Technically, it’s called “compression technology” — but you might recognize it better as that unwashed, skin-tight jersey you wore during scrimmages in high school gym class.
Though that stale, itchy purveyor of shapely truth certainly did you no favours, its evolved cousin — called TechFit compression — is being touted by Adidas as the newest thing in jersey-related technology.
“They’re 40 per cent lighter and give players the advantage of being sleeker so they can’t be held. Not to mention the built in performance enhancement,” explains Travis Blasingame, Adidas’ global business director.
On Friday, the NBA announced that muscle-hugging jersey will make its debut on several NBA players in the All-Star game next month. It’s not certain how many stars will take to the branded undergarments.
Adidas says the jersey contains strategically placed “powerbands,” which claim to do magic for a shirt: align core muscles, boost power, increase acceleration and endurance.
But according to Rick Powers, a sports management expert and professor with the Rotman School of Management, the impact is mostly psychological.
“I don’t know how it is going to improve performance, but it certainly addresses an intimidation factor,” said Powers, noting that one of the first teams to wear the technically superior skin-tight gear from Adidas was New Zealand’s ever-intimidating rugby team, the All Backs.
“It accentuates the fitness, body build, strength and power that the athlete possesses. . . Someone like LeBron James — can you imagine him in something like that?”
Some fans will naturally be drawn to the new look.
“From a fan point of view, the female audience is certainly going to be attracted to this,” Powers notes. “Look how much they like football pants. You ever see those guys wearing baggy pants?”
The new look certainly carries an old-school flare — a nod to the classic style of the 1950s and ’60s. But Powers notes that the recycling, for marketing purposes, can only go so far.
“Are they are going to go back to those short shorts?” he asks. “I hope not.”
The streamlined look has long been a staple of sports like track and field and swimming, which rely heavily on fractions of a second. Even football has slimmed down over the past decade, with a players obsessed with countering the clutching and grabbing of the game.
The NHL took steps to taper its look in 2007 when Reebok came out with its Edge jersey series.
Ross McCracken, Reebok Hockey’s senior manager of licensed apparel, said the goal was to reduce weight and increase player comfort.
But players complained the jerseys were too restrictive, and Reebok had to modify the new cut to increase room for arms and offered a different finish to the jersey, which was intended to keep moisture out.
The current NHL jerseys have gone through core-heat body tests in labs, and have been tested in wind tunnels at MIT.
“We’re always looking for better ways to improve performance,” McCracken said.
But in basketball the impact goes a step further. The pad-less sport displays the cuts and curves of physical perfection.
“We’re in the realm of superheroes wearing costumes,” says Paul Lucas, an ESPN columnist and jersey aficionado. “In the NBA, more so than other sports, these are sort of super human athletes because they are so big. . . they are not like normal human beings in terms of their size.
“That, I think, has the potential to sort of accelerate the trend toward the superhero motif.”
The NBA and its players are focused on enhancing performance, Lucas says. And, of course, vanity too plays a role. If players are already wearing TechFit undershirts, why not make them into jerseys?
“I can sort of see the logic to that,” Lucas says. After all, every little bit helps — even a jersey that weighs 40 per cent less, as unimaginable as that impact might be.
The NBA introduced a slim-cut uniform at the beginning of this season, and Adidas says the feedback has been great. But with about half the players wearing compression undergarments already, Blasingame says the All-Star game offers them an option to see what it feels like as a jersey.
There is no word on when, or if, we will see the jerseys in action next season.
As for the fans, the marketability of the new gear remains to be seen.
“You have to wonder if the normal guy is going to go out and buy these new skin-tight things because they are not flattering,” Powers laughs. “Unless you’re in LeBron James shape.”
A slim history of basketball:
• When James Naismith invented basketball, players dressed in the fashion of the 1890s — men wore long pants and short-sleeved shirts, while women wore long skirts and blouses, sometimes with matching scarves.
• Jerry West in the 1960s is the iconic image of the classic basketball player, driving to the basket in his short Lakers shorts and skin-tight jersey.
• The jerseys remained fitted throughout the 1970s and ’80s.
-Source: NBA.com via library
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