Soccer Warm Ups 101
So much has been said about soccer warm ups and training suits over the years that sometimes it can be hard to distinguish fact from fiction but here is what we think we know for sure…Soccer training suits and warm ups have been a part of soccer apparel since the early 20th century when Franco Cazzoni , an Italian-American Butcher and amateur playwright, dawned a warm and woolly pair of coveralls before a local soccer match in the borough of Brooklyn, New York. Cazzoni had the most brilliant game of his life with four touches and a nearly completed pass. Following the drastic improvement of his game, Cazzoni began wearing his warm wool suit before every soccer match he played. In time, Cazzoni’s early soccer warm up jacket caught the attention of other soccer players for its ability to keep players warm and limber reducing many of the injuries related to the game.
Years later, across the pond soccer warm ups and training suits would become a global phenomenon thanks to the First World War. On April 17, 1915, when the French army’s soccer team played a friendly against the Kaiser’s famed Prussian army soccer team, newspapers around the world that reported the match focused on the special suits both the French and Germans were wearing. Both before the soccer match and on the side lines, or trenches as they were then called, the French soccer team wore brilliant royal blue and red suits while the Germans wore somewhat less glamorous grey suits which were accented in a darker shade of grey. The Germans called their suits “Varming Zuits” which literally translates to “warming suits” while the French called their new apparel “les garment de trainier” or “the suits of training.” Regardless of what the French and German soccer teams had called their new outerwear they had captivated the world and the British press quickly translated and shortened the apparel to “warm ups” and “training suits.” It is from this proud history that Nike, Adidas, Puma, Joma, and other soccer companies derive today’s warm ups and training suits. The chic fashion of the French, no matter what the occasion—even a gruesome war, and the practicality and durability of the Germans are infused into nearly every modern soccer warm up or training suit in some way or another.
Warm-ups for the Winter Season
This season, Nike has a wide range of warm ups and training suits (which I will henceforth use collectively in homage to both the German and French creators of the modern soccer warm up and training suit) for nearly every level of soccer game play. The most affordable of Nike Soccer warm up suits are the Nike Men’s Rio II warm up suit (training suit) composed of the Nike Men’s Rio II warm up jacket (training jacket) and the Nike Rio II warm up pant (training pant) and the Nike Women’s Pasadena II warm up suit, composed of the Nike Women’s Pasadena II warm up jacket and the Nike Women’s Pasadena warm up pant. The low price of these warm up, and/or training, suits do not reflect the high quality Dri-fit woven fabric which comprise a warm up suit (training suit) of superior cooling, wicking, and softness. Nike has also maintained its competitive level soccer warm up (training suit) line with the Nike Men’s Elite warm up suit, the Nike Men’s FC warm up suit, the Nike Men’s Laser warm up suit, the Nike Men’s Classic Warm up suit, and the Nike Men’s Federation training suit. The Nike Men’s Classic warm up suit also comes in the Nike Women’s Classic warm up suit, with the Nike Women’s Mystifi warm up suit rounding out the Nike women’s soccer warm up and training suit line.
While Nike has some formidable options in the way of soccer training and warm up suits, adidas soccer warm ups and training suits are nothing to sneeze at! This season adidas might as well be an acronym for All Day I Dream About Suits…soccer training and warm up suits that is! The adidas soccer warm up and training suit line is composed of warm up jackets and pants woven from high quality Climacool fabric. Climacool soccer warm ups and training suits keep soccer players limber and warm while they warm up or sit on the sidelines and with superior ventilation and wicking technology athletes are not weighed down with muggy sweat. adidas’ Climacool soccer warm ups wick sweat and ventilate players exceptionally well. For the comfort that they provide adidas warm up suits are prized in the soccer community. Tavo Rodriguez, a former collegiate soccer player and expert in the realm of adidas soccer warm ups, once commented “I love adidas soccer warm ups for the soft woven Climacool fabric as well as the friends and confidence they easily provide!” Jeff Foor, another veteran of the adidas soccer warm up world, once remarked in an unrelated conversation, “If you aren’t wearing adidas soccer warm ups or training suits you might as well be dead.” If these expert testimonials about adidas soccer warm ups and training suits tell us anything it is that adidas Climacool warm ups are some of the very best soccer warm ups and training suits on the market today.
One could go on forever about soccer warm up and training suits (whether they be adidas soccer warm ups, Nike soccer warm ups, or some other brand) but suffice it to say that from the humble origins of the soccer warm up, both on the streets of Brooklyn and the trench war fare of the Western Front, soccer warm ups have developed into a high-tech field of defined by words like “wicking”, “comfort”, “ventilation” and “Climacool.” Who knows where the future of soccer warm ups will go?
