By now, you might be familiar with Nigeria’s World Cup kit, a series of green jerseys so good-looking that Nike received a reported three million pre-orders from fans queuing up in the clamor to get their hands on one. The demand was so fevered that the Super Eagles had friends and family hitting them up for a connect, to no avail: Forward Alex Iwobi saw an Arsenal teammate beg him for one. Hand-painted signs reading “Alex Iwobi Pls Can I Have Ur Shirt” or “Super Eagles can I please have a shirt” are a common sight in the stands.
It’s difficult to follow up that kind of hype, but the Super Eagles are determined, and extremely fashionable. Just look at what they’re wearing off the field: The team pulled up for their flight from Austria to Russia in instantly iconic matching ensembles. Crisp, zip-up white dashikis with a winged green pattern were layered over pristine cropped white trousers. White fedoras (these get a pass) with a matching green band and feather, along with white backless loafers with green trim and tassels, completed the extremely slick travel look. The Internet at large is taking note, with a team photo garnering thousands of retweets and counting.
The hype surrounding Nigeria’s kits and overall aesthetic seems emblematic of football’s rising star in the fashion world. Those Nike jerseys we mentioned earlier are now harder to come by than the latest Supreme, and are fetching a mint on the resale market. This is part of a larger trend: Gosha Rubchinskiy is designing kits for Adidas, Virgil Abloh churned out soccer gear for Nike, and Versace and Burberry have recently taken soccer inspiration down the runway.
Soccer’s enormous, worldwide fandom and the timeless appeal of the kit guarantee this won’t be a short-lived trend. And while the World Cup might just be gearing up for a start this Thursday, as far as we’re concerned, it’s shut down: Before anything’s started, Nigeria has already won. Yahoo
