball
This week the California Institute of Technology gave new meaning to the concept of “air ball” as aerospace engineers at the prestigious school put the controversial new “Jabulani” football (that’s soccer to most of us Americans) to the test in a wind tunnel. The ball, which was developed by adidas, is currently being used in the World Cup, where players, coaches and fans have blamed it for missed shots. So much for blaming bad play?
According to reports two balls were put into the Lucas Wind Tunnel and exposed to wind speeds of about 10 meters per second, which is actually slower than a typical kicked ball. To determine the movement of air around said balls, a smoke machine was called in. This helped the engineers visualize the air movement. The findings actually matched some complaints from teams in the World Cup. The ball reportedly had some “bizarre trajectories.”
Developed by the adidas Innovation Team (a.i.t.), the ball has been tested as new “match ball” for the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa. This mean tests under the toughest laboratory conditions, but it isn’t clear if this is in fact the first time the ball went into a wind tunnel. At this point it doesn’t look as if the ball will pulled, but with more studies coming dare we say that the wind of change is blowing through.
Adiddas World Cup Jabulani Ball at Amazon.com
[Via Reuters: Geeks give new Cup ball a wind tunnel workout]
Tags: 2010 FIFA World Cup, Adidas, adidas Innovation Team, ball, Cal Tech, California Institute of Technology, FIFA, football, Jabulani, Lucas Wind Tunnel, Soccer, South Africa, World Cup
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Written by Enid Burns on 04 June 2010
These players are kicking on a hybrid natural grass and artificial turf.
Field caretakers at this year’s World Cup may get a break from patching grass at this tournament. The fields are sewn with reinforced natural grass produced by Belgian-based company Desso Sports Systems. An article appearing in USAToday details “a surface with 20 million threads of synthetic grass fibers woven in between and beneath the natural grass.” The surface is far from Astroturf of yesterday. Natural grass composes most of the playing field, but is reinforced with artificial threads driven eight inches into the surface and intertwined with the roots of the real grass to keep the field intact for the long series of soccer games to be played.
The enhanced surface is already installed in a number of fields worldwide. For soccer, or football as the rest of the world calls it, Arsenal and Liverpool in the U.K. and the training grounds of Real Madrid. For American football, the Denver Broncos and the Philadelphia Eagles already use the reinforced natural grass.
Desso Sports Systems and its English language site ArtificialGrass.info.
Tags: artificial turf, enhanced grass, football, Soccer, World Cup
Posted in Pro Sports | 3 Comments »
Written by Enid Burns on 26 February 2010
Nike makes team uniforms from recycled plastic bottles.
The recent trend in sports and fitness clothing is green, sustainability. Nike is part of this trend and especially when it comes to football (that’s soccer to many of you), and the upcoming 2010 World Cup in South Africa. This year Nike is outfitting the Brazil team with home and away kits, plus eight away kits for other Nike-sponsored federations appearing in the games. What’s so sustainable about these kits or outfits you ask? Nike’s fabric suppliers sourced plastic bottles from landfill sites in Japan and Taiwan to produce the jerseys and shorts.
Eight plastic bottles produce one jersey. To turn bottle into soft, breathable fabric bottles the manufacturer melts the plastics down to produce new yarn and then convert that yarn into fabric to construct jerseys. Just because the jerseys are made from plastic doesn’t mean players will drown in their own sweat. Designed to keep players drier, cooler, and more comfortable, the outfit has a handful of features. The Dri-Fit fabric is 15 percent lighter than previous Nike kit fabrications, which also benefits players’ ability to do their stuff out on the field. The coordinating shorts have additional ventilation zones below the waistband and near the base of the spine to keep the outfit breathable.
The outfits have some protection built in as well. Nike Pro Combat, adds protection against light impact and abrasion in the Slider and Impact shorts. The Pro Combat also features a therma Mock that protects a player’s neck against harsh conditions such as sun.
The process saves raw materials and reduces energy consumption by up to 30 percent compared to the manufacture of virgin polyester. For the upcoming season and competition, Nike salvaged roughly 13 million plastic bottles, totaling around 254,000 kg of polyester waste from landfill sites. That’s enough to stretch a distance of 3,000 kilometers if the bottles are laid out end-to-end.
The games take place in South Africa with teams from Brazil, The Netherlands, Portugal, U.S.A., South Korea, Australia, New Zealand, Serbia, and Slovenia. Get your own team kits at nike.com and nikefootball.com.
Check out Nike’s video: Nike Introduces 2010 National Team Kits Designed for Increased Performance with Lower Environmental Impact
Tags: football, Nike, plastic bottles, Soccer, South Africa, Sustainable clothing, team kit, World Cup
Posted in Apparel, General, Pro Sports, Sustainable | No Comments »
