To prove the impact good vision has on sport performance, vision care and contact lens specialists, Vision Direct, have revealed the world’s most visible football kit.
Based on science, and in collaboration with sports vision specialist, Dr Sherylle Calder, the stand-out kit takes visibility to new heights, making players unmissable on the pitch.
Good vision is a crucial, yet often overlooked aspect of sports ability. Yet the power of vision in sport has been proven to help elite athletes reach peak levels of performance through the enhancement of visual skills, such as hand-eye coordination, depth perception and peripheral vision.
As an expert of vision in sport and referred to as ‘England’s secret weapon’ in high-level sport, Dr Sherylle Calder provides training to elite athletes to enhance their visual and cognitive skills such as visual awareness, eye tracking, decision making, reaction time, scanning and recognition.
Together with the knowledge and expertise of Dr Sherylle Calder, Vision Direct has designed the world’s most visible football kit, created based on scientific research into visual elements that are naturally eye-catching, to help players spot teammates quickly and support their passing accuracy. A key element of the kit design relates back to our ancestral psychological mechanisms that allow us to rapidly detect immediate and specific threats, and research suggests this is irrespective of visual or personal salience.
Using this research, the Vision Direct kit is emblazoned with the image of a large snake against a bright yellow – the most visible colour with a wavelength of 550nm that will also stand out against the green of a pitch. High contrast black and white optical illusion patterns increase the visibility even further and the sleeves and snake eye feature reflective ‘targets’. The black, yellow, and white colour combinations also give the illusion of motion, which may boost visibility given that motion is more visually salient than staticity.
Dr Sherylle Calder said: “Having worked with some of the best athletes in the world including the England Rugby team in the year they won the World Cup, and British Open Winner, Ernie Els, I know that vision is at the core of their success. There are a number of areas of vision that can be naturally improved, and this is at the core of my role, however their actual eyesight quality is also essential. Working with Vision Direct, I’m pleased to be raising awareness of the power of visibility in sport from all perspectives!”
It doesn’t just stop here, the campaign will be rolled-out over the next year, with the ambition being that Vision Direct will work with a local team to prove that the kit has improved the performance of players with poor vision, accompanied by a visibility strength training program and exercises to improve vision.
To find out more about Vision Direct, please visit: https://www.visiondirect.co.uk/.