After acknowledging an issue with bulging shoulders in the shirts’ March debut, the company offered a solution that comes down to different treatment
When Nike’s World Cup kits debuted in March, many fans identified a bizarre detail: an unsightly bulge along the shoulder seam. It was subtle on some players, but, on others, such as France’s Kylian Mbappé, it was borderline comical.
It felt entirely unrealistic that the design of the shirts would be fundamentally changed three months before the start of the World Cup and on Wednesday a source familiar with Nike’s plan confirmed they had not altered the shirts in any way. What Nike had done, the source said, is offer instructions to member federations on how to wash them before wearing and steam the shoulder seams.
