ACCLAIM is in Barcelona to see the latest product of Nike’s restless, obsessive design principles: the Magista football boot. I’m at the Disseny Hub, jockeying for position in the media scrum, when the curtain (emblazoned with the unmistakably Nike tagline “Football will never be the same”) drops. At this point a torrent of journos bursts forth, everyone jumping at the chance to be the first civilian to lay a hand, and camera lens, on the new arrival.
The Magista is the culmination of a dizzying amount of R&D, but the first thing that you notice is that it’s made with the wildly popular, space-age Flyknit technology, a favourite of aficionados of both lifestyle and performance kicks. “It’s practically like having a glove on your foot,” notes superstar Spanish midfielder Andrés Iniesta, who saunters onto stage as the PA system plays M.I.A.’s triumphant, middle-finger-raising ‘Born Free’.
In fact, the principles underpinning this design project go beyond being unintrusive and extend into being invisible. “If the players were talking about the boot after training, then we weren’t doing our job,” says Phil McCartney, VP of Sport Performance Footwear. He goes on to talk about the project’s goal of locking down “fit, touch and traction.” Or, to get technical, creating a seamless, intuitive interface between foot and boot, boot and ball, and boot and pitch.
In case it’s not already clear that the Magista has been a pretty monumental undertaking, Nike CEO and president Mark Parker is on hand to kick off the official proceedings. “Our aim at Nike has always been to meet the athlete’s particular performance demands and amplify his unique set of skills,” he tells the crowd. “Magista inherits that transformative history of design and innovation and supercharges it.“
Later, a Q&A session sees McCartney and Denis Dekovic (Nike Global Football Design Director) fielding questions about the nitty-gritty of the design process. How does the Flyknit yarn respond to getting wet, you might be wondering? Well, that’s where NIKESKIN comes in. Thinner than sheet of paper – thinner than a sheet of paper – the application melts onto the shoe’s upper and provides a protective layer from the elements.
“It’s like wearing a glove. A glove starts at the wrist, not halfway up the hand,” McCartney goes on to say, riffing off Iniesta’s glove analogy. “You need that transition so you don’t disrupt your body’s natural movement.”
After the presentation I try on the boot, which lives up to the hype: it feels uncannily sock-like. I take it for a turn around the artificial pitch laid out in the hall and it feels so high-tech that I seriously entertain the idea that it could have salvaged my high school career as a lacklustre midfielder. And that, right there, is some seriously impressive design.
Read our interview with Magista designer Denis Dekovic.
The Magista will be $320 RRP. You can register interest from March 7, before pre-order at Nike.com on April 29 and availability at Nike stores and Rebel from May 22.