The heat is on: Nike's farm-to-table NFL Draft jersey service feels the pressure
NASHVILLE -- The NFL clearly spares neither expense nor square footage when it comes to its annual draft.
But tucked away behind swaths of black cloth, just off to the right of the massive main stage for the draft, is a tiny room where possibly the most fervent work is done.
It’s the Nike Jersey NFL Room, where a team led by senior product director Kelly Morris puts the names of draft picks on the team jerseys that first-rounders hold up for those iconic shots with NFL commissioner Roger Goodell moments after the players are selected. Morris' team must be quick and sure-handed. And, of course, it's paramount they get the names right.
This is the eighth year Nike has partnered with Stahl’s, a Michigan-based heat transfer & press company. Stahl’s director of technology advancement Brent Kisha, senior creative director Scott Vallee and account manager Justin Coleman are in the room, using the lHotronix Fusion IQ to customize the Nike Elite NFL jerseys, which retail for about $325.
The math looks like this: About 10 people work in a 200 square-foot room that contains 256 jerseys. They create 32 nameplates - one for each team. There are hundreds of possible team/player combinations. Names are etched on jerseys by steam by two machines.
“We call them the dream machines,” joked Morris of the thermal transfer presses used to create the drafted player’s jerseys. “Because this is where dreams come true.”
In that room, they have no more than 60 seconds from the moment they are informed of the pick to get the jersey into the hands of the fan or other person waiting to deliver it to the commissioner on stage.
“What we do is we pre-load – we have all 32 teams ready to go, they are all number ones with the name plate blank on the back,” explained Morris. “So whoever is on the clock, we pre-load and we get a live feed from the NFL and the commissioner 30 seconds before he goes on stage. Once we hear the pick, we pull the name, put it down, heat press it for 10 seconds – it only takes 10 seconds to press, but end-to-end it’s between about 30-60 seconds to load, to get the names right, to peel it and walk it out to the commissioner.”
The Nike Jersey room team has it down to a science though, moving with efficiency and fluidity straight out of a Josh McDaniels playbook. The only thing that gives them pause?
Trades.
“The trickiest thing about the Draft from a jersey perspective is trades,” said Morris. “We learn something new every year; we are now doubly prepared for trades with a total of eight jerseys for each team.”
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