Women ignored in football kit
Female football fans seeking supporters’ jerseys ahead of the Football Ferns’ clash with Japan next month could be out of luck.
Nike released new jerseys for the national men’s and women’s teams last week, but when they went on sale on Saturday no women’s sizes were available.
The company has since confirmed that no women’s sizes have been produced, but New Zealand Football has vowed to talk to Nike about making women’s sizes available.
A Ma¯ ori fern design is a main feature of the new jerseys, which are said to represent ‘‘strength, resistance and power’’.
New Zealand Football has trumpeted equality in its organisation by announcing equal working conditions for its men’s and women’s sides, but its kit supplier hasn’t followed suit by selling supporters’ kit for men and women.
An account co-ordinator working for Nike said the company ‘‘let us know that unfortunately the kits will only be available in men’s sizings’’. They went on to say it was ‘‘a real shame, especially with how prominent and important equality is in sport’’.
New Zealand Football spokesman Peter Thornton said it had contacted Nike and been told the shirts hadn’t been made in women’s sizes. It was something NZF would be discussing with Nike.
However, NZF had immediately contacted
The company has since confirmed that no women’s sizes have been produced.
SoccerShop about adding Football Ferns players to its shirt personalisation section.
The site gives fans the option of adding a player’s name and number to their jersey, but only listed the national men’s side as options in its NZ Football club store as of yesterday morning. Five women’s names were available through the NZ SoccerShop website, one of whom, Abby Erceg, has now retired.
Fans could manually add their favourite Football Ferns player.
Thornton said SoccerShop had been asked to ‘‘amend this to include the current Ferns and All Whites players’’.
A lack of equality was also evident in Nike’s promotion of the new kit, with Chris Wood, Kosta Barbarouses and Myer Bevan joining a lone woman in Hannah Wilkinson in promotional shots of the shirts.
The new design from Nike is said to draw inspiration from Ma¯ ori legend. The shirt features silver ferns down both sleeves, as well as the fern above the NZF logo on the chest.
The Football Ferns will don the new jersey for the first time against Japan in Wellington on June 10.