recycled bottlesThere has been a lot of talk surrounding Nike's claim to have made many new 2013-14 football shirts entirely from recycled plastic bottles, but exactly how could they achieve this?

Well, Nike first started this in 2010, however not many people have much knowledge on this. Back in the old days shirts were made from old woolen like material, up until kit makers came up with the continental cotton design. Everyone will remember cotton-like football shirts, these looked comfy but did they have all of the great technology of today's shirts? Since Nike announced the new Dri fit technology in the 1990's, it has been very popular ever since. Nike's competitors Adidas also have their own line of technologies claiming to keep you comfortable during sport, these in Climacool, Climawarm and Climalite.  These are used in the making of football jerseys, they use mesh panels and  fabric that wicks sweat away from your body and moves any moisture to an outta layer which will ensure you stay dry during sport. These technologies seem all very normal but how are Nike using recycled bottles to design their shirts?

During the run up to the 2014 World Cup Nike has announced that all of the teams that they supply kits to will have shirts made from plastic bottles. So you are wondering how Nike do it, well at first they collect as many bottles as possible; approximately eight bottles are used per shirt. Once the bottles are collected and cleaned out, they are then crushed in to tiny pieces and then taken to a chemical plant to be melted down to polyester. Once this process has finished the substance which is left is spun in to yarn and the final steps of the end design begin. The stitching is left until last where the club badge, manufacturer's logo and shirt sponsor will be added. One of the new kits being made from these is the England Away Kit 2014-15.

Nike have said that the cost of the shirts will increase slightly, but have also claimed this will even out as less material is used to make the shirts. They also said that you will not be able to tell the difference between a non-Nike shirt such as the new Chelsea Home Shirt, and the recycled bottle made football shirt.
As well as Nike making good use of bottles by designing some amazing stylish new kits, they are also helping the environment by saving 254,000 kg of waste being dumped in landfills.

What do you think of Nike's new way of making football shirts and kits? Do you think that Nike's new kits are a nice design? Let us know your thoughts.

Emily writes exclusively for Soccerbox, here you can see the latest range of shirts, kits and training wear from Nike.