Nine of the 32 national teams in the World Cup are wearing state-of-the-art, lightweight jerseys made from 100 percent recycled plastic bottles on the pitch.

The United States, Brazil, Australia, Slovenia, the Netherlands, Portugal, New Zealand, Serbia, and South Korea national teams are oufitted in these green threads produced by Nike. While clothing companies such as Patagonia have been using recycled plastic bottles for years, Nike took an innovative direction in green fashion, melting the plastic down to yarn to create the fabric that makes up the kits.

Transforming bottles into fabric is called downcycling: turning something difficult to make (in this case, impermeable hard plastic) into something easy to make (breathable fabric).

The process saves raw materials and reduces energy consumption by up to 30 percent compared to manufacturing virgin polyester.

About 13 million bottles were diverted from landfills to make the uniforms.

Fashionable, environmentally friendly, AND up to 13 percent lighter than the previous Nike kits.