What the Mercurial: Nike celebrates football

In the "Urban Dictionary" - a sort of Oxford Dictionary for Millennials - the word “mercurial” is associated with this description: "quick, quick, especially when in reference to skating. Hard to get noted by opponent players”. Close your eyes, think of football and imagine the strongest and fastest planet of the players roll through the field as trains, hard to notice so do not try to stop them. Ronaldo, the "true", is a great example of what "mercurial" is declined in football optics: a goal scored in Compostela offers the perfect visual summary: Ronaldo is too (good) and fast to be stopped.

It is then easy to see why, in 1998, during those World Cup that they should enshrine his final consecration, Nike chose the Fenomeno as the face of his new football boots. Arise, therefore, the first Nike Mercurial Vapor; blue, yellow and gray, which for the first time in the history of the brand pointing firmly to reduce the weight of the shoe. The name was R9, and the shoe went down in history for being the first signature ever in football.

In basketball instead, the mechanism was already tested with Jordan to act as progenitor. From Nike Basketball (and Nike Skateboarding), Nike Football has borrowed another idea,  in order to celebrate 18 years (and age) of Mercurial. In 2012 that were released the "What the Kobe", the iconic signature of the star of the Lakers, that wanted to mix together all the signature of Bryant released with Nike. From the same theme narrative, the "What the," was part of the first ever mashup of Nike, "What the Dunk" when they revolutionized the skate shoes. But this time is different, this time Nike has decided to assemble not a single signature line, but its most famous line of soccer shoes of all time, in a very unique, final product: "What The Mercurial".

The baseline will be represented by the new Superfly, launched by a Cristiano Ronaldo mini-movies now two years ago. The first version ever of Superfly (pre Nike Flykit Era) was designed precisely to CR7 in 2011, so that the Portuguese can be considered the the father of that signature.

It is almost ironic that the two players who most of all have represented important transition pins for Nike have on the jacket of the same name, are comparable to the same talent category, and both forwards. Yes because Mercurial has always been seen as the nimble forwards’ shoe, fast and who scored a lot of goals. That is why in Italy, for example, the witness is carried out by Dybala and El Shaarawy.

18 years of history then, culminating in as many colors, 4 different parts of the Mercurial logo to create a single cyborg on the heel. The two sides will have the same design, made from various inserts of previous editions. The more colors never used for a playing shoe, needless to say. To compose it, there are gems like Superfly CR 2010, one designed by Tinker Hatfield, and inspired by the Nike Air Safari 87. Or the Mercurial Match, launched in 200 as part of the Alpha Project.

If you are thinking of buying one of 3000 that Nike will be selling from May 5, you should know that will be delivered in "What the Box", a special packaging designed by the Oregon company to make it even more special release. Finally, not a simple envelope, but one of "bags" that have become iconic Nike Total 90 during the campaign, and that ended up influencing a whole generation of teenagers. The "What the Bag" will have 4 different logos Mercurial forward, and the whole of the previous timeline out the back. From 1998 to 2016, 18 years of innovation, attack and speed.