Arriving with a fresh new look, Nike launch the Mercurial Superfly 8 and Vapor 14 ‘Blueprint’, switching up the aesthetics for the first on-pitch colourway of the year.

The Mercurial continues its legacy into 2022, and for its first look of the new year Nike take things back to the old drawing board – quite literally in fact. It’s already been spotted out and about in passing, but now we get a proper look, with both the Vapor 14 and Superfly 8 getting wrapped in a “Chlorine Blue/Laser Orange/Marina” colourway that’s inspired by design blueprints, which ultimately lends it the monicker of ‘Blueprint of Speed’.

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Would be easy to mistake this for a new generation, what with the timing of the drop (it’s almost a year to the day since Nike unveiled the Vapor 14 and Superfly 8 in the ‘Dragonfly’ launch colourway) and the generally new presentation on offer. But it’s not; the tech under the hood hasn’t changed, meaning we’re still on the 8th generation of Superfly and the 14th of Vapor. Instead this is just a refresh ahead of what is set to be a busy year of football.

So the Mercurial kicks off what is set to be a full pack drop, with the Phantom and Tiempo set to follow in due course. The ‘Blueprint’ pack will be the brand’s first on-pitch collection of the new year and will continue on pitch until the spring, so look out for the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo, Kylian Mbappé and Sam Kerr switching into the Blueprint Mercurial this week, with Phantom and Tiempo athletes making the change in the coming weeks.

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The new look features a component-style design, revealing the architecture of the boot, or the ‘blueprint of speed’. The biggest change of note is the repositioning of the smaller, incomplete Swoosh, which now sits in the middle of the in and outstep and comes with a 3D-layered style. They ride on top of a semi circle on each side.

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Shop the Nike Mercurial Vapor 14 and Superfly 8 'Blueprint' at prodirectsoccer.com