Football season is officially here – and Team Swoosh are wasting no time when it comes to tapping into the archive, bringing back one of the most iconic boots to ever do it: the Mercurial Superfly 1 – the game-changing silhouette made legendary by Cristiano Ronaldo.
Here’s what you need to know: Nike Mercurial Superfly 1 ‘Max Orange’ dropped back in ‘09 as one of the OG ‘super cleats’, bringing Flywire tech and a carbon fibre soleplate into the game at a time when nothing else looked or felt like it.
The day-one iteration has gone down as a legend among collectors, mainly because it barely ever hit the public. During the initial rollout, the likes of Didier Drogba and Andrey Arshavin famously had their pairs rip apart mid-game. The ultra-thin Teijin synthetic pushed weight-saving to the extreme, but it came at the cost of durability – especially under the demands of top-flight football. As a result, Nike ended up pulling the launch from retail altogether, leaving the few surviving pairs to become some of the most expensive on the resale market today.
Fast forward to now, and the Cristiano Ronaldo x Nike Mercurial Superfly 1 ‘Max Orange’ runs it back in its intro colourway, but with a full tech overhaul. 17 years of Nike innovation gets packed in, from a 3/4-length Air Zoom unit built into the plate to a chevron stud wave setup underfoot, plus a softer, tackier finish up top dialled in for next-level touch on the ball.
The Cristiano Ronaldo x Nike Mercurial Superfly 1 ‘Max Orange’ is slated to arrive later this year through Nike and select retailers in-store and online.
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