Basketball players want to perform their best and look good doing it. 'It gets cold in the arena, so we want to keep our heads warm and still be able to pay attention to the game, or warm up and stay warm,' says Washington Wizards guard Bradley Beal. 'At the same time, we want to be in something with swag and style.'

But typically, performance and looks take a backseat to comfort when it comes to pre-game gear. 'We saw guys warming up in standard team-issued hooded sweatshirts,' says Kurt Parker, Nike VP of Apparel Design. 'The hood flopped around when they shot; the sleeves were baggy.'

That got Nike Basketball designers wondering why most players wear non-performance hoodies to warm-up, practice hard, sit on the bench and travel in. 'When the players take the court before the game, they need to be able to move freely in any direction, so they usually take the hoodie off or cut off the sleeves,' says Parker. The answer the designers were looking for was clear: Nothing like what the players expressed they wanted existed.

Armed with this athlete insight, Nike went to work on designing the first performance hooded jacket for NBA players to wear on the court during warm-up. Here's why this is not only a first-of-its-kind garment, but a huge step forward for performance basketball apparel.

Nike Inc. published this content on 15 September 2017 and is solely responsible for the information contained herein.
Distributed by Public, unedited and unaltered, on 16 September 2017 02:28:11 UTC.

Original documenthttps://news.nike.com/news/nba-therma-flex-warm-up-jacket

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