Nike's Mercurial Vapor the Legacy

Nike's Mercurial Vapor the Legacy

Nike and Adidas are two giants of sportswear industry, who have been slugging it out for bragging rights ever since. Making it possible are their trade mark specialist boots designed for comfort and high level intensity of football.

The Football Mind looks into the first of the major giants today: Nike's Mercurial Vapor.

Both set of boots have their own set of great names representing the brands and their own set of fan followers. Nike who have a 35% of the boot market look to expand their presence and out do their major opponents Adidas.

Starting with Nike's Mercurial Vapor, origin of the Mercurial Vapors can be traced back to as early as 1998, when Ronaldo debuted the original Nike Air Mercurial boots. The first versions of the boots were released in black. With all the boots released in two variants; soft ground and hard ground types. This was just the start for Nike which only started producing boots in 90's.

The original Vapors were released in mid-2002, just before the World Cup. The boot was first released in three colourways: cinder/white/maize; University Blue/white/obsidian; and medium grey/ red and was represented by Cantona, Henry, Luis Ronaldo and Roberto Carlos who acted in the advert for the boot.

Original advert 2002

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The Mercurial series has been about one thing; making the boots as light as possible. It about flying on the pitch, the speed and the directness of a forward or winger.

The series:

Mercurial Vapor
Mercurial Vapor II
Mercurial Vapor III
Mercurial Vapor IV
Mercurial Vapor V & Mercurial Vapor Superfly
Mercurial Vapor Superfly II
Mercurial Vapor Vll
Mercurial Vapor Vlll
Mercurial Vapor lX
Mercurial Vapor X

Top Players to wear the Vapors:

Cristiano Ronaldo who's the brand ambassador of Mercurial Vapor is the highest paid, Nike Athlete.
Others stars include: Iniesta, Drogba, Zlatan, Ronaldo(Brazil) and Rooney.