And still we keep up our New Years Resolution of regularly posting new content to this site. Apologies if the following post appears a bit Nike heavy but it could be argued that they ‘won’ this week with some very strong product launches. Anyway, here’s issue 6 of the Boot Room Weekly Round Up – enjoy, share, like, comment etc!
New boot of the week: Nike Mercurial Superfly 360 – RRP £229.95
It’s pretty hard to imagine a more star studded launch event than the one that Nike held for the latest incarnation of their Mercurial boot. Nike endorsed players such as Manu Lanzini, Joao Mario, Alexis Sanchez, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Marcus Rashford, Raheem Sterling, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Jordan Henderson and Eden Hazard were all in attendance along with Brazilian legends Neymar Jr and Ronaldo to announce the latest version on Nike’s premium speed boot. Amazingly these boots don’t have a soleplate instead Nike FlyKnit technology wraps the entire foot. According to Nike, this ensures a hug like fit that eliminates any gaps between the foot and soleplate and thereby reducing the chance of any slipping inside. If the fit is right and the foot can’t slip then the players speed is not compromised.
The ‘sole’ of the boot is visually stunning but does a lack of a traditional soleplate affect the traction that the boot offers? No is the answer from Nike. Traction is provided by precisely placed studs in the forefoot and heel. The Nike designers looked to the natural world for inspiration – in particular Cheetahs. The forefoot is built for acceleration in any direction while the heel studs help the player stop.
Here Jeongwoo Lee, Nike Football Senior Design Director, explains the design process behind the new Mercurial 360.
Vintage boot of the week: Nike Air GX FG US10.5 UK9.5 – Buy it Now $149.00 or Best Offer
Quite how these boots still haven’t sold on eBay despite them being listed a number of times is beyond us…maybe its to do with them being mistakenly listed as Nike Air Roma. These boots, released in 1997, were the direct inspiration for the Nike Hypervenom III GX that were released earlier this season.
The Air GX even featured on a track on a Nike Promotional CD of Mo Wax produced tunes inspired by various Nike shoes of the time. We’ve still got a copy somewhere… but in the meantime here’s the Nike GX track
Vintage shirt of the week – adiads Anderlecht shirt 1990-1992
The purple and the stylised G logo of sponsor Generale Bank makes this instantly recognisable from quite some distance as an Anderlecht shirt to those of us of a certain age bracket. The one thing that’s always bothered us though is that the adidas trefoil logo sits over the heart and not the club badge…
Bargains of the week – adidas Predator Precision SG UK 10 £95 Buy it Now or Best Offer
We’d normally use this section to highlight sale bargains on brand new boots from various websites but thought these still qualify as a bargain. With a Buy It Now price of £95 these are a good price but with the added temptation that the seller is willing to listen to offers then you could pick these up for even less. Yes, they could do with a bit of restoration work but they look like they are in pretty good condition. eBay also has a few packs of replacement studs on there at the moment along with the special stud key that’s needed.
Video of the week – Nutmeg! Nuts! Megs! Megnuts! Túnel! Panna! Caño! Tunnel!
Image of the week:
There’s just so much right with this pic of Joël Tanter of FC Rouen. The pinstripe shirt, oversized sponsor, the adidas trefoil, the beard, the hair and the seemingly unflinchingly stare!
eBay finds of the week
We’d love to own this Roy Race cut-out but not sure our other half would be quite so keen…
Pick-ups of the week
- Vintage Roy of the Rovers pin badge – this badge highlights the ground breaking sponsorship deal that Gola secured with the mighty Melchester Rovers in 1981 and takes us right back to popping to the newsagents every Saturday morning to pick up our reserved copy of the latest issue of Roy of the Rovers.
- Vintage Fiorentina shirt by ABM – We’ve always had a soft spot for Italian team shirts and this Viola shirt was just too good and too much of a bargain to let slip through our hands. Better pictures to follow when it actually arrives…
This weeks other worthy mentions:
- FC Dallas of the MLS unveiled this beauty of a home kit. The shirt is meant to invoke the look and style of the Texas state flag. A great little detail is the white star on the left sleeve that features the initials ‘LH’ as a tribute to team founder Lamar Hunt and also as another nod to the state flag.
- This was definitely a week for MLS kit launches – another one that caught our eye was the New York City away shirt
- The kits for this summers World Cup are now starting to come thick and fast. This week saw both the England and Nigeria kit launch. Clearly taking inspiration from their 1994 World Cup shirt the Nigeria one is stunning.
The bucket hat and floral track top are also superb!
We were a little less impressed with the England efforts, as nice and traditional as they are, but we do think that Nike missed a trick in not making the training shirt the playing shirt. With echoes of the 1982 admiral shirt, we’re sure that this will prove very popular among the England support
- If you’re on Instagram then take a look at the One Shilling account page for some great images of exquisite Football Programmes from a humbler time
Feel free to let us know what you think of this post, our site or anything else in the comments below or via our twitter page.