A signature Nike athlete, not wearing his brand new, entirely innovative, marquee signature shoe? This is not the first time we have seen this happen this year (LeBron XI?) nor with Cristiano Ronaldo in general. Ronaldo took the field in Portugal’s ever important match against Germany this week, in a modified, low-cut Mercurial Superfly IV. Now, in any other year and with any other boot silo, this low-cut, normally shaped model would not be a deviation from his signature. But this is the year of Nike’s high ankle collar, and the Superfly IV is supposed to rule the World Cup alongside the Magista on Nike’s signature athletes. Instead, CR7 has preferred to take a traditional version of the Superfly to the training pitch and the field on game day. It is probably an occurrence unlikely to affect juggernaut sales from Nike. But the kids watching aren’t seeing the innovative new ankle collar Mercurials on their idol. Furthermore, the top Nike athlete in yet another sport is wearing his shoes, just not the signatures that Nike pushes and advertises with them as the flag bearer.
We will see if Ronaldo continues to wear this custom version of the Superfly IV, or perhaps just revert to the Mercurial X. Regardless, he will join LeBron with signature shoes that just don’t feel right enough to play in on the big stage. What do you make of this? Let us know in the comments below!
Images from SoccerBible
Turns out when you reach a certain pinnacle of awesomeness you can actually just tell Nike to their face you don’t want gimmicky useless bullshit on your shoes. Rafa does the same thing with flywire.
i swear some goof at nike dreams up fancy looking shit, calls it an advancement, wear tests it with people unfamiliar with the sport or footwear, gets it mass produced and then goes and tries to get bron or ronaldo to like it. I know thats not the process….but thats the kind of results we’ve been getting.
I don’t understand the love for flyknit at all, it feels like paper on your foot.
I think your over reacting a little bit. That shoe still uses flywire as the lacing system and still is flyknit with the fuse type overlay. It is just a low cut, remember the superfly isnt his own signature shoe it is just a shoe made for, well, people who like it. This is like a PE version like how we saw Jeremy Lin using the crazy light 3 lows instead of the highs. He isnt wearing a takedown model he is just wear a lowtop model he simply just probably perfers nothing around his ankle when he plays. To say the whole shoe or a majority of the shoe is a gimmick in my opinion is sort of a knock on nike futbol cleats. And remember lebron used a whole different shoe when he was playing it wasnt really a choice in the beginning when his toes were being killed by thefoamposite, i dont think that was a gimmick either as many people really enjoyed the shoe including myself and nightwing, I just think it wasn’t right for lebron and his toes.
Like nike mercurial superflly