Men in blue, in a new hue

The Indian team’s aggression is making everyone sit up and take notice. The latest is Nike, responsible for the clothes the Men in Blue wear when doing battle. HT Correspondent reports.

The Indian team’s aggression is making everyone sit up and take notice. The latest is Nike, responsible for the clothes the Men in Blue wear when doing battle. On Friday, the team traded in their sky blue shirts for a darker hue.

HT Image

“It took 18 months in the making,” Sanjay Gangopadhyay, head of marketing, Nike India, told HT. “Blue is ingrained in the Indian psyche when it comes to sport.”

This left Nike with no option when it came to the fundamental colour of the jersey, but they believed change was needed. “There’s a boldness and aggression to this much younger team,” said Gangopadhyay. “The darker colour represents this. And when we did research into sports teams around the world, we kept coming up on red and orange as the colours that represented boldness.” So orange, or saffron “heightens the streak of boldness”.

On request from the players, the designers also worked out more ventilation in the gear. “It sounds easy – put a full mesh on the back of the shirt, but believe me, it’s not,” said Gangopadhyay. “We have to stick within ICC regulations and to get the name and number on the back of the shirt through a heat transfer on mesh was technologically challenging. It took us months to crack that problem.”