The Man Behind The Man

All great spy movies combine a hero with unflappable talent and state of the art technology to make incredible action. For every protagonist, there’s a genius inventor who pimps the hero’s ride out with jet propulsion systems, ejector seats and all those other gizmos used to fight crime and look good doing it. Well that’s kind of how it is between superstar Ronaldinho and Tom Minami, the man behind the man head shoe designer for the new Tiempo Ronaldinho series. Last week he took some time out of his busy schedule for a phone interview with Nikesoccer.com to talk about his role in designing domination.

Nikesoccer.com: Outside of the Tiempo Ronaldinho , the Mercurial Vapor, and the Air Zoom Control II, have you worked on any other sneaker designs or sports performance products in the past?
Tom Minami: Well, I’m pretty new to Nike. I’ve only been at Nike for two and a half years and I think that those you mentioned are pretty much the only ones I’ve work on. And before that I was at school.

For design?
Yeah, I went to California State University Long Beach and majored in industrial design.

Well given that you didn’t have too much prior experience, what were some of the biggest challenges in designing a cleat that needed to meet the standards of a player like Ronaldinho?
I got to know the process when designing shoes for the Vapor, but the biggest challenge for me was probably designing the plate. The plate needs to be flexible, and have traction, and still be light weight and so many things, and also it is plastic injected molding so it takes a little time to make it and design it.

Would it be possible for you to go through the process for some of those like myself who aren’t familiar with the key steps in designing a shoe?
Yeah sure, so the basic process of shoemaking starts with marketing people making a brief for the next season saying what type of boot we’re gonna’ make. Then the designers take over until they can send a file of information over to the factory to make samples, which we’ll use to make revisions. Also, at the same time we do some work testings where we send the boot to a high school in the U.S. or the U.K or Australia or Japan and see how the boot’s gonna’ work in different conditions and on different fields. And then slowly we can finalize the details, the graphics and everything. That’s the basic shoe making process.

What were some of those details you thought about during the design process that would really make this the premier boot for touch?
Well, before the project started our team went to Barcelona to meet Ronaldinho and talk about how he plays and anything he thought could improve his performance.

You know, he takes a lot of free kicks, so we created a really open sweet spot so he can feel the ball better

instead of having a lot of details on top. And also he grew up with futsal, so he uses the bottom of his feet a lot. So we created some rough texture on the stud tip so he could get some grip against the ball and make it easier to control the ball.

How was the process for the Tiempo Ronaldinho different than, say, the process for the Vapor?
The main difference is this is Ronaldinho’s boot. He was really involved in the process. So before, for the Vapor and the Air Zoom Control, the process was directed to the general consumer, but for this one the main consumer we thought about was Ronaldinho. So we showed him the sample to try on, train with and give us some feedback. This was a big difference.

What was Ronaldinho like to work or just be around? And what was he like as far as contributing to the creative process?
I know he’s a really busy man but I think he really enjoyed being involved in the process of shoemaking. And, you know, they were his own boots so he took it very seriously.

Did he make any specific suggestions or recommendations that you really took to heart?
The free kick part, the sweet spot on the upper part of the shoe, and then the texture on the plate stud tips. Also the flexibility. We got rid of a lot of stuff from the Zoom Air because he felt the Zoom Air made him too high to the ground. Again, he grew up with futsal and that’s like almost playing barefoot, so instead we put the Poron, which is a high performance air cushioning lower.

Well I know you are a soccer player yourself, what were your impressions of him just as a person to be around?
Well, obviously I’m a big fan of Ronaldinho. Every time he does some new tricks, I watch ‘em on really slow motion and try to copy…but yeah, it was an amazing experience for me…

Were there any memorable experiences in particular?
Yeah, uh, one was last November at the Tiempo Ronaldinho launch for the media. When I met him he kind of punched my shoulder, he seemed really happy about what we’ve accomplished with the entire Ronaldinho collection. It was almost like we were kind of buddies. Next week I’m gonna’ go to Barcelona to meet him again.

Have you gotten any feedback from him about the boot you designed?
Not really, because I haven’t met him since November, but after that he’s played really well, which I’m happy about. I’ll get some feedback at the upcoming meeting.

In regards to style and the symbolism of the color scheme of the Tiempo Ronaldinho, how did you decide to communicate things like joy and family and samba through the specific stitching?
Yeah, well, when I met Ronaldinho and spent some time with him and his family we came up with those themes—like family, joy, samba—and I really wanted to visualize those three biggest words for him, because I really wanted to put both his personality and the functional side in the boot.

Did you get that from any specific conversation with him or anything he did?
Yeah, we had a really nice quote for each word. So like samba, he said, “I play music in my head.” For joy – “When there’s a ball, I’m happy.” For family, “Everything I know, everything I have, I owe it to them.” You know it’s a pretty good story, and it’s a great thing for him. And it’s great for the consumer to get to know about who Ronaldinho really is. As far as the colors, that’s just something we picked. We intentionally didn’t use cold colors, like blue or green, because his personality is very warm and welcoming.

Was there anything you had discussed for the design, different colors or different feature, that didn’t end up making it into the final product?
We kind of picked the colors and showed it to him, so he didn’t really have the option of different colors. But sometimes the player doesn’t have a really good visual mind and can’t really answer about what he prefers. So we picked one and showed it to him and that’s what he ended up liking most.

What about a detail like the swoosh, that wraps all the way around like the Jordan I? Obviously we happen to be sneaker fanatics and also noticed that the placement of the swoosh you used on the boot is kind of like the ’89 Air Max. Were you thinking about any sneakers while designing?
Well you know, this boot is Tiempo Ronaldinho, so Tiempo, you know, means “time” and so I wanted to design something classic, something retro.

Got it, would that explain the heavy use of black in the collection?
Yeah, also our thought was that after 2006 with boots of so many different colors, so many different synthetic, plastic, shiny materials, we kind of wanted to bring back the classic, simple black boot.

Going for the throw back?
Uh huh, yeah. We thought it would be a good time to bring it back.

Well if you weren’t designing with any specific sneakers like the Air Max line in mind, were modeling the Tiempo Ronaldinho on any previous boots?
Not really, again I’m kinda new to Nike but I’m a sneaker freak as well, so I know about the Air Max or Dunks. When I was designing I was more looking to the Tiempo Legend, which is kind of a similar design. Very classic, leather, old school.

How did your personal soccer experience factor into the design process, and do you think that one needs to be a player to design a great boot?
I think so. It would be very tough for someone whose never played soccer to suddenly have to design soccer shoes. Some people do this and do really amazing jobs. I think either way would work, but for this model I think it was nice to have some soccer experience. You know, I understood what a sweet spot is and what type of traction he wanted.

What position did you play?
I play midfield, same, kind of, like Ronaldinho.

So is it safe to say that this was your dream boot too?
Yeah, I’m ordering them right now.

So you obviously know how important touch is. How different is this boot as far as “touch” technology than the boots you’ve played with in the past?
Touch is great around the forefoot. The laces are kind of short compared to other boots and around the forefoot areas its basically just one piece upper. So, the sensation of touch to the ball is amazing. And actually, it helps flexibility as well.

(Time is up)

Nikesoccer.com: Thanks so much for making time for the interview and congrats on such a successful design.
Tom Minami: No problem.