WOMEN'S SOCCER
Orlando Pride announce a change to their away kit - previously white shorts changed to black due to period concerns
The club have updated their ‘Luna Kit’, which prioritises ‘women’s health and player experience’.
NWSL side Orlando Pride have announced a pair of changes to their second kit, known as the Luna Kit, for the 2023 season. The regular season will begin on March 25 and end on November 11, 2023, and Orlando Pride will now not wear their all-white away strip, as originally planned.
The side have announced via an official statement on the club website as well as social media posts that the players will still continue to wear their white shirts and socks, but the colour of the shorts has now been changed to black. This decision comes, as the club puts it, “to provide first-class player experience and care”.
What other changes to the Luna kit did the club make?
The statement continues: “to make players more comfortable and confident when playing during their menstrual cycle, the team will now wear black shorts... the Pride become the first NWSL team to update to dark shorts due to period concerns.”
As well as this, the away shirt will also now feature black names and numbers on the back, instead of the original silver ‘Luna’ colour scheme, after complaints were made about the visibility of the namesets.
In a statement, Orlando Pride VP of Soccer Operations and General Manager, Haley Carter said: “We must remove the stigma involved in discussing the health issues impacting women and menstruating non-binary and trans athletes if we want to maximize performance and increase accessibility to sport. I am proud to be part of a Club that is making a small but extremely impactful change when it comes to both our professional and youth players.”
Have any other teams have made the same change for women?
In 2022, West Brom in England changed their shorts from white to navy in order to make their players feel more comfortable about playing while on their periods. Club captain Hannah George said: “It’s great that the club are supporting our change to navy shorts... this change will help us to focus on our performance without added concerns or anxiety.”
The decision for West Brom came after various England National Team players spoke out about the decision and revealed that they had spoken to Nike, their kit manufacturers, about a potential change. Beth Mead told The Telegraph “It’s very nice to have an all-white kit but sometimes it’s not practical when it’s the time of the month. We deal with it as best we can. We’ve discussed it as a team and we’ve fed that back to Nike.”