nike

The following article reprinted from Sportstextiles online publication. What is claimed is outrageous.

Textile breakthrough can ‘protect the future of sport’, Nike says

08/09/2022

The vice-president for apparel innovation at Nike, Janett Nichol, has said a new material the sports company has developed, Nike Forward, is “a game-changing platform” and that it has the potential to “protect the planet and the future of sport”.

The first two outrageous claims are “protect the planet and the future of sport”. How are they at nike protecting the planet and from what? As for the future of sport, I did not know sport had a disappearing future.

Nike said that the textile material it is able to make using the new platform can offer a 75% reduction in carbon footprint compared to traditional knit fleece. It is using needle-punch technology to turn fibre into textiles directly, without the need for weaving or knitting.

I am 80 years old and needle-punch machinery has been around longer than me. waste fiber has been made into needle-punch batting for years. I sold as did others needle-punched polyester fiberfill to skiwear manufacturing companies for years starting in the 1960’s. maybe some of the skiwear imported from Asia has needle-punch polyester in it. Maybe nike is dying waste or reprocessed polyester and then needle-punching it. You get a very strong fabric that can be cut and sewn into garments.

In order to make fleece a knitted material you need yarn to be put on a knitting machine.

The company said it had devoted five years of research to this project, culminating in a technique that it says “hacks into punch-needle machines” because it wanted to allay athletes’ concerns about climate change.

I have seen needle-punch machines and I fail to understand how one can “hack” into one even if they are now computer controlled. How it is associated with climate change or athletes, concerns is a mind boggling thought as in the fact that it makes no sense.

It said sportspeople around the world had told the company that “climate change is a barrier to sport”. Nike Forward responds to that concern, the sports group insisted, by creating a more sustainable material from which it can make sports apparel.

The only barrier to sport affected by climate change is skiing. Too long a fall season without snow the shorter the ski season. How making their sports apparel from needle-punch material is going to make a difference suggests to me these people in the sports group need to get a job. They are in the business of making fashion sports apparel and as the fashion changes the material will change. The needle-punch material garments will not last any longer than the knitted fleece material garments will.

A grey hoodie is the first Nike Forward garment the company has showcased. It contains no embellishments or dyes, has raw-cut pockets and, Nike has claimed, “zero water usage”.

They are using grey fiber to needle-punch and then making an unlined constructed garment, the cheapest construction you can make from the needle-punched material. No dying no water usage.

It pointed out that the new material can be constructed from industrial and post-consumer waste and can be “precisely tuned” to meet the needs of individual athletes. Vice-president for sustainable innovation, Seana Hannah, said Nike had wanted to offer “more sustainable options” as part of its commitment to athletes and to meet its own climate-change targets. She added that the company would go on to adapt the new material “to different lifestyle and performance purposes”.

All kind of fiber that is considered waste can be needle-punched after is is cleaned and that process will take water.

Athletes do not know what their needs are but nike can “precisely tune” them to meet those needs.

What are the “more sustainable options” nike is referring too? The only commitment the athletes are interested in is the paycheck.

What are its own climate change targets? Do not expect an answer.

If they adapt the new material to new garment styles [my words] how will that be different lifestyle performance purposes? This will not be explained.

The only thing nike is trying to do is get product to sell to make a profit.

As I see it we have a very large well known company that is trying to influence the consumer to buy their products base on fuzzy thinking.