AAPI Heritage Month is an occasion exclusively for Asian-American, Japanese and Pacific islanders. In AAPI month, talented young player of the US national women's football team Jaedyn Shaw brought a special moment when she appeared in the Vietnamese ao dai.
The photos shared by Jaedyn on her personal Instagram page attracted a lot of attention. Accordingly, the ao dai of the female player born in 2004 has a special design. It is a combination of the NC Courage jersey with her name and number (top half) with the traditional Vietnamese ao dai (bottom half).
The work is the result of close cooperation between Jaedyn and designer Thai Nguyen to honor cultural heritage, highlighting the Vietnamese ao dai in AAPI month.
The homepage of the US National Women's Football Championship (NWSL) posted interesting shares from Jaedyn and designer Thai Nguyen about this unique work.
"We took a Zoom call to discuss ideas with each other. We came up with the idea of dis assembling a jersey, placing it in a Vietnamese ao dai and combining the various types of fabric in the jersey of the team I am playing for - NC Courage. In fact, this is very useful because it allows you to have many ideas with different colors in them.
This work is very meaningful to me because it represents everything I have, not just the image that people see in me on the pitch. I am proud to be an American woman of Vietnamese origin.
I grew up playing football without any role model to follow. Here, I can't find anyone with the same origin as me. So it's really wonderful when I think I can be an example for others," Jaedyn shared.
Meanwhile, designer Thai Nguyen expressed his pride in Jaedyn, not only because of the female player's hard work towards her football ambition but also because of the pride and confidence of a young Vietnamese-American.
The designer said: "This collaboration is full of controlling, creativity and passion from the time the idea was nurtured until the work was born. I really believe that we are creating something historic, that is the first time we have had a jersey in the form of a ao dai.
This is a work that honors culture, heritage and excellence in sports. All converge in one work".
Jaedyn Shaw was born in 2004, is a Vietnamese-American female player. She was first called up to the US women's national team in September 2023 and made her debut in October 2023 at the age of 18, thereby becoming the first female player of Vietnamese origin to play in the national team.
Jaedyn has now scored eight goals in 26 appearances for the US women's team.
At club level, Jaedyn Shaw is the youngest player to score in the first match of the US Women's Professional Football Tournament when he scored in 2022 for San Diego Wave FC.
She was the best young female player of 2022 in American women's football when she played as a standout at San Diego Wave FC and the US U20 team at the FIFA U20 Women's World Cup in 2022.
Jaedyn Shaw is currently playing for the NC Courage team.
