Nike football are continuing to revolutionize the landscape, with the launch of their new Mercurial Vapor IX boot. Emphasizing high technique and explosive speed to beat your opponent, the Vapor IX is the latest in the Mercurial line to deliver lightweight performance.

               

Combining performance innovation and a heritage of lightweight boots for fast players, the Nike Mercurial Vapor IX takes this legacy to the next level for players who rely on tight cuts and turns combined with bursts of explosive speed to beat the opposition.  


          


No boot delivers explosive speed and style quite like the Nike Mercurial Vapor. They're football's longest serving speed boot, built for high-powered acceleration and delivered in dynamic, bold fashion. Now nine generations strong, the Vapor is back to stake its claim as football's most electrifying boot.  

From inception to craft, the journey of an elite football boot is a precise process. To furnish an athlete with a value of millions and watched by an audience to match, leaves little-to-no margin of error for football shoe manufacturers. One such brand - Mizuno - have given us a unique insight into the construction of their elite footwear...

               

This behind-the-scenes and exploratory video pulls back the curtain on the arduous process that goes into making Mizuno's elite products. Plotting the journey from the moment the footwear is designed, to the moment it is developed, crafted and refined. It takes innovative minds, skilled craftsmen and a lot of time to deliver what we see on pitch.



Strong, fast and dexterous, Brazilian forward Hulk is the athlete we see Mizuno creating football boots for here. An endorsed athlete, it is Mizuno's task to supply the tools-of-the-trade to Hulk - a privilege they of course pay for - and a challenge to the designers and craftsmen who strive to fuse innovation with function, in a competitive landscape creating unique, wearable, eye-catching and performance-delivering footwear.



This video provides us with just a glimpse into the extensive development needed for a modern football boot. Aside from the rough sketched imaginings of a designer, and the skilled craftsmanship in building the physical product, there are many layers in the process. In the early stages insights come from players, managers and physios from around the globe to initially concept a boot, from here the boot designs becomes a CAD drawing so it is built in three dimensions on screen, before being built into a physical sample to be play tested.




A quite revealing video from Mizuno, but one that realizes the extensive process and life-cycle of a football boot. For us this is a cool insight into the football industry; footwear is an essential piece of equipment in the sport, and there are many hundreds of individuals and many hundreds of man hours dedicated to what's worn on the feet of footballers around the globe.

Adidas have unveiled an exclusive pair of Ballon d'Or f50 football boots for Leo Messi, designed and created to commemorate Messi's achievement of winning the FIFA World Player of the Year for a fourth consecutive year.

Leo Messi stands at the top of the footballing world, and the adidas empire. The best footballer on the planet and recently crowned record winner of the Ballon d'Or, it's no surprise this announcement has come from adidas, who will be looking to best Nike and their recent limited edition CR7 Mercurial.



The boots pay homage to Messi's incredible achievement, with all four years stated on the boot upper. The years are placed within a gold 'Sun of May' symbol which features in the center of the flag of Messi's native Argentina. Gold detailing includes the Sprintframe outsole, the adidas logo, and of course Lionel Messi's signature logo.




Messi's dramatic new football boots are an ultra-exclusive boot, with no current plans to go into retail. However, @adidasfootball and @TeamMessi are offering fans the opportunity to win a pair, by entering on twitter. Let us know what you think of Leo Messi's exclusive Ballon d'Or f50 adizero football boots,