Nike's reason for not selling USWNT jerseys to men is really dumb

A few years ago, U.S. Soccer and Nike started making the men's and women's national teams kits nearly identical. It was a pretty cool move to bring the entire federation under one look. But the kits weren't and are not completely the same because of one reason -- the women have won two World Cups.

Every USWNT jersey has two stars above the crest in honor of those two titles. And, if you are a fan of the women's team, you would presumably want to wear a jersey with the stars over the crest, but if you're a man, you cannot.

Nike doesn't make the women's team jerseys in men's sizes so males have the option of wearing an ill-fitting women's shirt, squeezing into a youth shirt or going star-less. And why is that the case? Business Week asked Nike.

Nike spokesman KeJuan Wilkins confirms that the company does not offer jerseys with stars in men’s sizes. The converse is also true: Jerseys without stars do not come in women’s sizes. Nike, Wilkins says, fears that adding stars to the men’s replicas would be interpreted as a false claim that the men had won two World Cups.

Well that is possibly the dumbest reason possible. And one day they will probably decide to sell men's jerseys in women's cut without the fear of those jerseys being interpreted as a false claim that the women had never won a World Cup.

When the men and women wore different designed jerseys, Nike didn't make the women's jerseys in a men's cut then either. If men have ever been able to buy a women's team jersey, it has been very, very rare.

Maybe there is a good reason that Nike doesn't make the women's jerseys available to men, but this isn't that good reason. This is a really dumb reason.

So all of you fans who cannot wait for the Women's World Cup next summer, but happen to be men, get ready to go star-less. It's your duty to not make the false claim that the men had won two World Cups.