A long-term, creative partnership that turns athletes into designers
Regardless of their level, a football player's kit is about confidence as much as it's about performance.
From junior to professional, it's your amour from self-doubt.
A reminder that no matter where you are in the journey "from grassroots to greatness," you belong there.
And yet, this critical step in preparing the team's next season has been surprisingly traditional.
Turning Athletes into Designers
The process began with one representative from the team meeting with a retailer armed with notes from players and management.
This customer then explains what they are looking for, pointing to samples that are not quite right while flipping through a pile of catalogs the retailer offers.
Hopefully, one of them is Nike.
With a simplified customer-facing kit experience, we skipped photography and its limitations to embrace 3D models.
Moving away from the hassle of paper catalogues
These clients had a clear idea of what they wanted but had no accurate way to capture and communicate it.
To make matters worse, there were numerous ways their design could be misinterpreted.
Teams would verbally describe how they wanted their kits to look and hoped that every person in the assembly chain would understand.
Catalogue photography struggled to capture how material genuinely looked, leading to misaligned expectations for the final product.
In the end, XX% of orders that did make it to Nike was returned for not matching the desired result.
‘The idea is strong as it's useful and personalised for teams and tailored to the needs of the various different sports.
The execution is incredibly strong, easy to use, clear UX, enough choice and the 3D visuals are just next level.’
Dutch Creativity Awards
Developing a powerful 3D tool
A software solution powerful enough to enable players and coaches to become designers,
yet light enough to run from niketeamfootball.com, would be the single solution to a list of problems.
With a simplified customer-facing kit experience, we skipped photography and its limitations to embrace 3D models.
We required 3D models so precise that you could almost touch the material to avoid new wave returns.
In our search for the right partner, we met Smoke & Mirrors, specialists in scanning 3D fabrics.
With a rig of 180 cameras capturing hi-res data where each final article of clothing, from shirts to socks, contained more than 2Gb.
This method allowed for creating digital twins of Nike's materials, delivered in layers that enabled exceptionally flexible customization.
The signature Nike style for visuals means the kit configurator generates striking design assets that are applied throughout the customer journey—in social,
shop experience, order confirmation and even aftercare.
