Nike showcases design innovations in Madrid for 2014 FIFA World Cup

Techno, techno, techno
By Thomas Davis | Fashion | 29 April 2014
Above:

Nike FIFA World Cup Brazil kit display, Salón de Reino, Buen Retiro Palace, Madrid © 2014 Nike, Inc.

From bonded neoprene hoodies and dress coats to 3D printed carry bags and heat reactive cagoules, if there is anything we’ve noticed in the past decade of men’s fashion it would be the rate at which designers have quickly incorporated innovative new fabrics, created initially for the sportswear market, into everyday clothing. That these fast-paced innovations go on to garner such mainstream power is testament to the playing field on which they began. And this brings us to Nike’s latest mega innovation dispatch.

The global sportswear titan last week unveiled an entire slate of new products for the upcoming World Cup in Brazil. Hosted inside the Salón de Reinos, a wing of the Buen Retiro Palace in Madrid, the big reveal included game changing field shoes, sneakers, uniforms and off-pitch apparel.

Nike 2014 FIFA World Cup kit display, Salón de Reino, Buen Retiro Palace, Madrid © 2014 Nike, Inc.

Headlining the recent offerings were home and away kits for the ten federations that will wear Nike in Brazil, combining hi-tech innovation to keep players cool, such as laser-cut ventilation, engineered mesh and Nike Dri-FIT technology. Filtration of similar technological fabric into many a runway piece in future spring high fashion collections can be almost assured.

Then there’s the football boot like no other on earth, The Mercurial Superfly. A far cry from those badly moulded, heavy pegged clogs we all once wore in school for P.E, these bad boys were created over four years using Nike’s most advanced technology at their Portland, Oregon base and are designed quite literally to be an extension of the wearer’s foot.

“Innovation isn’t just fuelled by a need for increased player performance” says Martin Lotti, Creative Director for Nike Football, “many of the new products contain high percentages of recycled Polyethylene Terephthalate taken from water bottles at landfill. Each kit is made of Polyester from around 18 recycled plastic bottles which also reduces energy consumption by roughly 30 percent compared to manufacturing virgin Polyester. In all, over 2 billion bottles have been used to create some of our newest products since first adapting this new technology.”

The new technical wear wins additional green points for environmentally friendly use of recycled materials and a stellar advertising cast for Nike Football’s new Winner Stays promo, including Cristiano Ronaldo. Wound together it’s a killer combination of product appeal for this year’s World Cup. You wouldn’t want it any other way – after all, this is the most globally visible sporting event in world history.

Discover the new Nike Mercurial Superfly 4.
Available to pre-order now, and on sale from 12th June 2014

 

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