Tiger Woods spring line displays 'Ergonomic Innovations'

Striving to make Woods’ apparel better, Kim Kenney, Design Director for Nike Golf, looked at distraction points for Woods throughout his career. “For Tiger, we found that the key areas of distraction were his collar and sleeves,” Kenney said.

“Tiger was typically adjusting his sleeves before he addressed the ball, moving the garment’s shoulder seam back as a way to mark his golf stance. Then after he followed through, he had to adjust and pull his sleeves back to the original position.”

To solve this problem, a continuous shoulder seam was ergonomically engineered on the back side of his polo. The seam highlights a point that informs Woods he is in the desired position. In efforts to reduce distraction, the shoulder seam is constructed by ultrasonic line bonding to provide a “seamless” feel against the skin.

Additionally, an articulated kimono-style back with a posture-informing chassis was designed to maximize range of motion. The back of the sleeves are not traditionally sewn onto the body of the shirt, but instead, are engineered as one continuous piece along with the back body of the polo. The design reduces limitations in the area that endures the most tension in a swing – across the back.

"I consider my apparel to be as significant as the rest of my golf equipment,” said Tiger Woods. “My test sessions with the Nike apparel team led us to construct a polo that frees my swing starting at address and continuing through impact and follow-through. The new shoulder seam construction eliminates restrictions. This allows me to swing with power and complete confidence."

The center back seam commonly found in the Tiger Woods Collection is made of ultrasonic line bonding to provide shaping to the polo. This back seam allows the polo to fit perfectly when in the address position.

To keep the athlete cool, the Tiger Woods Collection features Nike’s Dri-FIT technology, which helps move moisture away from the athlete’s skin. The new collection utilizes a perforated collar that allows increased airflow to the neck. This perforated collar also helps reduce the overall weight in the polo to create a lighter feel for the athlete.

While the Tiger Woods Collection comprises the most innovative technology, bold patterns, bright colors and unique design detailing also feature in every piece. The TW Trajectory Polo and the TW Graphic Polo were designed using Woods’ launch monitor numbers to create a repeated graphic of his launch angle subtly displayed on the polos.

Located at NIKE’s World Headquarters in Beaverton, Oregon, Nike Golf designs and markets golf equipment, apparel, balls, footwear, bags and accessories worldwide. Nike Golf is passionately dedicated to ushering in the future of this great sport by developing ground-breaking innovations that enable and inspire athletes to become better.

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