Milestones – Nike Mercurial Superfly I 2009

The release of Nike Mercurial Superfly I in 2009 was truly a beginning of something big.

Nike had a big launch for the boot at Old Trafford with Cristiano Ronaldo as main character to advertise the new Superfly. The Superfly I was a product of 2 years of engineering and designing, Nike did also work around many professional players feedback to create this boot.

The new technology in the Superfly I was called “Flywire”. This Flywire technology allowed Nike to reduce weight without losing strength. You can compare the Flywire technology with cables in a bridge, it supports players foot were needed. The boot weighted only 185 grams and back in 2009 that was very light. Nike added the Tepex carbon fibre soleplate to the boot which really made the Superfly I unlike any other boot on the market.

Nike released a very limited edition of the Nike Mercurial Superfly I Fg called “Wear It Proud”. They were originally made for Ugo Moyne and the English rugby team to celebrate their new purple away kit. Each boot was handmade in Italy and individually numbered from 1 to 70. Rumors tell that 30 pairs were given to the rugby team members and only 40 pairs sold to public.

My pair is numbered 55 out of 70.

Thank you for reading!

Kind regards Toffem

Milestones – Nike Mercurial SL 2008

Nike wanted to create the lightest and fastest boot in history. Nike spent 3 years creating a boot with no financial- or time limitations. In 2008 Nike released the Nike Mercurial SL (Super Light), weighed 190 grams.

The boot is almost entirely made of carbon fiber with a soleplate made of 7 layer carbon material, this to give strength and flexibility.

Nike released the boot in FG-soleplate limited to 2008 pairs and in SG-soleplate limited to 500 pairs. Cristiano Ronaldo wore the boots in Champions League Final 2008 in Moscow against Chelsea FC. The game ended 1-1 in fulltime, C.Ronaldo scored Manchester United only goal. Manchester won on penalties 6-5 and making them the Champions of 2008.

Thank you for reading!

Toffem

Milestones – Nike Mercurial Vapor III 2006

Nike Mercurial Vapor III was released in 2006, for the FIFA World Cup in Germany. And if Mania was regarded as a peak of Adidas Predator range then we could say the same thing about Nike Mercurial Vapor III. Mercurial Vapor III was the third boot in the Vapor generation and was truly a speed boot. The new feature in Vapor III was Teijin microfiber which added comfort
and a perfect shape to the upper. Also it made the boot more durable than earlier Vapors.

 Nike added also some padding to the heal area with a supportive carbon last. The boot itself weighed around 196g, which was very light back in 2006. Another new feature was the two-piece soleplate that gave extra lightweight.

Nike released 15 different colorways of the Vapor III. Most special of them is the Nike Mercurial Vapor III 10th Anniverary (black/white) they were a limited edition 1000 pairs made to celebrate 10 years of Nike Mercurial!

The boots were worn by Ronaldo, Thierry Henry & Didier Drogba and ofcourse by the rising star Cristiano Ronaldo.

Thank you for reading, more to come!

Milestones – Nike Mercurial Vapor I 2002

In 2002 Nike released the Vapor I, a true speed boot made of light synthetic material. The boots were inspired by Italian sport cars design, giving fast players a perfect balance been lightweight and foot to ground feel. The boot had a slim fitting with a natural shape of the foot, adding many lace holes to get the boots tighten close to the foot. Majority of the stitching’s was replaced with glue to reduce the weight. Originally released in cinder colourway, but followed by several
colourways. 

Also there was a special edition in Chrome/Lime made for Brazilian striker Ronaldo for the World Cup final in 2002. Ronaldo scored two goals against Germany and became World
Cup Champions. The Chrome/Lime was the first numbered limited edition boot by Nike, they were limited to 4600 pairs globally.

For sure one of my favourite boots in the history.

Thank you for reading!

Milestones – Nike Mercurial 1.0 1998

There have been a football boots “battle” between Nike and Adidas since 1994. In 1998 Adidas introduced the Accelerator, so Nike released the first ever Mercurial, which became Nike’s new star! It was the Brazilian star Ronaldo Luiz Nazario de Lima, also known as R9, who debuted in the very first Nike Mercurial in World Cup 1998. 

The original colourway was black/white, it was the first time Nike used synthetic materials in a football boot. The syntethic material proved to be the succes, as they could make a boot light and durable at the same time.

A special version in sliver/blue/yellow was released for the World Cup final for Ronaldo to play in. This was the first step for Nike getting into the market of light speed boots.

Thank you for reading.

SALE!

Following boots are for sale:

• Adidas Predator Precision Sg custom painted 9uk 9.5us 43 1/3eu, 9/10.  Price: 120£+shipping
• Adidas F50+ Sg 10uk 10.5us 44 2/3eu, 9/10                                                     Price: 130£+shipping
• Nike Tiempo Air Legend Fg 7uk 8us 41eu, 9/10                                           Price: 60£+shipping

PayPal accepted!

Message me: toffem@outlook.com

Nike or Adidas?

This is an endless battle between two very succesfull sport brands! We all loved the old school Nike Mercurials and Adidas Predators. I have to admit that I gave up my hope sligthly with Adidas when they announced in 2014 that they would stop making Predator and F50… 

Nike continued strongly with developing the Mercurial range and also creating two new models Magista and Hypervenom. For me the new Mercurial Superfly V, Hypervenom Phantom III & Magista Obra II are one of the best boots Nike have produced in the last years! As I have been wearing Mercurial for most time of my career, I’m happy to see that they are developing the boots all the time.

If the years 2014-2015 were a slight dissapointment from Adidas then they really pushed up things in 2016! Some great boots as the Ace16+ PureControl with laceless technology and X16+ PureAgility to battle as a speed boot against Mercurial!

So both brands are once again seriously compeating of providing players with the best boot options! This is important as competition is the only way to improve your own products.

Nike Mercurial Superfly

One of Nike’s most succesfull boot range, the Mercurial Superfly! The first ever Superfly was introduced to the world in 2009, but we had a boot before that which had a carbon soleplate. In 2008 Nike released an elite level boot of the normal Nike Mercurial Vapor IV, the Nike Mercurial Vapor IV SL. SL stand for “Super Light”. In the first actual Superfly Nike used a carbon fiber soleplate and a new technology called flywire in the upper. 

The following two Superfly models were quite similiar to the Superfly I, but many did prefer the Superfly I over the new models. In the years 2012-2013 Nike did not manufacture any Superflys. Then in 2014 we got to see Nike’s first knitted boot with a carbon soleplate, the Nike Mercurial Superfly IV.

The latest boot in the Superfly range was the Superfly V in late 2016! 

Retail vs. Sample

I got something interesting to show you, here I got two pairs of Nike Mercurial Vapor IX. Despite that they are different colourway, there is something else.

The green coloured boot on the left is a retail version that was sold for the the piblic in 2013. On the right side we got a bit more interesting pair of boots, they are called “Sample” or “Salesman Sample”. They were usually a tryout boot, property of Nike, or then just given to shops for exhibition purposes and were not ment to be sold. But as we know some pairs got away to the public 😉

The difference on my pair of “Sample’s” is the fact that they got a carbon-fiber Sg-Pro soleplate. The ones that were made for public releases had a fiberglass soleplate. Perform wise there is not a big different, but carbon-fiber is slightly stronger than fiberglass. And ofcourse the carbon fiber looks better.

Nike Mercurial Superfly V Collection

Took some time for myself to take pictures of my Nike Mercurial Superfly V collection. These are the Superfly V’s I currently own. 

They are all pretty rare except for the CR7 “Discovery” yellow/dark grey ones, as they are not a limited edition but instead a nice looking boot from CR7 Chapter-3!

These are probably the most unique of them all as they are custome painted to represent the original Mercurial 1.0 from 1998 World Cup! 

Then next, boot above, you all recognize! One of my big favourites Nike Mercurial Superfly V “EA-Sport”, limited edition and mine is numbere 733 out of 1500. Representing the video gaming from late 90′ with 16-bit all the way to present time with high resolution!

Last one is probably the rarest of these four boots, the Nike Mercurial Suoerfly V CR SE “Vitórias”. Limited edition (230 of 777) celebrating Cristiano Ronaldo winning his fourth FIFA Player of the Year trophy aka Ballon d’Or!

Hope to see many more Superfly V in the future!