FIFA World Cup 2023: Sam Kerr’s hot pink boots and the psychology of colour
Psychologists say Sam Kerr’s choice of apparel brings a Tiger Woods factor to the Australian’s World Cup campaign.
Cathy Freeman wore an otherworldly green and yellow supersuit at the Sydney Olympics as if she knew her lap of Stadium Australia was written in the stars.
Ash Barty wore bright red dancing shoes at the Australian Open as though she planned to lift the trophy then shoot through to the nearest Melbourne nightclub. Sam Kerr will trip the light fantastic at the World Cup in hot pink boots and perhaps there’s a recurring psychological theme in the choice of clobber for these warrior women in their moments of highest stress.
Freeman unveiled her figure-hugging bodysuit and we thought crikey, look at that. What exactly is that?! Her suit was bold. Unique. Her suit said, here I am. Her suit said, bring it on. Her suit said she was scared of nothing.
Barty’s red shoes were equally startling. She was such a low-key human I’m shocked she didn’t play her entire career in worn-out Dunlop Volleys. Those shoes were unusually daring for her, a blazing red, the sort of red the showboating Tiger Woods prefers in a shirt on the last day of a golf major. Because the law of nature and the jungle is that red is the most dominant of colours.
Woods says he believes it applies to the sporting jungle, too. Red says get out of my way, red says ‘I’m coming to getcha’, red says I’m not in danger, I am the danger. When Kerr hot-shoe-shuffled through Australia’s warm-up game last week in the best and brightest footwear since Dorothy’s ruby slippers in The Wizard of Oz, I had flashbacks to the extroverted ensembles of Freeman and Barty.
Three great athletes have commonalities. Their sporting gift is their lightness of being. Freeman was angelically light on her feet; Barty had the lightest of touches on her racquet; Kerr plays football as if she’s barefoot in an open field. As people, they all just want to do their own thing. Quietish and short on words in formal public situations, they’re free-spirited, fun-loving and cheeky in private.
They’re at their brash best when they’re under the most intense pressure and scrutiny as athletes – Freeman at her home Sydney Games, Barty at her home Australian Open, Kerr at her home World Cup – and they dress accordingly. Kerr screams confidence as a footballer. When she’s putting in the boot, in this month-long festival of the boot, she’ll be parading a particularly flash one.
Are we not all the same when it comes to wardrobe choices? If we’re going to work, or to the beach, or to dinner, or to the movies, or to bed, we all dress according to how we feel. Ditto when you’re a Matildas captain going to a World Cup. The wizard of Oz football would only go for the hot pink if she was expecting blazingly good things to happen. “I enjoyed the way it made me feel,” Freeman once said of her suit. “Geez, clutching at straws, aren’t you guys?” Barty joked when she was asked about her shoes. “I mean, red shoes go faster, right? That’s the whole thing behind it. The red shoes are cool. Not often am I one to wear bright shoes – but these are pretty cool.”
Hot pink shoes go faster, right? No. But they feel like they do, and that’s all that matters. High-stakes, all-or-nothing, winner-takes-all professional sport isn’t the time for minimalism. I’ve heard Australian cricketers say they love playing ODIs and T20s because they get to wear sunshine yellow and it brings out the best in them. Makes them feel creative and exuberant and alive. Bright pink soccer boots suggests Kerr is hot to trot.
The links between colour and emotion have been studied for centuries. Swiss psychologist Carl Jung, probably pinching the idea from Hippocrates, used colour-coding to describe personality traits. Cool Blue? You’re cautious, precise, deliberate, questioning and formal. Not what you want to be at a World Cup. Earth Green? You’re caring, encouraging, sharing patient and relaxed. Sunshine Yellow? The colour of the Matildas’ shirts. You’re sociable, dynamic, demonstrative, enthusiastic and persuasive. Fiery Red? Hot pink is under this category. You’re competitive, demanding, determined, strong-willed and purposeful. Everything a World Cup captain wants to be.
“There’s a lot of research looking at the psychology of colour and why certain people wear different colours,” Alyson Crozier, senior lecturer in Exercise and Sport Psychology at the University of South Australia, says. “In humans more generally, the colour red is often perceived as more threatening and dominant when compared to other colours, like blue or grey. It’s also thought that wearing red will increase the probability of winning sporting contests, although this is more speculative than confirmed by statistics.”
Dr Crozier adds: “Often it’s about what the athlete perceives. If the athlete perceives that wearing a certain colour will be better for them, why not let them? If it’s making them feel more confident, more prepared and ready to compete, and like they’re an imposing force on the field, that isn’t a bad thing – even if it’s a placebo effect and doesn’t actually make them run faster or be better. In a football study, researchers found that penalty takers wearing red were perceived to possess more positive characteristics – like greater confidence, assertiveness, focus – compared to penalty takers wearing white.”
Yellow shirt and the electric pink boots – excuse Kerr for jumping out of her skin at Stadium Australia on Thursday night. For never having seen the world so bright. In The Wizard of Oz. Dorothy goes to her happy place in Kansas by clicking her heels three times and saying, “there’s no place like home”. Kerr is home before she even starts.
The human eye is drawn to bright colours. We’ll see Kerr from a mile away. So will Ireland’s defenders. Even if Kerr’s not running faster, she’ll look and feel like she is. Hot pink exudes energy. Charisma. Fearlessness. Positivity. All important for the Matildas’ physical and spiritual leader. She knows she stands out and she wants to.
Grey or black boots may suit a grim defender who’s trying to be as curmudgeonly and dour as possible. Not so for a goalscoring, backflipping, cartwheeling striker. In Hollywood, too, it’s the superheroes who wear the brightest colours.
In the pink. Kerr wore the flashiest of boots in the English FA Cup final. She scored the matchwinning goal for Chelsea before her celebratory acrobatics revealed the pink shoes had flouro yellow undersoles. There was a lot going on. Kerr was going big for Chelsea or going home, and now she is home, clicking her heels three times, she wore them again in the send-off game against France. Unless she’s planning a change of colour – not the grey! – she’ll be hot to trot again against Ireland. It’s mercurial hue for a mercurial athlete who has the World Cup at her feet.
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