To celebrate the launch of the Nemeziz 19, adidas has partnered with creative collective Espadaysantacruz, commissioning a unique sculpture that explores the unrivalled agility of some of the world’s top footballers, including Lionel Messi, Roberto Firmino and Bernardo Silva.
Made by Spanish creative studio Espadaysantacruz, the sculpture has taken pride of place in the centre of London, a short distance from the London Eye. “We created this sculpture to celebrate agility in football,” said Juan Santacruz, lead creator for the project. “We tried to capture the trademark of what would be the agility player.”
The artists took inspiration from the many unstoppable runs made over the seasons by athletes such as Leo Messi, Roberto Firmino and Bernardo Silva, analysing their impressive movements to create a data-driven, eye-catching physical manifestation of agility in action. “We took data from different Nemeziz players that have the characteristics of agility," Santacruz explained. "Agility is something that is very difficult to explain or to show in football, because it’s not speed – it has to do with speed, but it’s not just speed. It’s not just skill – again, it has to do with skill, but it’s a combination.”
Using CGI, they traced the players movement from when the ball is received to when it leaves their feet, then created a series of 1 to 1 scale ‘slices’ of their bodies in motion, spaced at varying distances based on their velocity over ground. Santacruz went into the process further: “Once we had the 3D model of an agility player, we sliced it in different positions with different distances according to the speed and the amount of detail that we needed in the different parts of the sculpture. Then we put them all together and covered it in 2 kilometres of the Nemeziz agility bandage.”
The imposing twelve-meter long installation highlights the unique qualities of the Nemeziz agility bandage as well as of the newly revamped boot itself. “There’s subtle details to the sculpture too, like how the front of the installation mirrors how the agility bandage is on the upper of the boot, so just little details like that really showcase the unique selling point of the product.”
At once incredibly impressive and also a little bit scary if we’re being honest, the sculpture is on display for your viewing pleasure now.
