Nike’s high-tech 2026 World Cup jerseys have a shoulder problem

Uruguay’s Emiliano Martinez was one of the players whose jerseys featured the flaw over the international break Photograph: Nigel French/Getty Images/Allstar When Nike rolled out their collection of World Cup kits in late March, fans and pundits alike largely approved. The US men’s national team got arguably their most distinctive pair of shirts in decades, while other federations – France, Canada and Nigeria among them – earned strong reviews. This month, when players took the field in the kits for the first time, many fans couldn’t help but become fixated on one singular detail of the new shirts: a somewhat unsightly bulge along the shoulder seam.

On some kits – like the US’s striped home kit – the bulge was barely noticeable. On others, like the elegant, understated shirt sported by French megastar Kylian Mbappé, it was borderline comical. Several Uruguay players sported maybe the most ill-fitting seams of the bunch, making them look a bit like Shredder, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles villain, in a friendly against England.

On social media and around the internet, fans reported similar issues with their own purchases. Some reported some success alleviating the issue by using a steamer, or washing them before wearing them. Others, like one Canadian fan who shelled out $135 for his shirt, were a lot angrier.

Related: World Cup power rankings: France lead the way with Senegal and Japan in top 10 “The way the shoulders are sewn together just makes them bunch like this no matter what,” that fan wrote on Reddit. “I think they might work if your shoulders are narrow – I have wider shoulders and there’s just no way to not make this shoulder line not bunch. This is a stupid, STUPID design.