Up close and personal with Canada’s Olympic running gear for Rio
Nike had on display Canada's Olympic running gear at the sportswear brand's Unlimited Innovation event in New York City last week.
The Canadian Olympic uniforms for the Rio Games were on display at Nike’s Unlimited Innovation event in New York City last week. The countdown is on ahead of the world’s largest sporting event which is set to begin in Rio on Aug. 5.
New for 2016 is the Nike Vapor track and field kit with Aeroswift technology. For Canadian athletes, the uniforms have a new look following the white and red uniforms from the 2012 Olympics in London. This time around, the uniform is predominantly dark coloured with flecks of red to give it a Canadian vibe.
See 26 photos of Nike’s summer running footwear collection here.
One of the eye-catching features of the jersey are Nike’s Aeroblades– rubber nodes strategically placed on the shorts and jersey which aim to reduce drag. (See close-ups in the photos below.) The nodes are white on the Canadian kit. Athletes also have the option of wearing additional Aeroswift Tape, a drag-reducing technology.
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The rubber nodes are placed on different parts of the kit. That placement depends on what distance the athlete wearing it will be running. The men’s sprint kit, for example, has considerably less nodes than the men’s distance kit, which can be seen in the below gallery.
Close-ups of Canada’s Olympic distance and sprint uniforms and other technology available to runners
Canadian women's distance running kit.
Canada's basketball and track and field uniforms on display at 45 Grand St. in New York City.
Canadian men's sprint kit.
Canadian men's sprint kit.
Close-up of the Nike AeroBlades, which can be seen in white on the left of the shot.
Nike's Aeroblades on the sides of the spandex shorts.
Canadian women's distance running kit.
Canadian women's distance running kit.
Nike men's distance singlet in United States colours. Canada's will have the black and red colourway.
The Nike Wing, which will be available Aug.5 on Nike.com.
The Nike Wing, a single-body curved sun shield.
The Nike Wing.
Nike AeroSwift Tape will be strategically placed on athletes depending on race distance and conditions.
A close-up of Nike's Aeroblades.
Nike's AeroSwift Tape
Nike's Aeroswift bib.
The Nike Victory distance spike in the Unlimited colourway.
The Nike Zoom Superfly Elite sprint spike in the unlimited colourway.
The Nike Vapor kits were designed with Brazil’s conditions in mind while each country wearing the Nike uniforms will have individual details incorporating their culture and history. Not all countries will have the Nike kit, however, as associations have deals with different sportswear brands.
China, United States, Canada, Kenya and Germany, most notably, will wear the Nike uniforms while countries like Jamaica (who deals with Puma) and Ethiopia (who works with Adidas) will have different apparel. All of Canada’s athletes will be wearing identical Nike tops and bottoms but runners with other sponsorship deals will wear their own track spikes.
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Also part of the Unlimited Innovation event in New York City, Nike released the podium uniforms for U.S. athletes. Hudson’s Bay Company provides Canadian athletes with the podium gear.
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