Nikefootball New Zealand

CTR360 is ready for action

BLOG_AU — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 20:01:42 GMT

How do you make Cesc, Iniesta and Mascherano even better?

Give them a boot specifically developed for their game.

So this week, we gave the players who pull the strings in midfield, the ultimate control boot. One built to spark counter attacks, play defence-splitting passes, to dominate the game – the CTR360.

Look out.

See the boot

Feared Far and Wide

DonJulio — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 14:24:00 GMT

Black, brooding and with a V for victory slashed across its chest, Man U’s new strip has been engineered to inspire the away win – before a ball’s even been kicked.

Like the home strip, this kit is rooted in a century of history, with elements taken from the very first Old Trafford season of 1909/1910. It’s been designed to intimidate, with a blue chevron; black shirt, shorts and socks; and ‘The Theatre of Dreams Since 1910’ woven onto the inside label. It’s dark, menacing, and readies the team for another electrifying season.

Battle lines drawn

BLOG_AU — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 05:05:28 GMT

Arsenal has always had London at its heart. Now the club’s new 2009/10 3rd kit, with its sharp pinstripe design, enables the players to take a piece of the capital with them, wherever they do battle.

The shirt’s white with the pinstripe redcurrant – the same hue as the club’s strip in its first and last seasons at the former Highbury ground. The polo collar is inspired by the kit of the all-conquering 1930s side. And the label on the seam has the Arsenal cannons standing guard over the club’s motto: ‘Victoria Concordia Crescit,’ - ‘Victory Comes from Harmony’.

Sharp, stylish, crafted by experts: football just the way it should be.

Tradition Reborn

DonJulio — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 14:28:16 GMT

The 1980s. Juventus won 11 trophies in a single decade. Back then the shirt was black and white, but with narrower stripes than in recent years. This season the look returns, giving the club a striking appearance and a reignited passion for success.

On the inside of the home shirt, the label proudly shows off the Italian flag with a single lone ‘J’ woven into the centre. The away kit is just as simple: silver shirt, black and white sash, black shorts and Juventus stamped onto the calf of the white socks.

It’s all here in black-and-white. The Old Lady stands rejuvenated, ready for the launch of another glorious season.

Relentless We March

BLOG_AU — Mon, 18 May 2009 05:27:21 GMT

Always one more. One more point needed, one more result to nail, one more title earned in sweat. And then one more final to own, one more stage to dominate, one more cup to lift.

What's one more to a reigning champion? Everything.

Sometimes it’s what you can’t see that makes him faster

BLOG_AU — Fri, 15 May 2009 02:15:46 GMT

Speed scores goals. Two steps ahead of your opponent can mean the difference between scoring a goal and losing the ball. The Mercurial Vapor has been delivering on that promise for years. That's why the Vapor is the boot of choice for CR7.

And now Ronaldo has a new secret weapon, the Mercurial Blade. The new pinnacle in shin guard technology, the Blade features an ultra-thin carbon fibre composite shell designed to withstand the demands of the game at an elite level. Nike's lightest ever elite guard. Two steps ahead will now be four steps ahead. Defenders beware.

Super studs, super traction

BLOG_AU — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 06:27:25 GMT

Get faster to the ball. Move faster with the ball.

The Superfly features a dual density stud system that shaves every last ounce of unnecessary material from your boot, so you can shave seconds off your running time. If you’re cutting sideways, or ploughing straight towards goal, the Superfly traction pattern gives you the support to stay standing while your opponents fall around you.

Flywire: the Superfly’s secret weapon

BLOG_AU — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 06:17:19 GMT

You wouldn’t buy a sports car and pack the boot with lead. The same goes for a football boot. Modelled on the most economical of support structures, the Mercurial Superfly’s new Flywire design system is as efficient at load-bearing as the suspension bridge that inspired it.

With the lightest, strongest ever material between your feet and the ball, the featherweight Superfly combines killer touch with match-winning speed. Great news for forwards, terrible news for defenders.

The Superfly: a hat-trick of innovations

BLOG_AU — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 06:08:37 GMT

Look out defenders, Mercurial Superfly is coming. And it’s fast. The fastest boot in football is built on three key innovations.

Flywire technology provides the greatest stability from the lightest materials. Ultra-efficient dual density studs, give total traction at defence-beating speeds. And a revolutionary 7-layer carbon-fibre outsole mixes speed, strength and flexibility to help you get behind any back four.

The developers behind the Superfly overhauled every inch of its design to give Nike players the weapon they need to strike the killer blow come match day. And because our products always start with the player, it was input from the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo, Didier Drogba, Alexandre Pato and Theo Walcott that made the Superfly the boot it is today.

Superfly goes global

BLOG_AU — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 06:01:01 GMT

It looked like Cristiano Ronaldo had dropped dynamite into his boots for the European debut of the Superfly last week. This weekend, it was the chance for elite players right across the continent to pull on the latest and lightest Mercurial boot, and show what they’ve got.

While CR7 was making it two in two with a textbook penalty at Old Trafford, Zlatan showed some Superfly magic of his own, bagging a brace at the San Siro to bring Inter Milan home at a canter.

If any more evidence was needed of the Superfly’s featherweight ferocity, Alexandre Pato once again did what he was born to do, notching a second half double on the way to a 5-1 Serie A drubbing.

With Didier Drogba, Robinho, Franck Ribery, Adriano, Gabriel Agbonlahor and Ben Arfa all donning the Superfly in the coming weeks, one things for certain: the business end of the season just got a whole lot tougher for defenders right around the world.

CR7 gets Wired for Speed

BLOG_AU — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 05:35:58 GMT

One sight that will send a chill down the spines of Europe’s best defenders – the world’s best player getting to grips with the world’s lightest boot.

Cristiano Ronaldo debuts the Mercurial Superfly as Man Utd look to reach the Quarter Finals of Europe’s elite club competition. But he won’t be alone. Zlatan Ibrahimovic will also be wielding his own Superfly.

Catch the Superfly tonight at Old Trafford.

The History of Speed - The Mercurial SL

BLOG_AU — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 05:02:54 GMT

The designers and engineers at Nike HQ had done it before, and in 2004 they were asked to do it all over again. Their brief was as simple and as ambitious as ever: stop at nothing to create the fastest football boot the world had ever seen.

Four years later, the 100% carbon fibre Mercurial SL concept boot made its debut in Europe’s biggest club match, gracing the feet of Cristiano Ronaldo as he rose to head home Manchester United’s only goal in the European final of finals. Debuting the carbon fibre upper with a pink swoosh, Cristiano Ronaldo bagged his record-breaking 42nd goal of the season, helping his team to victory in Moscow.

A carbon fibre plate. An injection moulded outsole. A carbon fibre upper, hand-moulded in Italy. No corner was cut in the making of this boot, no expense spared. As CR7 showed on that memorable Moscow night, the only things getting trimmed were the hundredths of a second it takes the very best players to get to the ball, strike it, and run to their teammates to celebrate a hat trick of European titles.

The History of Speed - The Mercurial Vapor IV

BLOG_AU — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 04:27:15 GMT

It’s the first rule of working as a Nike designer: never believe those who say you can’t improve on perfection. After years of development work – and the input of Mercurial athletes from R9 himself to the latest brilliant Brazilian – the Mercurial Vapor IV is living proof that the definition of ‘perfect’ never stops changing.

When the seal was broken on Cristiano Ronaldo’s new shoebox in January 2008, you could hear the groans from defenders all over the world. The most in-form player on the planet was hard enough to stop, without adding a new weapon to his arsenal – and it took CR7 a mere 88 minutes to sear his orange peel Vapors into the fans’ memories with his first ever Manchester United hat trick. Five months and 20 goals later, CR7’s boots contained the first winger ever to win the European Golden Shoe, and the seventh consecutive Merc wearer to take the title of English Premier League top scorer.

Everyone knows a boot is only ever as good as the foot inside it. And with the likes of Ronaldo, Zlatan, Drogba, Robinho, Pato, Ribery, and Walcott, all donning the MVIV, it’s clear that this boot is as good as it gets.

The History of Speed - Mercurial Vapor III

BLOG_AU — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 04:10:10 GMT

The facts speak for themselves: the Mercurial Vapor III took speed to a whole new level. Sleek as a sports car. Equipped with the traction of high performance tyres, for full-throttled changes of direction. Aided by an anatomical heel lock to hold feet moving quicker than ever.

Once the Nike lab had finished with their new baby, the MVIII was a full 0.45m ahead of the average football boot at the end of a 10-metre course. That’s the stride of a defender, the lunge of a tackle – or the handspan of the keeper whose despairing dive is a fraction too late. As R9 proved at the biggest tournament of 2006, that’s the difference between the good and the all-time great.

In his third massive international performance of a career spanning 12 years, Brazil’s Ronaldo overtook every great goalscorer in the pantheon of football by notching his 13th, 14th and record-breaking 15th goal on the world’s biggest stage.

Call it genius, call it ruthlessness, call it sheer belief – whichever way you tag R9’s striking performance, it was just another example of his Mercurial essence.

The History of Speed – Mercurial Vapor I

BLOG_AU — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 02:20:41 GMT

The original Mercurial caused the kind of stir a shark makes in a fish pond. And with its standard-bearer R9 still ruling the world four years later, the new Mercurial Vapor was the most highly anticipated boot ever to emerge from the Nike Lab – in time for the showpiece event of 2002.

With the world’s attention turned towards Korea and Japan, Terry Gilliam’s Cage Tournament ad offered the first glimpse of Ronaldo’s long-awaited new weapon – and sent chills down the spines of defenders who knew they were about to meet their match.

Never mind the eye-catching haircut – the gaze of the fans never shifted from R9’s feet as he laid down the tournament performance of his career. Eight goals in seven matches. A brace in the biggest final of all. And a record-breaking fifth world title brought safely back to Brazil. There was never any doubt whose name would come out of the envelope when the 2002 World Player of the Year was announced.

While the appreciation of R9’s fans was still echoing around the globe, a certain Cristiano Ronaldo was quietly building a reputation to match that of his Brazilian namesake. He pulled on his own pair of Mercurial Vapors to thump home his first ever Man Utd goal, laying down the warning that giving him a free kick on the edge of the box is like chalking up a free United goal on the scoreboard. It didn’t take long for opposition defences to sit up and take note.