DESIGN AND SPORTS (6) - NIKE’S PRO HIJAB.
Because of the ongoing and worldwide debate on the headscarf or hijab, it must have come as a shock to many when early 2017 – and not accidentally two days before International Women’s Day-the most influential sports company in the world, Nike, unveiled its Pro Hijab – a garment that would allow Muslim women to participate in sport while minimizing the practical challenges of having to wear a religious item of clothing and maximizing the performance. The Pro Hijab resulted from a collaboration with Muslim athletes in the Middle East – including Egyptian marathon runner Manal A. Rostom, and weightlifting athlete Amna Al Haddad, from the UAE, who were also enlisted to act as the faces of the product’s promotional campaign and ensure its performance credentials. Both women were also pioneers in making the product a reality. Rostom runs a Facebook page, titled Surviving Hijab, liked and followed by half a million women. In her own words, Surviving Hijab is a group which “helps women combat every day nuisances and judgements about their hijab by providing them support, sisterhood and empowerment.” Reaching out to Nike three years earlier, Rostom had asked them why they were lacking Hijabi representation in their campaigns, and by January 2015, she became the first ever Hijabi to appear in a Nike Middle East campaign. As to Al Haddad: she only had one hijab that could meet her needs as a competitive weightlifter. It wasa regular cover, similar to a hoodie, and its material was cotton, not the very breathable type. The garment’s weight, the potentialfor it to shift during action and its lack of breathability constantly disrupted her focus. And since she only had one, she had to hand wash it every night during competitions. In 2016 she took a trip to the brand’s headquarters, where a conversation sparked inspiration for the Pro Hijab. The moment that had influenced Nike to develop it was seeing Sarah Attar, one of two women to represent Saudi Arabia at the 2012 London Olympics, compete in her own hijab. It was the first time a hijabi runner took the global stage. But Nike wasn’ t the first mainstream sports brand to go on the search for a better alternative. Women have been wearing hijab for literally thousands of years, and smaller companies, often spearheaded by women, have designed and sold sport hijabs for decades. Capsters started in 2001 and has been selling sports hijabs all over the world. And when young Muslim athletes had been expelled from a taekwondo tournament in 2007 for safety reasons, with the argument that their hijab or headscarf could not be worn under a helmet, Iran-born but Canada-based designer Elham Seyed Javad she designed a hood for Muslim women who want to keep their hair covered while playing sport, keeping the hair in place and maximizing performance, and produced it under the name ResportOn. Tight fitting, attached to a T-shirt with a high collar, made of stretchy, fast-drying fabric, and keeping the hair away from the neck in an internal pouch -the result was a design that was also perfectly suited for anyone practicing sports with long hair, while the hi-tech material, featuring micro-pores, dried extremely quick, up to 14 times faster than cotton. The scarf design from ResportOn was one of the reasons that the international taekwondo federation allowed Muslim women to compete in recognized tournaments, and both Capster and ResportOn submitted prototypes to Ifab that formally overturned Fifa’s hijab ban in 2014. Two years later, at the Rio Olympics, Attar’s uniform was designed by Oregon-based company Oiselle, and that very same year, on International Women’s Day, Danish sportswear company Hummel - whose motto is “Change The World Through Sport” - released new kits for the Afghanistan women’s soccer team. Hummel was the first sports company that included a hijab option as part of a team kit, and for sale to the public. But of course, none of these companies (some even seem to have disappeared) is a powerhouse that could even compete with Nike, and seeing Muslim athletes featured in their productswith the signature Swooshseems like a giant leap.
The pull-on design of the Pro-Hijab is constructed from durable single-layer Nike Pro power mesh, Nike’s most breathable fabric. The lightweightpolyester features tiny, strategically placed holes for optimal breathability but remains completely opaque, with a soft touch. The meshis also stretchy, so when combined with an elastic binding it allows for a personalized fit that adapts to both the wearer’s head and sport. Ice skating, for example requires a tighter fit for twirling. The back of the hijab is also elongated to ensure it doesn’t come untucked.Fluff threads were used at the neck to eliminate the rubbing and irritation that can occur when an athlete sweats.
At the request of the athletes, the designers placed the signature Nike Swoosh just above the left ear to highlight the hijab’s pinnacleperformance nature. The hijab’s debut colors, black and college navy, were similarly based upon the consulting athletes’ desirefor dark neutrals. As each country has its own particular hijab style, the ideal design would need to accommodate variances, and the brand alsosolicited the opinions of local communities to ensure the design met cultural requirements.And finally, also at the request of the consulting and testing athletes, and in lieu of adding an adjustment mechanism that would increase weight, the designers sized the head covering to XS/S and M/L. Nike not only aims to serve professional athletes with the garment but also women and girls in the region who still face barriers and limited access to sport: fewer than one inseven girls participate in locally recommended sport activities for 60 minutes or more.
The symbolism behind the item quickly earned it a nomination in Beazley Designs of the Year.But of course, the announcement of the item was not without its controversy: some said the brand was gaining limelight where other companies had been pioneering for years, while others said that by catering to the market for modest wear and - fashion, the brand was normalizing, even supporting female oppression. Sure enough, Nike stands to profit from selling the hijab. But, according to Rostom and Al Haddad, even little steps in improving access to sports for Muslim women, and effective representation of Muslim females within such a huge industry, can only be a good thing. ”Sports should be inclusive for everyone and one should not feel the need to decide between what they wear and pursuing a sport due to a lack of a product or solution,” Al Haddad says, “I support Muslim women with or without hijab, and how they dress is their choice. But with the Nike sports Hijab, it surely will encourage a new generation of athletes.” (mb/ Mapping The Design World)