Nike’s decision to not sell goalkeeper shirts at the Women’s World Cup is a horrible own goal as Mary Earps outlines the damaging message kit suppliers are sending out

Be unapologetically yourself. That was the parting line of Mary Earps’s FIFA Best speech in February.

The decision by Nike and other kit suppliers not to sell goalkeeper shirts for this Women’s World Cup is the antithesis of that message.

Essentially, they are saying it’s fine to want to be like Sam Kerr or Alessia Russo or Alex Morgan — but not Mary Earps or Alyssa Naeher or Mackenzie Arnold.

This isn’t just a Nike problem. Adidas are also not selling goalkeeper shirts, while fans outside Brazil have reported struggling to buy a shirt with ‘Marta’ on the back ahead of her sixth World Cup.

Nike’s decision not to sell goalkeeper shirts is based on their commercial strategy. As Earps points out, her Manchester United shirt sold out last season and was the third best-selling overall. 

Nike have taken the decision to not sell goalkeeper shirts at the Women’s World Cup

Earps was visibly hurt as she spoke passionately for more than 30 minutes about the damaging message this sends to aspiring young players

The goalkeeper is one of the most popular players in this Lionesses squad — her social media following testifies to that. There is no doubt an Earps shirt would have sold more than those of some of the outfield players in this England team.

But not every squad has a Mary Earps. Manufacturers may argue that if they had agreed to sell the England goalkeeper’s shirt, then they would have had to do the same for the other countries they supply — which would probably have sold far less.

Earps told others in her speech at the FIFA Best awards that people should be ‘unapologetically’ themselves

But is it too much to ask for every shirt to be available to buy at a World Cup? Nike have been proudly promoting Kerr and Megan Rapinoe in the build-up to this World Cup. 

One wonders how those superstars feel about the decision not to produce the shirts of their goalkeeper team-mates.

Earps’s hurt was visible as she spoke passionately for more than 30 minutes about the damaging message this sends to aspiring young players.

Participation in girls’ football has been growing for a decade, yet goalkeeping has always lagged behind. Players like Earps are changing that narrative but they cannot do it on their own.