Milestones – Lotto Zhero Gravity

Lotto Zhero Gravity was back in 2006 a truly unique boot, Lotto designed a lightweight boot with no laces. The boot is beautifully designed, as you expect it to be for a company from Italy. To create a laceless boot Lotto had to spend some serious time on research and developing different concepts, for example what if the boot is too loose and you can’t tighten the boot? In this case you can´t! But Lotto did it and it´s working.

So instead of laces Lotto uses a rubber compound on top of the foot and in the heel, so the rubber stretches just a bit to get the boots on and off the foot. I used a pair of these for a whole season back in 2006. The touch with these boots was incredible! And they were eye catching for sure. Only down side really was that after lot of usage they didn´t fit tight enough. If you buy a pair I my case I had to go half size down.

Big thanks for reading and follow for more!

Nike Tiempo 7 Project

So I just finished yet another project that included football boots. This time the project took me around 12 hours of work and some additional time for the paintjob.

The idea behind this project is influenced by the recent collaboration between Nike and fashion designer “Off-White” c/o Virgil Abloh. So Nike launched ten footwear classics reconstructed in collaboration with Off-White in late October 2017.

Once I had seen this design I really wanted to create a my version of Off-White in a football boot. I also got a cool concept design made on a computer by my friend Gunt Tansuwannarat. And so I did! Follow my steps through the project.

1. I bought a pair of Nike Tiempo 7 “Academy Pack”, as they were already coloured black.

2.  I had to get the leather for the Nike logo, it had to be high quality and very thin because if it´s too thick then you will have problem when sewing it. Also make sure you use a needle constructed for leather.

3. Next thing was to print a paper copy of the Nike logo. Then I used it as a model before cutting the actual leather. Before I even started to attach the new leather logo on the boot I marked the position of the logo with a chalk on side of the boot. This helps me to keep the position of the logo while attaching it.

4. Following step is to glue the logo on place. I used a super glue that is suitable for leather. I glued short steps at time so I got it to fit perfectly and go along the the curvy side of the boot.

5. The next step is the hardest part of it all, the sewing of the logo. As normally when these types of boots are factory made they are sewed by machine and that´s only possible before the plastic soleplate is attached. So without lying this step took me like 8 hours of work, this because I were not familiar with this type of sewing and because I had to use pliers to reach when pushing the needle out from the inside of the boot. I have to admit I were really close to give up few times, until I got the right technique.

6. Next thing was to attach the small orange leather tag to the boot, also by sewing.

7. Before bringing them for the paint job I wanted to add a chrome tongue on them. As the boot looked as good with and without tongue I decided to use velcro tape. This allowed me to remove and attach the tongue if I so want. I sew one side of the velcro underneath the original short tongue on the boot and the other I sew into the new chrome tongue.

8. The boots are ready for paint job at my local artist Maalinetti.com
Here is some pics of the boots before paint job with and without tongue.

9. The boots arrive and the project is finished! I am very happy how they turned up, and I feel like it paid off. Thank you for the positive feedback I got on InstaGram (@toffem). Here is some pics of the final boot:

More detailed pics in a slideshow:

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Thank you for reading and please leave feedback!

Kind regards Toffem.

Milestones – Puma V1.06

In 2006 Puma really got back to the fight with Nike and Adidas. Puma presented the v1.06 which was the lightest boot Puma ever made. Some great players wore them such as Samuel Eto’o, Robert Pires, Alexander Hleb and Fredrik Ljungberg. 

Puma used a so called “Scholler ConTec”
upper material which made the boot light and gave close to bare foot feel. To increase the bare foot feel puma reshaped the front of the foot and used “Puma Lace Wrap System” to ensure a optimal fit.  

To reduce even more weight Puma used carbon fibre in the soleplate, which gave more flexibility and strength. Puma v1.06 had also a stud pattern that was different from the other brands, especially the studs in the heel was designed for speed.

Thank you for reading! Will soon continue selling some boots so stay tuned!