The Truth No One Says About The Nigerian Jersey.

Nigeria has played a few friendlies as they prepare for the World-Cup, their last two matches have been the main highlights, they won one which was played against the club Atletico Madrid, 3-2 and lost the most recent with England. We feel empowered and some would say it’s reflecting in the football team as they dazzle each time they play on the pitch with their amazing Nike jerseys which has been named the best jersey of the tournament by a recent Sky Sport poll and football enthusiasts all over the world after it was first revealed in February. The world and Nigerians fed on the hype as Nike reported that the jersey was sold out within minutes of its release.

The kit was sold in Nike’s Uk and Nigerian physical and online store.

There’s a lot of buzz on the Nigerian jersey, we all want a piece of it, a tweet that caught my eye defining the moment of the jersey by Nigerian DJ and UK radio Reprezent host, Femo, ‘the world is exploiting the fuck out of Nigerian culture right now. & everyone’s happy because ‘Nigerians are now cool‘. That seems to be the truth about everything going on with the games and media manipulation Nike perfected with the rollout of the Nigerian Jerseys.

The jersey is speculated to have sold out roughly three million units through two physical stores and an online store, with a price of 90$, £64.95 and 41,000 Naira respectively. The price it was sold for an average Nigerian seemed to remove them from the equation automatically as it’s way beyond the average living cost in the country. So much beauty yet Nike failed to consider the very people they made it for, a tactic a lot of companies riding on the clout being created by all the amazing things coming out from Nigeria are imploying.

A counterfeit kit seller sorts her wares in her shop in Lagos on May 31, 2018, ahead of the official release of the Nigeria World Cup kit.
Image via CNNAfrica.

A month before the jerseys were officially released by Nike there’s been a flood of knockoff jerseys made in Thailand retailing at different prices depending on the quality, starting at ₦6,000-₦18,0000 which are 60% cheaper than the original one. No one’s to blame, Nigerians see football as a very passionate sport and having a national team’s jersey means a lot to any football enthusiasts during World Cup Season hence the knockoff jerseys also selling out filling a gap Nike didn’t account for.

People started buying the 1994 US World Cup jersey a lot when the new Nigeria jersey didn’t come out early. I got the new Nigeria jersey last month from Thailand. It sells faster and it’s cheaper. The most popular one is the home jersey. It’s hotcake right now. Most Nigerians, I don’t think can afford the original. The replica is the same as the original, except you look closely at it, Seller Ronke Oni told CNN.

The Nigeria Football Football Federation (NFF) entered into a three-and-half-year partnership with Nike to make the country’s kits in 2015. The deal was worth $3.75m and a $500,000 bonus if the “Super Eagles” qualified for the 2018 World Cup in Russia, according to Goal.com.


A lot goes on in the politics of marketing, selling products and playing with the culture and identities of certain people or as this case may be a nation. There’s a lot of perspectives to the Nigerian jersey depending on which end you are, from this end I might sound like a bitter journalist that didn’t get the jersey but truth is a lot of Nigeria is bitter cause on numerous times we are left out of our own beauty left to only gaze through a glass hole.

We can only hope Nigeria performs well enough to make all the fuss worth it.

Tags:

You might be interested in

Adedayo Laketu

Adedayo Laketu is a creative inventor who's interested in curating a New Age for Africa across all mediums.

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published.
Previous Story

Meet The Gangsta Astrophysicist and NASA Educator – Hakeem Oluseyi
Next Story

Piggybank.ng Secures $1.1M Seed Funding

Latest from Pop Culture