Having already been seen on pitches at Euro 2024 and Copa America, Nike officially launch the next generation Air Zoom Mercurial Superfly X and Vapor XVI, which line up together as part of the ‘Blueprint Pack’.
We first got a look at the all-new Air Zoom Mercurial way back in April, when Nike unveiled them in almost a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it cameo appearance as part of a new Air-powered 13-product offering dubbed the “Blueprint Pack”. Thankfully we didn’t miss it though, but following on from that it’s been pretty much radio silence until Euro 2024 and Copa America got underway and Kylian Mbappe and Vinicius Junior stepped out wearing the all-new Superfly X and Vapor XVI respectively. And following on from that, Nike officially launch the new boots, giving us the chance to have a proper close up look.
As we know by now, the differences between the Superfly and Vapor models are literally the Dynamic Fit collar. Other than that, we’re essentially dealing with the same boot. So what’s the deal with that boot, and what’s new? Well, to start with, the flex grooves from the Air Zoom strobel unit were removed, adding speed fins to the forefoot of the boot and optimising the plate flexibility. Nike also reduced the thickness of the Flyknit upper from five layers of material to three layers, or by nearly 30 percent, making it more mouldable to the foot and the lightest and thinnest full Flyknit upper ever for Nike Football. As well as that, it’s also set to see the introduction of Gripknit technology that has featured as the headline innovation on the Phantom GX and Luna.
The pack’s colourway is inspired by Nike’s co-founder Bill Bowerman, who was known for taking a ballpoint pen and “dot” a Swoosh on the side of his athletes’ spikes to save the weight from stitching on a logo. Branding-wise, that “AIR” callout has shifted from the side positioning to instead wrap around the heel, carrying with it a nice handwritten-styled "Mercurial" and "Air Zoom" callouts. The Swoosh still sits on the forefoot, while the Air Zoom unit is highlighted on the soleplate in orange.
Expect to see these continuing to make a scene at both Euro 2024 and Copa America as Mbappe's France take on Ronaldo's Portugal in a mouth-watering quarter final, and Vini Jr's Brazil face up to a tough quarter final clash with Uruguay.
Shop the Nike Mercurial Blueprint Pack at prodirectsport.com/soccer
