Nikesoccer

Master Close Control

Gronamo — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 22:08:02 GMT

Make the pitch your playground with magnetic touch.

Watch the video to see how Carlos Tevez, Robinho and Ronaldinho keep the ball stuck to their feet and tie defenders in knots.

Inside the Lab: 10R

Gronamo — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 18:53:19 GMT

Jaw-dropping skill and a 100-watt smile. The ability to make professional defenders look like amateurs, all while grinning from ear to ear. These are the things that you notice first when watching one of the world’s most gifted players. But, Ronaldinho’s game is not only about glamour; it’s also about grit. He has the strength and determination to back up his audacity.

So how do you make a boot that can provide the softest of touches, but withstand the most brutal of challenges? That was one of the many questions designer Tom Minami was faced with when creating the latest 10R. So we sat down with Tom to get the lowdown on the design process.

What are the main differences between the new 10R and the previous version?
Tom: The biggest difference was that I could listen to him and get the feedback from the first 10R boot, which was huge. He liked the first one, but the main part he requested was softer leather.

What changes in the process when you are designing a shoe for one player in particular?
Tom: I would say most of the process is the same as the regular shoes, but we need to visit 10R often and make sure he’s a part of our team and he’s happy on every decision we make.

Did Ronaldinho make specific suggestions or was it more a matter of you creating a design to fit his playing style?
Tom: I think it’s both. He can tell us what he wants in boots, but also we could suggest some technical parts. For example, we came up with the story of futsal-inspired boots, which lead to heel kick, ball control functionality, and when we suggested it to him, he was very happy about it. As far as the design, he’s very open. He tries on the shoes before he says if he likes them or not, so I think fit and aesthetic are both important for him.

How did his personality influence the look of the shoe?
Tom: Everyone thinks he’s very flashy and he’d like flashy design and colors, but he is very conservative in boots and he likes the classic boot. So I was thinking of mixing the classic aesthetic and some modernity.

What made you go for a relatively simple black design versus the more colorful shoes we have seen in the last few years?
Tom: Our team thought that it’d be good to launch the 10R boot in black & white like the first one and potentially in the future as well. But you’ll see some colorful shoes in the future.

10R: The Fight Behind The Flair

gabejazzy — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 15:59:08 GMT

Ronaldinho is truly a once-in-a-generation talent. He possesses a rare mix of speed and technique, resulting in defense-smashing runs and stunning free kicks that can silence a stadium full of 80,000 opposing fans.

Before joining mighty AC Milan this season, Ronaldinho went on a tour of Japan, China, and South Korea. See how his deadly combination of tenacity and skill sends his adoring fans into a football frenzy.

Find out more about the fight behind the flair.

The Fight Behind the Flair

Gronamo — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 23:10:07 GMT

The beauty and the beast. The monster and the magician. Call it what you will, but no matter what you want to do on the field the 10R is your weapon of choice. It's got the bite to take out the big boys and the panache to deliver pinpoint passes.

The 10R is the embodiment of Ronaldinho's mesmerizing game - the silky touch, the beguiling strength and the pure joy of it all. And now, the latest edition of the cleat that's preferred by the world's most skillful player is available to the world.

So get the boot that will get you to the next level.

The 10R reveal

Gronamo — Fri, 01 Jun 2007 22:53:46 GMT

Ronaldinho introduces the world to his first signature boot: The 10R.

The Man Behind The Man

gabejazzy — Mon, 22 Jan 2007 21:43:56 GMT

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.

Brazilian Ping Pong

gabejazzy — Thu, 20 Oct 2005 20:52:33 GMT

From the beaches of Brazil to the most awesome soccer arenas in the world, Ronaldinho’s proved his feet are worth their weight in gold. And so are his boots. Ronaldinho shows us what he can do in his very own Tiempo Legends. Anyone for Brazilian Ping Pong?