When the United States Women’s National Team (USWNT) stepped off the bus for their first match of this summer’s premier sporting event, their arrival marked a turning point in women’s sport and fashion.
Rather than wearing sweats or warm-ups, the team was dressed in the Nike x Martine Rose player’s suit, jacket, shirt and Shox Mule MR 4 shoes.
While men’s teams have long had suiting ahead of such tournaments, the USWNT custom crested Nike x Martine Rose suits met the moment and created a new precedent — signifying style as much as camaraderie, equality and positive change, on and off the pitch.
“Wearing this suit to walk out on the field feels like the culmination of my whole career — to elevate the women’s team look, to show something unexpected, and to continue to push boundaries in what it means to be an elite female athlete,” says four-time USWNT player Megan Rapinoe, and muse for the Nike x Martine Rose Collection. “It’s also just fun to be able to show up rocking something that’s unique and popping. And to have one of the best designers in the world create for the best team in the world is incredible.”
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The energy and possibility of this moment was not lost on designer Martine Rose. “This is why I have always had references to football culture in my collections — because of how widespread and powerful the game is and how it has united people; how it brings people together, how it gives people hope,” says Rose. “The game transcends borders in a way I don’t think any other sport does. I think football is unique in the way it can ignite passion all over the world.”
In fashion and in sport, there are singular moments that are so progressively bold that their arrival creates a clear “before” and “after.” In her latest partnership with Nike, designer Martine Rose has seized a moment for both fashion and sport, launching us all into an “after” world — one that is more inclusive, egalitarian, empowering and inspiring.
The Nike x Martine Rose Collection dissolves the boundaries of men and women’s football styling with gender-free tailored player suiting that advances sport style and expands the culture of sport for the next generation. Purposefully connecting and merging the moments of “getting off the plane” to “arriving on the pitch,” the collection elevates the look of the elite women’s game and closes the gender gap in considered, crafted tailoring for women’s sport.
“When a woman wears a suit, it expresses strength, resilience and beauty,” says Martine. “I want women to feel powerful in their suits like men do. More than that, although I’m using women to tell the story, there’s no gender attached to the suit. Anyone can wear it. I hope one day we’re not talking about gender in sport and are just talking about the sport. Once everything is stripped back, it’s just the game that’s left.”
Ushering in a new era of women’s football, the collection is meant to meet the moment of this summer’s premier sporting event and to be worn in nuanced and meaningful ways by those involved.
“I love the mash-up that sports and fashion and culture has become, and as an athlete, I’ve always wanted what we wear to stand for more,” says Megan Rapinoe, Nike athlete, United States Women’s National Team member, and a muse for the Nike x Martine Rose Collection. “I think Martine, as a designer inspired by sports culture, is able to pull so much meaning into her work, and for her to be able to express herself through this moment that is so special to us is really cool — and obviously the pieces are just dope.”
The Nike x Martine Rose Collection features a player’s suit jacket, trouser, trench and shirt; accessories, including stockings, gloves and sunglasses; and the latest iteration of the Nike x Martine Rose Shox Mule MR 4. The shoe’s eye-catching blue and purple colorway nods to the famously vibrant goalkeeper jerseys of the 1990s, while the silhouette acts as a talisman for equity in football, the ever-expanding culture of sport and a signal of what’s to come from Nike and Martine later in the year.
The collection will be available exclusively on Martine-Rose.com July 25 and on SNKRS and at select specialty stores July 27.
Nike newsroom contributed to this column
Photo/NikeNewsroom/Nike
