The Flyest Super Falcon: Michelle Alozie’s One-of-One Jacket Bridges Nigeria’s Past and Future

Michelle Alozie moves like a headline and lives like a hyphen. Nigerian international. Houston Dash forward. Cancer research technician at Texas Children’s. Emerging style force. The Super Falcon commands attention on the pitch and in the tunnel, thanks to a custom one-of-one jacket from Saudade House and New York designer Kevin Leonel. The piece honors Nigeria’s record 10th Women’s Africa Cup of Nations title and gives Alozie a fit that speaks in her own voice.

“Fashion to me is just so freeing, it allows for you to express yourself creatively and authentically,” Alozie says. That is the thesis of this project and the point of the collaboration. The jacket does not chase trends. It tells a story.

Leonel’s design language pulls from three eras of Nigeria’s football identity. The 1994 and 1995 Super Eagles iconography, the modern 2022 and 2023 looks, and the 2025 kit. Heritage meets the now. Everything is framed in luxury Italian tweed to elevate texture and tone. “Each one carries its own story and identity, and I wanted to merge them together, to show how history and progress can live in the same piece,” Leonel explains. It's a marriage of archive and runway, stitched with intention.

Materials matter here. Saudade House sourced repurposed national team shirts with personal resonance for Alozie, jerseys tied to milestones in her journey with the Super Falcons. That intimacy shows up in the details. The “22” on the sleeve. The inside embroidery. Patchwork that nods to the kit the Super Falcons wore while lifting WAFCON. Alozie’s reaction says the rest. “I was AMAZED at the craftsmanship… I LOVE IT.”

This is what cultural sport fashion looks like when it respects the badge and the person wearing it. The jacket refracts layers of Nigerian identity, color, cadence, and courage through a women’s football lens. It is not a remix for the sake of remixing. It is an heirloom in motion.

It also says a lot about where the women’s game is going. Players are not waiting for legacy houses to anoint them. They are building their own visual language with creative partners who understand the assignment. Saudade House operates in that lane, documenting athletes beyond the scoreline, linking sport with craft, and giving footballers the same editorial ecosystem that stars in other sports have enjoyed for years. The team behind the shoot kept things tight and intentional. Creative direction by Jared Soares and Lucas Mendes. Photography by Soares. Styling by Mendes. A compact crew across makeup, video, and lighting. The garment is treated like a portrait, not a product.

Call it a jersey-adjacent manifesto. A piece like this tells younger players and fans, especially across the African diaspora, that their histories belong in the frame. It invites the culture into matchday without asking permission. It says the Super Falcons story is luxury too.

Alozie’s timing underscores that duality. Between training blocks and hospital shifts, she is still in a playoff push with the Dash. That balance, clinical work in cancer research, elite performance in the NWSL, and a growing footprint in fashion, feels like the modern footballer’s blueprint. Minds and moments can coexist.

Zoom out and the jacket lands as both tribute and template. For federations across the African continent, this is a reminder that meaningful style collaborations start with lived experience. Players’ archives, national touchstones, and community craft. Give designers room to speak in their own dialects. Let athletes be co-authors. Keep the storytelling close to the people who carry it.

Michelle Alozie calls it freedom. The rest of us can call it the new standard.