I believe that Nike provided the apparel for Freo but never actually made the guernseys. The player issues were woolen and made by Sekem but the replicas were polyester and made by Nike. Mero can correct me here of course.
When the new gradient anchor away guernsey was introduced in 1998, that's when Adidas began making all the apparel and the away guernsey (the home guernsey was still woolen until 2001)
Here is an example of the apparel that Nike made for Fremantle, I'm assuming during 1995-97
Images of their first game against Richmond suggest that if the boots are anything to go by, Nike had a deal from day dot.
Year-by-year with the green jumper (y no infamous nickname??):
1995 - visibly 'woolen', including a seam around the anchor.
1996 - Centenary year; as with all teams, polyester was first adopted. (both away AND home)
1997 - continued with the Sekem polyester, obviously with the return of the regular AFL logo
For the record, 1998 did see the start of the Dockers partnership with adidas; and the German brand did indeed make their teams' (Collingwood, Geelong, Adelaide) home jumpers - albeit with a 'safer', more generic template.
For some reason though, the adidas logo was not placed on Fremantle's home jumper until the 2000 season... perhaps they continued to wear the Sekems (with adidas shorts, mind) after the deal was made?
I sense this 2000 version, complete with before-absent tag, is a 'lighter', more reflective material than its predecessor; further backing up my theory.
On that eBay jumper, a faint reversed Nike Swoosh is just visible above where the number would sit - in the style of "BBFFC", or in Freo's case, the fish-hook logo - which clearly would not have been part of an on-field design.
I put it down as a 1997 replica, probably sold exclusively in Nike outlet shops (one would imagine Sekem would stock the team stores).
What I find interesting is this picture from a training session in South Africa.
If I'm not mistaken, those guernseys have a red-grey looking tag on the bottom corner, consistent with the Nike tag seen on the eBay away jumper.
My thinking is that Nike were commissioned to make the training gear - including jumpers - for at least the 1997 season (keeping in mind they are polyester). They would be forgiven for using jumpers of a rival make for an international preseason one would imagine!
So who knows, the eBay green might have also been a Nike era training jumper.
That's enough on the Shockers from me for this year!
