Streamlined hockey uniform debuts in Turin

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Overall, Wand says the streamlining produces a 14 percent reduction in drag, enough to provide a 20-inch advantage over a traditionally clad skater of equal ability in a 50-yard sprint across the rink.

In Turin, of course, any such advantage would be erased in games in which both teams wear the new outfits. In another few seasons, Nike hopes several major college hockey programs will have shifted to the new uniforms.

The new hockey uniforms are among many high-tech projects that will be showcased in Turin. Among other technology that could help this year’s U.S. Olympic team:

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National team coaches have been offered training in the use of Dartfish video technology, which enables coaches and athletes to analyze a game or event from either an individual athlete’s or entire team’s perspective.
General Electric Co. is providing U.S. Olympic medical staff access to portable ultrasound technology, so athletes can receive full diagnostic exams virtually anywhere, rather than traveling to a hospital lab.
U.S. Steel Corp. has been developing luge runners for the U.S. luge team, working out of its technology center in Monroeville, Pa., and its automotive center in Troy, Mich.

Nike’s Project Swift started in 1998 with development of the so-called Swift Suit for sprinters at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney; by the 2004 Summer Games in Athens, cyclists, rowers and swimmers also were wearing Swift outfits.

For the 2002 Winter Games in Salt Lake City, Nike created Swift Skin outfits for speedskaters. The speedskating outfits have been modified for Turin, both for long track and short track, with fewer seams and lighter materials.

Nike’s Advanced Innovation Team comprises about 40 specialists, including experts in industrial design, textiles and biomechanics. Development projects take up to three years.

Just as design of yachts or race cars is highly competitive, so is development of high-level sports apparel. Wand said Nike wants to give its sponsored athletes — from various nations — ample time to get comfortable in a new outfit, but doesn’t want to allow rival firms too much opportunity for reconnaissance and possible imitation.

“We have closed fitting sessions and closed practices, with no one but Nike athletes on the ice,” Wand said.

“Nike’s a global company — we don’t cut lines by geography,” he said. “We want to give the best technology to every athlete who wears our uniforms, so the suits are exactly the same from one team to another.”

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