ClimaCool All Blacks jersey

Now infamous for the press it garnered around its pricing, the 2011 official All Blacks jersey represents a return to the traditional All Blacks white collar. The ClimaCool fabric is a knitted polyester with open-work detail allowing garments to breathe. The advances in technical product development make this All Black jersey a very different garment from Bryan Williams’ 1969 Junior All Black jersey, also in this exhibition. That jersey weighs 467 grams, while the new one weighs just 219 grams. A lot of that development has come in the recent professional era of sport, where investment in technology is one of the ways in which teams attempt to establish an advantage over the competition. This shirt features ClimaCool ventilated areas in places of most moisture production, optimal fit to reduce tackleability and reduced weight to increase All Black speed. Read more about wearing the colour black in the New Zealand Fashion Museum publication Black: The history of black in fashion, society and culture in New Zealand.

Details

Credit: Garment loan courtesy of Adidas New Zealand
Copyright: Creative Commons BY-NC-ND 4.0 Licence
Garment type: Rugby jersey
Material: ClimaCool polyester
Colour: Black
Label: Adidas, China
Date: 2011