The NBA hoodie jackets by Nike

On friday night in Los Angeles, Nike and NBA released three great news for the upcoming basketball season: the statement jerseys of the 30 franchises, the NBA Connected jersey and the Nike Therma Flex Showtime Warm-up Jacket, the first-ever NBA official hoodie jacket.

While the jersey presentation stole a little bit the scene, the debut of the hoodie jacket is a huge event for the NBA. Nike designers observed that most players wear non-performance hoodies to warm-up, practice hard, sit on the bench and travel in. "When the players take the court before the game, they need to be able to move freely in any direction, so they usually take the hoodie off or cut off the sleeves," says Kurt Parker, Nike VP of Apparel Design. Armed with this athlete insight, Nike went to work on designing the first performance hooded jacket for NBA players to wear on the court during warm-up. Here's why this is not only a first-of-its-kind garment, but a huge step forward for performance basketball apparel.

The hoodie is still an iconic piece of the streetwear culture, especially in the USA. You can see hoodies in every playground of the nation, from Rucker Park in New York to Venice Beach in California, and many professional players still used it to reach the perfect comfort and focus during pregame or practice, have you heard something about the Legend of Hoodie Melo?

Nike takes the hoodie mania to another level restyling the materials and the design. To make a performance jacket that’s comfortable, Nike created a new material called Nike Therma Flex. It’s similar to a mid-weight fleece, but inverted. “A typical fleece is fuzzy on the inside and flat on the outside, but we made this flat against the skin and super-soft on the outside,” says Parker. “The outside has a dotted texture to it that traps body heat in the fabric, and it’s soft to the touch and smooth against the skin.”

“We learned that most guys prefer to wear a hood up, but it impedes the way they can see and hear, it moves around and it can get really hot,” explains Parker. To solve those problems, the Nike Basketball designers placed mesh over the ears to allow the players to hear their coaches and teammates before the game and to vent and keep them from overheating. The hood opening is carved out around the eye, so when a player has the hood on he can have 100 percent of his peripheral vision. The elastic around the edge helps it fit without draw cords, which players said can be distracting.