Athlete Insights Drive Ergonomic Innovations in Tiger Woods Spring Collection

The pinnacle of Nike Golf's relentless innovation is exemplified in the Spring 2013 Tiger Woods Collection. Woods' passion and competitive spirit continually fuels Nike to create the most innovative and athletic products in the sport.

Striving to make Woods' apparel better, Kim Kenney, Design Director for Nike Golf, looked at distraction points for Woods throughout his career. "For Tiger, we found that the key areas of distraction were his collar and sleeves," Kenney said. "Tiger was typically adjusting his sleeves before he addressed the ball, moving the garment's shoulder seam back as a way to mark his golf stance. Then after he followed through, he had to adjust and pull his sleeves back to the original position."

To solve this problem, a continuous shoulder seam was ergonomically engineered on the back side of his polo. The seam highlights a proprioceptive point that informs Woods he is in the desired position. In efforts to reduce distraction, the shoulder seam is constructed by ultrasonic line bonding to provide a "seamless" feel against the skin.

Additionally, an articulated kimono-style back with a posture-informing chassis was designed to maximize range of motion. The back of the sleeves are not traditionally sewn onto the body of the shirt, but instead, are engineered as one continuous piece along with the back body of the polo. The design reduces limitations in the area that endures the most tension in a swing - across the back.

Styles in the Spring 2013 Tiger Woods Collection built on the posture-informing chassis include the TW Trajectory Polo ($100), TW Graphic Polo ($90), TW Stripe Polo ($90), TW Chest Stripe Polo ($95) and TW Modern Colorblock Polo ($95).

The center back seam commonly found in the Tiger Woods Collection is made of ultrasonic line bonding to provide shaping to the polo. This back seam allows the polo to fit perfectly when in the address position.