Paying homage to one of the greatest track stars in history, designers Lumo723 have created a concept Mercurial Vapor that’s inspired by Michael Johnson’s famous and iconic golden running spikes.
For those unfamiliar with his exploits, Michael ‘Magic’ Johnson was one of the greatest track athletes of all time, with four Olympic gold medals and eight World Championship gold medals to his name. They stack up nicely alongside his former world and olympic records in the 200m and 400m, and he is the only male athlete in history to win both events in the same Olympics. In 1999 at the World Championships in Seville, he broke the 400m world record, running 43.18 seconds wearing specially commissioned golden shoes. And it’s these shoes that are the inspiration for Berlin-based concept designers Lukas Urbicht and Moritz Rose’s, collectively known as Lumo723, latest creation.
A gold boot is always going to grab attention, and the Michael Johnson Mercurial certainly has that affect. With the design of the Mercurial already taking a large amount of influence from the world of track sprinting, the translation here is virtually flawless. The same golden base takes on a more textured appearance thanks to the nature of the knit upper, as opposed to the smooth finish of the OG track spike. That gold is once again joined by the bold red Swoosh on the outstep, while the split soleplate comes in black, again, mimicking the original. A fine homage to the man rightly known as magic, and a rare glimpse at the potential for crossover into an arena that football rarely interacts with.
See more of Lumo723's work here.
