Wednesday , March 27 2024

The History of the Nike Mercurial Series

Vapor XV

For most players out there, the iconic Nike Mercurial series evokes some sort of vivid memories from huge games or events of recent years. It all started in 1996, when Nike partnered with the world’s most decorated international side, the Brasilian National Team. In the eyes of the swoosh, it was time to create a new type of boot worthy of their caliber of play. Ronaldo, the squad’s young high profile striker, was the special one chosen as the muse. On the pitch, he was patient—stalking, waiting for the right moment. Then, when opportunity arose, he’d strike, accelerating to the ball with velocity that the game had never seen before. With the goal in his sights, Ronaldo would change in nature. He was, in short, mercurial.

To craft a boot suited to Ronaldo’s explosive style, Nike designers looked to the track. Early concepts included a dissembled track spike married to a Nike Tiempo upper, which illustrated the objective of unmatched weight reduction in a football boot. To meet the challenge, the team of designers bucked longstanding trends by eschewing kangaroo leather and employing a synthetic kangaroo replacement, KNG-100. The second major breakthrough was reducing plate thickness from the industry standard 3 mm to a game-changing 1.75 mm. Luca Bolpagni, from Nike’s Product Creation Centre in Montebelluna, Italy said of the innovations, “Everything was shocking at the time. The look, the materials, people didn’t know what to think. It was a truly exciting moment.”

Nike launched the Mercurial silo in 1998, forever changing the look and feel of performance football boots and here is our look at the history of the series and how it has evolved.

Find the currently line-up of Mercurial boots available at soccer.com.


1998: NIKE MERCURIAL


Mercurial

How can a track spike inform a boot? Initially known as Tiempo Ultra Light, and the Ronaldo Ultra Speed, the Nike Mercurial answered that question. Engineered with Ronaldo’s startling velocity in mind, what started out as a lightweight addition to the Tiempo series accelerated past anything made before and forged its own path as a “speed” boot: the Mercurial.

In tune with the phenomenal Brasilian striker’s insights, the Mercurial was engineered for speed. A thinner plate, built to withstand the impact of 90 minutes of high-speed play, reduced weight. The KNG-100 synthetic upper (which behaved like leather but didn’t absorb water like natural fabrics) further trimmed weight. Thinner and lighter than traditional leather, KNG-100 shattered the stigma of synthetics and changed how football footwear was made. A sticky coating for ultimate ball control was sourced, appropriately, from the chassis of racing motorcycles and was honed to work with the shoe’s unique upper. The Mercurial proved an ideal canvas for color and made an impact in blue and yellow on Ronaldo’s feet on football’s biggest stage in the summer of 1998.


2000: NIKE MATCH MERCURIAL


Mercurial Match

Weighing just 230 grams, the Nike Match Mercurial proved that Nike’s experiment with lightweight football boots didn’t end with the original Nike Mercurial. For the second generation, the boot’s development became part of Nike’s Alpha Project, a series of footwear symbolized by five dots and emblematic of excellence in performance. While the Match Mercurial retained the same last as the original, it was given its own distinct aesthetic. Most notably, on Ronaldo’s signature Match Mercurial R9, the KNG-100 was dressed in a metallic copper that faded to black toward the toe panel. The Alpha Project era, including the Mercurial R9, Air Zoom Italia, Match Mercurial, and Air Zoom Mercurial (a rare piece of the Mercurial story incorporating full-length Nike Zoom Air cushioning) confirmed that fast could get faster.


2002: NIKE MERCURIAL VAPOR


Mercurial Vapor

​As the original Nike Mercurial borrowed designed language from an Italian motorcycle (specifically for its ball-control coating), the Nike Mercurial Vapor drew inspiration from the fastest production cars available. If the initial idea was to build a track spike for the pitch, the Mercurial Vapor was created to sustain a 90-minute sprint and deliver the perfect foot-to-ground feel for fast players.

Over the course of development, Nike analyzed each element of the Mercurial Vapor. Everything from glue to stitching thread was weighed in order to remove excess weight. However, sustaining speed for a full match also required comfort. A new anatomical last created around the natural shape of the foot for less pressure brought the player closer to the boot’s plate. The innovative fit reduced weight, added comfort, and, in a testament to the Mercurial’s DNA, increased speed.

With constantantly evolving designs for a faster and more comfortable boot, it didn’t stop there. One of the evolutions brought the quest for the fastest boot to the women’s game. American stars Mia Hamm (who led the U.S. Women’s team to victory in 2003 and a gold in 2004) and Brandi Chastain wore the Mercurial Vapor. Their insights led to the 2003 Nike Women’s Mercurial Vapor—a boot built to the exacting specifications of the female foot.


2004: NIKE MERCURIAL VAPOR II


Mercurial Vapor II

For the Nike Mercurial Vapor II speed was a given—the weight remained the same—but refinements to comfort were required to realize the goal of a perfect foot-to-ground feel. Modifications to fit included an enlarged heel tab for extra ankle cushioning. The Team Red edition, part of the original release rollout, indicated that bold color was still part of the Mercurial Vapor’s aesthetic, but it was Ronaldo’s signature gold and black for the Mercurial Vapor II R9 that is most remembered. Fittingly, the audacious design stood out on the feet of emerging star Cristiano Ronaldo (who started wearing the Mercurial in his early-teens) in a fluid passing of the torch.


2006: NIKE MERCURIAL VAPOR III


Mercurial Vapor III

The Nike Mercurial Vapor III signaled significant changes to football’s ultimate speed product. Teijin microfiber, engineered to conform and adjust to the foot’s shape was introduced to the upper. Increased padding on the exposed, form-fitting heel cup evolved the fit, completed by an anatomically contoured speed last and a carbon fiber heel wrap to distribute heel-strike impact. Thanks to a two-piece plate with direct injection studs, no concessions to multidirectional traction or acceleration was spared in the design.

Like its predecessors, the Mercurial Vapor III came in colors befitting its speed. Cristiano Ronaldo wore a bold Cactus colorway. Meanwhile the Brasilian Ronaldo celebrated his all-time tournament scoring record in 2006 with a limited-edition version of the Mercurial Vapor III R9, and signaled a decade of Mercurial speed with a 10th anniversary edition (released in 2007) that brought the distinctive color scheme of the original Mercurial to the carbon fiber-aided Mercurial Vapor III platform.


2008: NIKE MERCURIAL VAPOR SL


Mercurial Vapor SL

When footwear designer Mark Parker become CEO of Nike in January 2006, he challenged every design team within the company to create something outrageous, with no design limitation, and invited a re-imagining of the meaning of innovation in performance footwear. Reacting to this challenge, Nike Football super-charged the Mercurial’s lightweight speed concept. A decade after Mercurial changed football forever, the Mercurial SL went back to its track sprint origins.  At just 185 grams, the Mercurial SL was constructed entirely out of carbon fiber. With the upper crafted in Italy, the plate engineered in Germany, and the outsole built in South Korea, the Mercurial SL was a product of the global game. The concept boot pushed the boundaries of football and set the stage for new era of innovation on the pitch.


2008: NIKE MERCURIAL VAPOR IV


Mercurial Vapor IV

The Mercurial Vapor IV took the baton from the Mercurial SL, bringing aerodynamic sprint spike looks to the football pitch. The Teijin upper now covered the laces, offering an uninterrupted shooting surface, and allowed for a bold lateral Swoosh. A fast new aesthetic mirrored the properties of a hidden innovation: a ground-breaking internal chassis. Constructed of a glass fiber, the insert offered instant acceleration—just like the propulsive snap of a track spike.

The inherent speed of the Mercurial Vapor IV was augmented by some of the boldest colors ever seen on a football pitch—Orange Peel and Citron—and in Mercurial Vapor Rosa, the shoe put a final flamboyant stake in the heart of black boot purists.


2009: NIKE MERCURIAL VAPOR SUPERFLY


Mercurial Vapor Superfly

What does the athlete want? How can a boot feel like less but deliver everything? The answers yielded the lightest, fastest Nike boot at the time—the Mercurial Vapor Superfly— wiring players like Cristiano Ronaldo for unmatched speed. With the Mercurial Vapor Superfly, the notion of unparalleled speed on pitch was revolutionized yet again. Nike Flywire, engineered for lightweight support and fresh off debut in Beijing, was inherent to its design. Like the Mercurial SL before it, the Mercurial Vapor Superfly drew from cutting-edge track spikes. But, unlike any other Mercurial before it, the Superfly seamlessly incorporated support and flexibility.

A composite upper package using an ultra-thin Teijin skin exterior and Flywire threads locked the foot in place. This finely tuned shell ensured the best possible fit, and an uncompromised feel on the ball. New lightweight traction cleats and a carbon fiber chassis shaved precious weight from the boot, and a seven-layer carbon outsole delivered maximum resilience and flexibility. Working in harmony, the upper and sole of the boot allowed athletes to accelerate and react quicker.

The handcrafted boot exemplified Nike’s obsession for lightweight product and pushed the silo into a new era. Its properties demanded a new name, Superfly. While the rest of the Mercurial iterations continued, Superfly became the highest expression of the Mercurial idea — the lightest and fastest.


2010: NIKE MERCURIAL VAPOR SUPERFLY II


Mercurial Vapor Superfly II

Inspired by the cheetah, the Mercurial Superfly II turned the question of speed into a question of traction. Influenced by insight from Cristiano Ronaldo, the Mercurial Superfly II incorporated NIKE SENSE technology, the next great evolution for football’s premier speed boot. The innovative studs extended and retracted by millimeters based on pressure and ground conditions, providing a base for optimum speed and stability in all directions. Accelerating in every twist and turn transformed each critical step into an opportunity for victory.

For the 2010 summer in South Africa, the Mercurial Vapor Superfly II was also given an Elite Series makeup. With this, premium speed was augmented not just by reduced weight (achieved via a carbon fiber plate), but also through a Mach Violet and Total Orange colorway. Far from simply an aesthetic choice, the scheme was chosen after intense investigation of which colors stimulate peripheral vision in game conditions. In a blur, the Superfly II provided a target for pinpoint passes towards goal.


2011: NIKE MERCURIAL VAPOR SUPERFLY III


Mercurial Vapor Superfly III

Focused on eliminating the small stumbles and slips that can be exploited by the opposition, the third incarnation of the Nike Mercurial Vapor Superfly aimed to maximize a player’s every chance on pitch. Toe-off traction reduced the risk of slipping, while a tri-blade configuration maximized speed during directional changes.

The refined composite upper was more streamlined than ever, with a carbon fiber chassis and the same adaptive traction system as the Superfly II. The Superfly III’s bold color placement at the rear of the boot (shown in image above) and overall color combination expanded on the Elite Series’ concept of visual acuity.


2012: NIKE MERCURIAL VAPOR VIII


Mercurial Vapor VIII

Mercurial is all about turning speed into explosive speed. The eighth edition of the Nike Mercurial Vapor introduced a new traction system to the line. Buttresses on the studs ensured fast-in-and-fast-out ground penetration, while a central stud—a high pressure point—was engineered to boost acceleration. A lowered toe and more sculpted arch changed the fit of the boot around the foot, and the Teijin microfiber upper’s suede-like finish increased touch and control with a barefoot feel.

As with all evolutions of the Mercurial, innovation to the upper was matched by a new outsole—this time built of flexible fiberglass. The contoured last followed the natural shape of the foot, and incorporated a softer heel to minimize distraction. The launch colorway, an unmistakable Mango, further caught attention.


2013: NIKE MERCURIAL VAPOR IX


Mercurial Vapor IX

The ninth iteration of the Mercurial Vapor set sight on complete control. The upper of the Nike Mercurial Vapor IX featured a combination of All Conditions Control (ACC), for consistent feel in wet or dry conditions, and Speed Control (featuring a texture akin to a golf ball), providing equal measures of soft touch and friction against the ball. The Mercurial Vapor IX incorporated a lightweight plate with two distinct glass pieces for increased flexibility. Twin studs with asymmetrical configuration completed the retooling, offering ultra responsive acceleration and traction in all directions.

Cristiano Ronaldo’s CR7 edition Mercurial Vapor IX unleashed neon colors on the newly textured upper, accented by a Safari print. If that wasn’t enough, the CR7 Mercurial Vapor Supernova, with intergalactic all-over print, hammered down the explosive, otherworldly speed of the Mercurial line.


2014: NIKE MERCURIAL VAPOR SUPERFLY IV


Mercurial Vapor Superfly IV

Call it a slingshot for the foot. Born from years of R&D in the Nike Explore Team Sport Research Lab, the Superfly IV was designed for the player who is always a step ahead of his marker and the game of football itself.

Nike Flyknit technology drives the boot’s revolutionary design. Employing a new three-knit weave, the upper of the Mercurial Superfly IV puts less material between the foot and the ball to enhance touch — a vital element when playing at top speeds. The mid-top Dynamic Fit Collar not only transforms the Mercurial silhouette, it improves the connection between the player and boot.

Extending the boot as part of the body’s natural motion is essential to the innovative nature of the Superfly IV. The addition of Brio cables, knitted directly into the upper, locks the foot to the boot’s full-length carbon plate for efficient transfer of power through the ground. Added studs on the boot’s heel increase stability, while the track-inspired toe traction integral to the Mercurial DNA is vital in providing grip and propulsion.

Since its debut, Mercurial boots have been synonymous with speed. With the Mercurial Superfly IV, speed has evolved with the game of football. Just as matches have become faster and more intense, the boot is engineered to react quicker. The Superfly IV is the ultimate articulation of the Mercurial vision to date.


I know there are a lot of you out there with fond emotional connections to the series, and many of you that have a lot of knowledge on the range. What are your favorite moments from the series or do you have a particular favorite in the range? Let us know in the comments below or you can always find us on Facebook and Twitter.

And finally, for those that want to find pairs from above, you can see the newer models on WeGotSoccer or do some research on the older “sold out” versions with an eBay Mercurial Vapor search!

About Bryan Byrne

The mastermind behind the revolution that is SoccerCleats101. Bryan started this website back in 2008 and has been testing boots on a daily basis ever since. Check out our About Page for more details on Bryan and the website.

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