{"id":7708,"date":"2026-06-02T02:09:20","date_gmt":"2026-06-02T02:09:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stock999.top\/?p=7708"},"modified":"2026-06-02T02:09:20","modified_gmt":"2026-06-02T02:09:20","slug":"6-years-of-jersey-design-4-years-of-prep-4-weeks-of-games-execs-at-u-s-soccer-and-nike-know-how-much-this-world-cup-means","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stock999.top\/?p=7708","title":{"rendered":"6 years of jersey design, 4 years of prep, 4 weeks of games: Execs at U.S. Soccer and Nike know how much this World Cup means"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

With less than two weeks until kickoff, the 2026 World Cup\u2014co-hosted by the U.S., Canada, and Mexico\u2014has not been without some headaches, including sky-high ticket prices and unfilled hotel reservations. But for Nike and U.S. Soccer, the focus has been purely on putting the national team in position to make a deep run on home soil.<\/p>\n

Speaking at Fortune\u2019s COO Summit in Scottsdale on Monday, Dan Helfrich, COO of the U.S. Soccer Federation, said the team\u2019s jersey alone reflects those stakes. Designed in close collaboration with Nike, it was the result of a six-year process involving supply chains, manufacturing innovation, and, crucially, the players themselves.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt involved putting our players at the center of it,\u201d Helfrich said. \u201cWe actually had two years of focus groups and design sessions with Nike designers and our players\u2014both for the aesthetic look [and] the performance feel.\u201d<\/p>\n

Helfrich, the former CEO of Deloitte Consulting, said all the players\u2014which includes star forward Christian Pulisic\u2014have described it as the best-looking and best-feeling jersey they\u2019ve worn.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re looking for an advantage,\u201d he said. \u201cThe margins are very thin on the field\u2026 that kit holds in its performance feel, but also the energy it\u2019s giving our players, because they like the way they look. We believe it\u2019s a real advantage.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nike used obsessive procession to design jerseys for 18 soccer federations, including the U.S.<\/p>\n

For Nike, which outfits 18 national soccer federations\u2014including also France, Croatia, and China\u2014the World Cup is an operational challenge measured in Olympic-scale complexity.<\/p>\n

Venkatesh Alagirisamy, Nike\u2019s executive vice president and chief operating officer, described the undertaking as years of preparation for a tournament that lasts only weeks.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt takes four years of preparation to execute four weeks of World Cup games to leave a lasting impression for the next four years,\u201d Alagirisamy said on the Fortune panel titled \u201cGame On: The Operational Engine Behind the World Cup.\u201d<\/p>\n

This year, heat became a central design challenge amid concerns the 2026 tournament could become one of the hottest World Cups on record.<\/p>\n

Nike\u2019s solution relied on computational modeling to determine exactly where airflow vents should sit and how they should be structured to cool athletes most effectively. The jerseys are built with custom knit materials and engineered yarn designed to sit slightly off the skin, creating channels for air flow. According to Alagirisamy, the result is roughly double the ventilation of a conventional jersey.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s the level of obsession that we put in place as we think about these games,\u201d Alagirisamy said.<\/p>\n

How U.S. soccer is using AI to find its next World Cup-ready stars<\/p>\n

Looking beyond the tournament itself, Helfrich said a central part of his mission is ensuring the World Cup-inspired soccer obsession doesn\u2019t become a \u201cfleeting moment\u201d \u2014 but instead serves as a broader jumpstart for the sport across the country.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe feel a deep responsibility. We are a nonprofit that is charged with growing the game, making the game safe, making the game more affordable and accessible to people in every community in America,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

U.S. Soccer is increasingly using AI to identify American-eligible players competing in leagues around the world\u2014a talent pool traditional scouting methods have historically struggled to reach. On any given day, he estimated, between 50 million and 70 million boys and girls are playing soccer globally. Many may qualify to play for the U.S., but scouting them manually is nearly impossible.<\/p>\n

\u201cHistorically, how do you get your scouts, your humans, to all of those places? You can\u2019t,\u201d he said. \u201cSo automatically you\u2019re excluding 99-and-a-half percent of people.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

As video availability expands across youth sports and AI tools improve, Helfrich said U.S. Soccer increasingly sees a future where nearly every game played by an eligible athlete can be analyzed. Models can be trained to identify positional traits and performance indicators, surfacing prospects regardless of where they play.<\/p>\n

But he was careful not to declare the human scout obsolete.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s other stuff we care about that we can\u2019t train AI on yet,\u201d Helfrich said. \u201cWhat\u2019s the tone of voice of a player to a teammate when the teammate makes a mistake? What\u2019s the body language when the team goes up or goes down? And how does it evolve?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The future, he said, is unambiguously a humans-and-machines model\u2014and one he finds genuinely energizing: \u201cIn my old job I had a lot of examples that weren\u2019t as fun. This one is a fun one to relate to.\u201d<\/p>\n

The World Cup opens June 12. The U.S. men\u2019s national team will face Paraguay that same day in Inglewood, California.<\/p>\n

#years #jersey #design #years #prep #weeks #games #Execs #U.S #Soccer #Nike #World #Cup #means<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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