"One of the biggest footballers in the world is going to read my letter. It's pretty crazy", says 12-year-old <a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.footballbeyondborders.org/" target="_blank">Football Beyond Borders</a> (FBB) participant Esme, in response to the words she is penning to an England international footballer. On a slightly less grey afternoon than usual in Greater Manchester, six young players are writing missives to their football heroes, bringing a&nbsp;palpable brightness and energy that can be felt in this FBB classroom. Team England is going to football's biggest tourney, and so are these kids, through first-class post.

Well-wishes and personal stories from the young players would soon reach the palms of the England national team, thanks to an opportunity with Nike and its youth-sport community partner FBB. Nike and FBB have been official partners since 2019, when the Swoosh invested in the non-profit to help some 3,000 young people from underserved UK communities with mentorship, state-of-the-art facilities and leadership programmes. FBB also offers intangible support to its players, building a community for the participants and providing mentors and coaches dedicated to aiding them through some of the most vulnerable years of their lives. Esme, Darcie, Marcus, Emanuel, Izzy and Noah are all FBB participants in northern England. As we sit in FBB's office in Manchester ranking our favourite crisps, it's clear how the organisation has helped these individuals become well-rounded people, confident and assured. Despite having a new adult in their ranks, they're quick to make me feel welcome, excitedly showing me the facilities, asking about my travels and telling me about their own journeys through FBB.&nbsp; As we enter a classroom, the players' energy picks up as they look at Nike x Palace bespoke envelopes and letterhead spread across a table. FBB's work is done within local communities, but the outcome of this particular project will propel these young people's voices globally.

This moment comes as Nike is celebrating and recognising FBB by featuring the organisation's logo on <a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://about.nike.com/en/newsroom/releases/from-pitch-to-street-to-community-nike-defines-the-future-of-football-culture" target="_blank">England's 'The Three Lions by Palace' shirt within their X2 collaboration collection</a>, which the team wore in a friendly match ahead of this summer's tournament. While football fans worldwide watched the most star-studded teams, they were also introduced to FBB.&nbsp; After I ask the young players about the effect this organisation has had on their lives, Noah tells me that he loves starting his week with his FBB session. He describes how the programme has been pivotal in his growth; from meeting new people to finding confidence in himself to having a space where he can "escape from everything", FBB has solidified his love for football while showing him that there is more to learn from it.&nbsp; You see that in the hard numbers: FBB's latest impact report shows that 97 percent of its participants stayed in school, and they also passed their secondary-school exams at a rate up to 10 times higher than peers in national comparison groups. Three in five FBB participants improved their behaviour in school, and two in three reported that their mental well-being improved or stabilised. "These young people are at a time when they are finding themselves", says Deputy Chief Executive Ceylon Andi Hickman, who has been at the organisation for more than eight years. "We create a space and tools for them to do that".This holistic support is exactly what Nike wants to invest in too, says Vanessa Garcia-Brito, VP & chief impact officer. "Sport can be transformational for youth. That's exactly why we're investing in amazing partners like Football Beyond Borders, who support these young athletes, on and off the pitch", says Garcia-Brito. "We work with more than 200 community organisations around the world to create a future of youth sport that invites all kids in and makes play more accessible, fun and inclusive. It's an honour to celebrate their work in our neighbourhoods and communities globally on the world's biggest stage for the beautiful game. The impact will be enduring".

Today, that empowerment sees 12-year-old Emanuel get to write to defender John Stones, a pivotal player for the club Emanuel—a football lover through and through—supports. Emanuel's progress through FBB is evident at this moment. He has the self-assurance to pen a letter to someone he cares about, and the thoughtfulness to speak to their shared similarities. "I'm quite calm, and I think he is too", says Emanuel. "So I would suggest some calming music before kick-off". One beautiful thing about FBB's work is the connections it creates and the belief in potential that it instils in its players. I've seen it first hand, as a previous mentor for the organisation. I watched young people realise, some for the first time, that other people could believe in and want the best for them, both in the game and in their everyday life. That gentle reminder that someone has your back is a real comfort, whether it's in the form of mentorship or simply an adult asking you how your day is going. That's a constant that FBB offers. My FBB mentee and I, for example, are still in contact today. Seeing the strong and confident person he has become, I know that this group can follow in his steps. One young player who stands out in particular is 13-year-old Izzy, who wrote her letter to Jordan Henderson.&nbsp; While she gives her family thanks for her love for Liverpool, she reflects on why FBB has become so important to her. The organisation has instilled a sense of teamwork, she says, and a feeling that she and the other players are accomplishing something together.&nbsp; Izzy's advice for Henderson rang true and also held meaning for herself: "Just try your best, because that's always good enough". In a time when young people are under increasing pressure, the work done by FBB is reiterating this positive message. They are enough, they are able, they are deserving.&nbsp;

The young players' letters were all intentional, maybe none more so than 13-year-old Marcus's, who penned a letter to his namesake, Marcus Rashford. The younger Marcus has an infectious love for the game; he arrived to this letter writing, in fact, straight from a friendly FBB football match.&nbsp; Rashford's journey has been well documented, and young Marcus has been following it. His joy in writing to the star forward is evident in the way he shows off his notebook from Play Forward, a development programme created by Rashford for FBB, and it's based on self-belief and resilience.&nbsp; Marcus was specific in describing how he wanted Rashford to reflect on his importance, mirroring how FBB has helped him do the same. "Society has pushed stuff onto us", Marcus writes. "It might not be noticeable at first, but it definitely affects a person's personality". There are many adults who wouldn't be able to detail so vividly how they felt, let alone convey a message of liberation to one of their sport idols.

While this day's activity was novel and exciting, the weight and power of FBB is in the everyday ways it serves its young athletes. As Esme put it, "FBB helps me feel more like myself and gives me a safe space to talk to people. Every young person deserves to feel that way". It's not far-fetched to envision a world in which the future England football team is filled with former participants from FBB. Moments like this, along with the always-on work the organisation provides, serve as key reminders that all kids can have that dream.

What if you got to write to your football hero? These players, part of the community organisation Football Beyond Borders, knew exactly what to say when they penned letters to the England national team.

Football

Feature

The Young Footballers Behind England's X2 Collection

It was 14 July 1994, Brazil and Italy were about to play for the most coveted trophy in football. The temperature at the Rose Bowl had climbed past 80 degrees, and by the time the two teams walked out of the tunnel, there were more than 94,000 people in the stands and billions more watching from around the world.Among them was Phil Knight, co-founder and CEO of the world's largest athletic footwear company. Nike had already transformed running and basketball, but football, despite captivating the world, remained a great sport and cultural frontier.As he watched, Knight noticed something beyond the score. The Brasileiros—eight of them in Nike Tiempos—played with a quality he couldn't quite name. We know it now as joga bonito, Portuguese for "play beautifully", a style that is <a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://about.nike.com/en/newsroom/releases/nike-debuts-rip-the-script-a-step-inside-the-universe-of-nike-football" target="null">expressive, creative, joyful, unscripted</a>.Two days later, Knight pulled aside his global sports marketing director and said three words that would reshape the company's relationship with football forever:&nbsp;"I want Brazil".

The Mandate

To understand the significance of what came next, it helps to know where Nike stood going into the summer of 1994. Football—still called "soccer" inside the offices of Nike's headquarters near Beaverton, Oregon—had existed at the edges of the company for years. There were shoes. There were player and team relationships and some moderate success in the UK and Scandinavia. But on a global scale, Nike's influence on the sport barely registered. It was, by most internal accounts, an afterthought."We meant absolutely nothing in the sport to anybody", said Sandy Bodecker, Nike Football's first general manager.He was about to change that.In the early 1990s, Bodecker—who&nbsp;would go on to be a pivotal teammate, later leading projects such as the resurgence of <a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://about.nike.com/en/magazine/this-science-backed-sports-comic-is-made-to-better-your-mental-health" target="_blank">Nike SB</a> and <a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://about.nike.com/en/newsroom/releases/sandy-bodecker-the-man-behind-nike-breaking2" target="_blank">Nike's Breaking2 moonshot</a>—had&nbsp;been a trusted forward-thinker in Nike's footwear R&D operation. For years, he and a few others had been making the case that football was a sport the brand couldn't afford to ignore. But up until that point, there hadn't been the will to act on it. When Knight's directive came down after the 1994 final, Bodecker finally had the mandate he needed. <a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://about.nike.com/en/topics/nike-football-2026" target="_blank">Nike Football</a> was becoming its own division and he would lead it.The goal was simple: become a force in the sport by the time France hosted the tournament in 1998. They had four years to make it happen.

What followed was the assembly of a small, intentional core team, including an apparel director, apparel developer, creative director, sports marketing lead and global sports marketing director, among others. They were a unified force and the odds were stacked against them. Nike had no deep heritage in the sport and faced no small amount of scepticism from European football insiders about how an American company run out of Oregon would attempt to serve the world's game.Bodecker chose to see it differently. He embraced the scepticism. The absence of history, he decided, wasn't a liability. It was the whole point."We wanted to be the new heritage of the sport", he told the <a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://about.nike.com/en/magazine/nike-spaces-sports-design-innovation-performance" target="_blank">Department of Nike Archives (DNA)</a> in a series of interviews prior to his passing in 2018. "We liked that because we didn't have an old heritage".That didn't mean ignoring football's history. It meant knowing it well enough to go beyond it.&nbsp;Whatever <a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://about.nike.com/en/topics/nike-football-2026" target="_blank">Nike Football</a> was going to become, it would succeed by honouring that history—and&nbsp;then building something entirely its own.

The Foundation

The team got to work immediately. The first order of business was securing a deal with the US Soccer Federation, an ideal partner to help Nike support and serve the sport and its athletes on the brand's home turf. After months of relationship building, Nike was able to ink the deal, which covered both the men's and women's national programmes, ending a 28-year tenure with the team's previous sponsor, a major competitor.&nbsp;With this single stroke, Nike was embedded in American football at every level—able to work with its greatest athletes and the soon-to-be greatest and to innovate for their needs.

Around the same time, Nike made another essential move, signing an athlete who would come to define Nike's relationship with the women's game for a generation.&nbsp;An intrepid sports marketing executive had approached Mia Hamm two years earlier after watching the University of North Carolina football star score two goals in six minutes on a soggy day in Chapel Hill at the 1992 NCAA Championship.The contract was worked out in the basement of the Rams Head Rathskeller Bar in Chapel Hill, where the marketing exec sketched out details on a napkin and carried it back to Oregon to go about finding the money to honour it.&nbsp;

After Nike signed the US federation, the brand could make its commitment to women's football more formal. For instance, Nike treated Hamm and the US women's team as genuine collaborators, asking how they wanted their apparel to fit, developing footwear designed specifically for women's feet and listening in ways the sport hadn't seen before."They were doing a lot of research in the differences between men's and women's feet", said Hamm during a DNA interview. "They talked to me a lot about footwear and what I liked and what some of the other players like. The respect that they had for us made a huge difference. It makes you proactive. It makes you want to get out there and see what else you can do as an individual".When the apparel came back, it reflected everything the players had asked for. For Hamm, it added up to something that felt less like a sponsorship and more like a partnership. And it left a lasting impression on the entire team.Years later, a deal that began scribbled on a bar napkin would culminate in a building at <a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://about.nike.com/en/magazine/how-nike-built-its-world-headquarters" target="_blank">Nike's world headquarters</a> bearing her name.

The Deal

With the federation signed and Hamm inked, the new division turned to the prize that had started everything.Knight had said he wanted Brazil. Now, it was time to deliver.This would require something beyond hard work or ambition: patience. In Brazil, relationships come before deals and Nike's team learned that quickly. For two years, they showed Brazil why they should partner with the brand. Repeated meetings; follow-up calls; and, most important, listening.&nbsp;It was pure, dogged determination, the kind that comes from having a single, unwavering goal.In July 1996, the work paid off. The Nike team signed a contract to cover every Brazil national squad. To date, it was the sport's most monumental deal, and for the Swoosh, the Brazil ethos would set the tone for what Nike Football meant: creative, attacking, instinctive and joyful—<a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://about.nike.com/en/magazine/behind-the-scenes-of-nike-football-rip-the-script-brand-film" target="null">a style that the brand still stands for and supports today</a>.

The day the deal was announced, Nike's stock dropped 5 percent. The market was grappling with the brand in unproven territory. Inside Nike, however, nobody was losing sleep. The team that had spent two years flying to Brazil for lunch understood exactly what they had secured. "It was an incredibly galvanising, exciting proposition", said Bodecker. "It's the New York Yankees or Boston Celtics". The stock would come around.They were so sure, in fact, that after the papers were signed, a couple of the deal's key players walked into a nearby bar and ordered the most expensive bottle of cognac they could find. As luck would have it, two of the most powerful figures in European football—men firmly in Nike's biggest competitor's corner—walked in and took a seat nearby. One of the Nike men recognised them instantly but said nothing."I had to control myself", Nike's then global sports marketing director recalled. "I would have loved to whisper in one of their ears, 'We just signed Brazil'".

"Au Revoir"

Signing Brazil wasn't the only thing that made 1996 a landmark year. That summer, at the Atlanta Olympics, the investments Nike had been making in football paid off on the biggest stage in sport.&nbsp;The US Women's national team—led by Mia Hamm, Brandi Chastain and Briana Scurry—won gold in the first Olympic women's football final, drawing the largest crowd ever to watch a women's sporting event in the United States. On the men's side, Nigeria, which had just been signed the year before, claimed gold against Argentina. Two Nike teams. Two gold medals.&nbsp;It was also the year Nike Football stepped into its creative identity.In April, the company released "Good vs Evil", a film that pitted a team of the world's best players against the Devil's own squad on a burning pitch in an ancient Tunisian coliseum. The shoot ran for approximately 16 consecutive nights, with a record budget at the time.

While earlier ads like "The Wall" had introduced Nike to the football world, this was the first to catch the attention of a global audience. Several countries deemed it too violent to air in prime time. It became a cultural phenomenon anyway.In the closing image, Eric Cantona, one of the world's most charismatic footballers at the time, scored the decisive goal against the Devil, flipped his collar and delivered a single icy line: "Au revoir". Across Europe, kids were flipping their collars and re-enacting the moment in backyards and playgrounds.A month after it aired, Glenn Cole, the Wieden+Kennedy creative director behind the film, found himself in a taxi in Europe. When the driver learned he worked in advertising, he began telling him about a commercial he'd seen on television—the "one with the Devil". His son, he said, asked him to go out in the backyard every night and stand on the far side of the yard while the boy kicked a ball at his chest, playing the Devil and trying to make him blow up."That's when I realised this actually captured the average guy's imagination", said Cole.

The Ad Nobody Expected

If "Good vs Evil" had announced Nike's arrival in football, "Airport" took it to the next level.The concept was deceptively simple: the newly signed Brazil national team, killing time before a flight, breaks into an impromptu match through the terminal. No villain. No Devil. No burning pitch. Just football players doing what football players do when no one is watching: playing and laughing, alive with the particular joy that had made Brazil the world's most beloved team."I always thought the secret to success was, whatever people are expecting, go the other way", said Cole. "Nobody saw 'Good vs Evil' coming. It was really dark and heavy, and I think people were waiting for the sequel to that".&nbsp;The misdirection worked. But it didn't come easy.The bulk of the shoot took place at the Rio de Janeiro International Airport between Christmas and New Year's Eve 1997, with director John Woo at the helm. Nike had negotiated permission to film once the terminal closed for the night.&nbsp;Everything was in place—except the talent.The national team, on holiday in Brazil, arrived four hours late and the logistics were further complicated by the nature of the set itself. Woo was a celebrated film director, but commercial shoots run on athletes' schedules, not director's schedules. On top of that, he was working through severe heat exhaustion.Nike brought in Hollywood producer Lawrence Bender to help manage the chaos.&nbsp;What emerged from the mayhem, however, was something unlike anything Nike had made before. Instead of a cast of global stars or a dramatic storyline, "Airport" simply showed Brazil being Brazil: unscripted, buoyant and completely themselves. It was the first time Nike had ever built a campaign around a team rather than an individual. Bodecker called it a "watershed".&nbsp;"When you transcend the sport and start seeping into popular culture, that's what Nike does best", said one of the Nike Football lead teammates. "Being able to do that with football, which was the one sport that Nike hadn't really been able to crack, was a huge accomplishment. After that, it was off to the races".

Finding a Philosophy

As the ads were capturing the world's attention, Nike was putting language to something that was already taking shape around them.At the time, there was a feeling inside the sport that football was losing something—becoming more predictable, more cautious, less alive. Pierre-Laurent Baudey, the football-obsessed Frenchman Nike had brought in to lead its advertising efforts, felt it acutely.&nbsp;When Nike asked him to define what the brand stood for in the game, he said he'd been waiting for the question.To find the answer, he travelled to schools and clubs across Europe, asking kids where they thought the game should go. What came back, distilled through months of conversation, echoed what was already unfolding in the team they'd just signed: creativity, spontaneity and joy. Football played with freedom rather than fear."It was something hard to define", said Baudey. "But at the time we just signed Ronaldo and he was becoming this uber star. He was a gifted, visionary, passionate player and added a dimensional soul to his game".They called it "Brilliant Football"—a philosophy that argued the "beautiful game" should actually be beautiful. Inside Nike, it was captured in a single Portuguese word: alegria or "joy of life".&nbsp;Brazil was its living embodiment. It would shape everything Nike did in football for the next decade.

A Different Kind of Boot

By 1997, the pieces were falling into place. The team was signed. The films were resonating. The philosophy had taken shape. What Nike needed now was a boot that would match the ambition of everything around it.To get there, Nike had first needed to solve a more specific problem: how to make a boot that elite European players would want to wear. The answer came from the foothills of the Dolomites.&nbsp;A couple of years earlier, as the football deals were unfolding, Nike had sent Mark Wasley, an expat living in Italy, to a facility in Montebelluna, Italy. The area had been the epicentre of European shoemaking for generations, home to the world's ski boot manufacturing hub and the birthplace of other well-known football brands.&nbsp;The operation was built around a fundamentally different, artisan philosophy. In Asia, factories produced everything under one roof. <a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://about.nike.com/en/magazine/inside-the-italian-workspaces-where-we-craft-the-nike-mercurial-boot" target="_blank">In Montebelluna</a>, every component was sourced to a specialist; a vendor who made nothing but sockliners had spent a career perfecting that single craft. The result was a partnership that created a level of craftsmanship that would change what Nike could do in football footwear.With the Montebelluna collaboration running, Nike was ready to attempt something genuinely new.

Tim Smith, a Nike PLM with a degree in creative writing, took a track spike, removed the spikes, screwed in football studs and sketched it to look like a football boot. That crude prototype was the beginning of what would become the Mercurial.The shoe was built around <a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://about.nike.com/en/magazine/ronaldo-r9-interview-mentorship" target="_blank">Ronaldo</a>, specifically around the way he played. The long stretches of stillness, the sudden violent acceleration. Nike surveyed elite under-17 players across seven European countries, choosing them because none of them had shoe contracts and they would give honest answers. Their priorities became the engineering brief.The most consequential decision was the upper. Up until that point, quality football boots were made with leather, and synthetic materials were typically considered for knockoffs. Nike worked with a Japanese company to develop something called KNG-100, a synthetic leather that didn't absorb water, didn't stretch and was lighter and thinner than anything the sport had seen. A ball-control coating sourced from Italian racing motorcycle chassis gave it unprecedented feel on the ball. At 1.75 millimetres, the plate was nearly half the standard thickness.Nike took prototypes to members of the Brazil national team and told them it was the best leather they had ever used, not mentioning that it wasn't actually leather at all. The players loved them so much they refused to return them.

When it came time to name this new boot (which had internally been called the "Ronaldo Ultra Speed"), Smith and his teammates consulted Greek mythology books and were considering the name "Ultravelox". Smith was driving home from work one evening when the word "mercurial" popped into his head.&nbsp;"One of the definitions is 'quickly changing in nature', which is perfect because if you look at Ronaldo, he's walking around waiting for the right moment to strike and then when he does, he's a different player", said Smith. "He accelerates".<a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://about.nike.com/en/newsroom/releases/built-for-speed-nike-unveils-new-mercurial-vapor-and-superfly-football-boots" target="_blank">The Mercurial</a> debuted at the 1998 tournament in France on Ronaldo's feet—blue, yellow and chrome, the first significantly coloured boot the sport had seen. "That was an absolutely defining moment in my involvement in football", recalled Dave Daly, Europe's football marketing manager.&nbsp;"We made a shoe that was so different to what anybody had ever seen before and it was absolutely fantastic. It wasn't bogus. It wasn't just a bizarre, cranky, crazy Nike idea. It was actually real, it was authentic and it was beautiful, and players absolutely died to be in it".Nike estimated they would make around 20,000 pairs in the first year. They closed the year with 80,000.

France, 1998

Nike arrived in Paris that summer outfitting six national teams: Brazil, the United States, Italy, Nigeria, Portugal and the Netherlands. But the most visible statement wasn't in the stadium. At the L'Arche de Défense, one of Paris' most iconic landmarks, the company built a 70,000-square-foot interactive space called Nike Park with pitch turf; interactive drills; a retail store; and, at its centre, in a glass case, the 1994 trophy on loan from Brazil. On the arch itself—a grand structure that sits on the same axis as the Arc de Triomphe and the Champs-Elysées—Nike erected a giant model of <a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://about.nike.com/en/newsroom/releases/built-for-speed-nike-unveils-new-mercurial-vapor-and-superfly-football-boots" target="_blank">the Mercurial</a>.&nbsp;One of the most recognisable landmarks in France, draped in the Swoosh."We were new to football and needed to make a splash", said Mark Pilkenton, who oversaw Nike Park's construction.

France won that year, and while it wasn't Brazil with the trophy, Nike's support of the sport was clear. The brand that had arrived in football as an outsider four years earlier had become an undeniable presence in the game.This summer, the tournament returns to American soil for the first time since that hot July afternoon at the Rose Bowl. The sport Nike once called an afterthought is now one of the most significant chapters in the company's history—and one of the most powerful forces in the game.

From signing Brazil and US Soccer to debuting iconic ads and the first Mercurial boot, the period from 1994 to 1998 laid the foundation for Nike's presence and philosophy in the beautiful game.

The Four Years That Launched Nike Football

Experience

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From the Streets to the World: Nike's Toma National Finals Celebrate the Global Language of Football

Innovation

Nike Debuts "Rip the Script": A Step Inside the Universe of Nike Football

Explore Nike, Converse and Jordan collaborations with Megan Thee Stallion, Patta, AMBUSH and more.

Collaborations

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Partnership

The Nike Football x LEGO® Collection Invites Kids to Play on Instinct

Explore Nike, Converse and Jordan footwear and apparel design stories featuring Nike Air Force 1, Nike Air Jordan, Nike Air Max and more.

Design

Nike SB Creates the SB F.C. Pack for Fans of the Beautiful Game

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Built for Speed: Nike Unveils New Mercurial Vapor and Superfly Football Boots

Shoemakers. Cobblers. Stitchers. Pattern engineers. These are only a handful of the specialists inside Italy's Montebelluna and Diamant workspaces, where Nike partners with teams that guide a single football boot through 35 individual manufacturing steps. In about three hours, the shoe moves from pre-assembly to shaping and stitching to final build.This work represents the final stretch of a much longer journey—nearly two years of development, testing and refinement—to deliver Nike's pinnacle football boot, the Mercurial.Nike came to the region in 1996, drawn to a place long regarded as the best in the world for boot manufacturing. For three decades, Nike has relied on the expertise here to provide old-world Italian craftsmanship to complement its advanced footwear innovations, using hands as often as machines.Inside the Montebelluna sample room lives a one-of-a-kind collection of roughly 300 pairs of foot lasts. These custom forms honour more than 200 players who've shaped Nike Football, from Cristiano Ronaldo to Kylian Mbappé to Sophia Wilson. And while Montebelluna perfects the boot for Nike's most elite athletes, the process starts in the Diamant factory, where this year's Mercurial Vapor 17 and Mercurial Superfly 11 are made for footballers around the world.Every iteration of the Mercurial builds on what came before, raising the bar for speed, performance and confidence on the pitch. For the artisans who meticulously engineer these boots, the reward goes beyond turning a "prototype into a masterpiece", as one bootmaker put it. It's the pride and responsibility of knowing their work will be worn by football's elite athletes on the world's biggest stage.Here, go inside the Italian workspaces where the Mercurial comes to life.

<a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://about.nike.com/en/topics/nike-football-2026" target="_blank">See more of our universe of Nike Football.</a>

Shoemakers. Cobblers. Stitchers. Pattern engineers. They all partner with Nike in these unique facilities to perfect football boots—like the new Merc—for the game's most elite as well as everyday footballers around the world.

Photo essay

Inside the Italian Workspaces Where We Craft the Nike Mercurial Boot

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Erling Haaland's First Player Edition of the Nike Phantom 6 Is Built for Precision Under Pressure

Nike Tiempo Maestro Is the Creative Attacker's Choice for Elite Dribbling Performance

Nike Football Introduces Hollywood Keepers: The Next Era of Kit Culture

Nike's Mad 90 Pack Recasts Four Iconic Football Boots as Exclusive Air Max 90 Styles

Nike Debuts Sportswear Collections Inspired by the Emotion, Energy and Expression of Football

Francesco Totti's dazzling playmaking earned him many nicknames during his two-decade-plus career. But if there's one that describes his true loyalty, "Il Gladiatore" is the most fitting, because a warrior always has a place of origin. The attacking midfielder spent an illustrious career leading A.S. Roma, his hometown club, where he earned status as a creative genius on the pitch. Loyalty to one's home is a value that can be hard to find in modern-day sports. Now 49 years old, Francesco says his connection to Rome is as important to him today as it was when he first suited up in Stadio Olimpico 33 years ago. Here, Francesco talks about his commitment to Rome, whether creativity on the pitch is innate or learned, and more. There's no part of your hometown that doesn't shape you. Rome offers many things: fun, beauty, sun, sea, mountains, basically everything. Then there's the people. Rome's passion for football is one of a kind. They are passionate, they are loving, they are willing to do anything for the team. When you are a Roma fan, you have a visceral love for the game.&nbsp;Play is the most important thing for a young footballer. Football has always been my favourite sport. I grew up with the ball at my feet. When I saw that ball spinning, I ran after it as if it were the air I breathed. In my adolescence, I grew up in my neighbourhood playing in the street with my friends. That kind of unsupervised play makes you grow up quickly.&nbsp;Give yourself the permission to separate yourself from your idols. My idol growing up was Giuseppe Giannini, the captain of Roma. "The Prince". I would have paid gold to have the same career as him. Technically speaking, we were two totally different players. But I always watched how he played, how he moved, how he positioned himself on the pitch.&nbsp;You can't train creativity. Either you have it or you don't. In football, Number 10s have this special connection to creativity in the game. When you wear that number, you have something different from everyone else. When I took to the pitch, I only thought about having fun and entertaining people. Creativity, carefreeness and a desire to have fun were all instinctual to me. And that doesn't mean creativity always works, because creativity is inherently about taking risks. Sometimes you succeed, sometimes you don't. But that's all part of the thrill.

Seeing your dreams through is all about continuity. The first time I wore the Italian national team shirt, it was a moment full of happiness. You need to hold on tightly to a dream like playing for your country. In the end, it's about showing up, over and over again, and seeing your dreams through. When you have passion and desire, it's easier to sustain the ups and downs of a long career.&nbsp;At the highest level, you're surrounded by champions as teammates, playing against opponents who are champions. The question is, who can be more closely united? Italy succeeded on that national team because we had so much talent. But we became world champions in large part because we had a great coach in Lippi, who was able to handle everyone. When you have a united group with a single goal, everything becomes easier.&nbsp;&nbsp;Boots themselves are like a part of the football community. When I see <a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://about.nike.com/en/newsroom/releases/nike-football-tiempo-maestro-official-images" target="_blank">the Tiempos</a> I wore throughout my career, it moves me. I shared so many years with them, just like a real person. When you're confident in your boot, you can do things you didn't think were possible. The boots give you mental security too. For example, without the tongue of my boot positioned in the exact spot I needed it, I couldn't play the way I wanted. Not only did I like the aesthetics, in terms of how they were made, but I also had a reference point when I looked down at my feet and kicked. When the tongue was out of place, I felt like my foot was a little crooked, so I didn't feel like I could kick properly. The tongue was almost like having a scope. Those words sound strange, don't they? But mentally, my boots were essential for me.&nbsp;Staying with the same team, wearing the same jersey, has been the most beautiful and important victory in my career. Because it's not easy. It's one thing to say it, it's another to do it. But I did it because there was passion, there was love for my country. It's always been my primary goal, to start and finish with the same shirt I've always worn. <a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://about.nike.com/en/topics/nike-football-2026" target="_blank">See more of our universe of Nike Football.</a>

The icon spent his career pledging his loyalty to his hometown of Rome. For the attacking midfielder, his heart is forever with his city.

For the win

To Rome, With Love, From Francesco Totti

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Nike Debuts its First Neuroscience-Based Footwear to Help Athletes Feel Calm, Focused and Present

A neuroscientist, a computational engineer and an industrial designer sit at a desk, poring over the latest electroencephalography (EEG) and pressure-mapping results. Down the corridor, pressure plates respond to steady footsteps while motion-capture sensors blink to life as another round of testing begins.This isn't a scene from a NASA work room or sci-fi Hollywood blockbuster—it's a typical day at the <a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://about.nike.com/en/magazine/lebron-james-innovation-center-nike-sport-research-lab" target="_blank">LeBron James Innovation Center</a> and its top-floor Nike Sport Research Lab (NSRL), where dozens of scientists, engineers and designers come together to study every element of human performance.&nbsp;While many people know this facility exists, few understand the full scope of its work, or that the research extends beyond the physical and into the mind itself. Led by world-renowned neuroresearchers, Nike's Mind Sciences team is devoted to exploring how the brain and body interact to shape the future of athletic performance.

Their latest breakthrough, <a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://about.nike.com/en/newsroom/releases/nike-mind-001-mind-002-official-images" target="_blank">Nike Mind</a>, is a sensory footwear platform more than a decade in the making that aims to redefine how athletes prime for and recover from competition.&nbsp;We sat down with seven Nike Mind teammates to learn how this long-awaited technology moved from concept to reality.

THE NEURAL ARCHITECT: GRAEME MOFFAT, PHD Principal researcher, Nike Sport Research Lab As principal researcher on Nike's Mind Sciences team, Graeme Moffat leads the neuroscience behind Nike Mind—decoding EEG readouts, pressure maps and muscle signals to understand how sensation shapes focus and performance. With a background in brain-computer interface research, he's helping translate the science of perception into design principles that can be felt underfoot. For Moffat, this project isn't just about a new shoe. It's about proving how the mind and body can be trained together through sensation.One of the easiest ways to get out of your head is to get into your body—to actively engage your senses. With Nike Mind, what we see in the brain is increased activity in the sensory motor network and a rise in alpha oscillations linked to relaxed alertness.&nbsp;Like your hands, the bottoms of your feet have unique skin with 10 to 20 times more mechanoreceptors than most other areas. These are the parts of our body to feel and navigate the world. To complement this, each node in Nike Mind moves independently, shifting slightly to translate force through the bottom of the foot. The result is a more direct connection to the ground.We used sensory science to determine the placement of the 22 nodes. By measuring what's called the two-point discrimination threshold—how far apart touches have to be before you feel them as separate—we were able to map the density of receptors across the foot. That's why nodes are more closely spaced in the forefoot and wider apart in the heel.We used everything: underfoot plantar-pressure sensors, electromyography of the lower limbs and human EEG. Athletes walked in the shoes and comparator models while we measured their brains before, during and after. What we saw were clear differences in brain activation and oscillation patterns, signals that reflected how the sensory system in this shoe was activating the brain. This is a completely new way to make footwear, designed from the sensory system outwards. It took nearly 10 years of research and iteration to make it work.It is incredible technology. It's like a walking anti-fatigue mat built into my shoes. It's just a fantastic feeling. I don't want to take them off at the end of the day.The Mind Sciences team itself is unique. We have neuroscientists, perception researchers, physiologists and engineers all working together. It's a mix of disciplines that normally don't sit inside a company like Nike, and it allows us to move from deep scientific insight to real product innovation quickly. We can prototype, test with athletes and iterate at a pace no one else can. It's a capability that sets Nike apart.

THE BRAIN MAPPER: TREVOR BARSS, PHD Lead researcher, Mind Sciences team Working alongside Moffat, Trevor Barss helped run the early neuroscience studies that defined Nike Mind's foundation. A sensory neuroscientist specialising in neurophysiology, he used EEG and other measures to study how tactile feedback changes patterns of brain activity, the signals linking movement, focus and awareness. The team's findings revealed distinct shifts in sensory-motor activation and alpha rhythms when athletes wore Nike Mind footwear, insights that continue to shape how the NSRL explores the mind-body connection.For the first 45 years, Nike's research focused on the body from the neck down. The next forty-five will include the brain.&nbsp;My role was to study unique aspects of brain activation while athletes were wearing the footwear. We measured electrical activity in the brain before, during and after movement and paired that with perception data. The goal was to connect what athletes reported feeling with what we could actually see happening neurologically.We found that this collaboration between perception and neuroscience is what gives the work its power. You might detect increased activation in one region of the brain, but without understanding the athlete's experience, you don't know whether that's good or bad. When you combine both, you get meaning.When I first arrived at Nike, I was amazed by the environment. In most research settings, if you want to talk to an expert outside your field, you email, you schedule, you wait. Here, I can walk three desks over and have a conversation with someone who is a world-class expert in biomechanics, physiology or materials science. That proximity accelerates everything.The strength of this lab is its seamless flow of expertise. Neuroscientists, engineers, designers and developers work side by side, testing, iterating and learning from each other in real time. It removes silos and sparks ideas that none of us could reach alone.We're at the starting line of an entirely new field. The methods are established, but applying them to footwear and apparel is uncharted territory. Each experiment raises new questions.For me, the most inspiring part is being surrounded by brilliant minds who share that curiosity. When you pair deep scientific expertise with creative-design thinking, you open doors to discoveries that redefine what performance can mean.Looking ahead, the possibilities are endless. We have sensory receptors all over our body. Any time you change sensory input, you're interacting with your nervous system. Delving into that connection could open up whole new ways of supporting athlete awareness, focus and recovery.

THE ENGINEERING WHIZZ: ELIZABETH RAISSIAN Senior director, Performance Engineering Inside Nike's Performance Engineering Lab, Elizabeth Raissian's work lies at the intersection of product functionality and code. For Nike Mind, she and her team built the digital framework that made the concept manufacturable at scale, using Finite Element Analysis (FEA) and simulation tools to model how each node, flex point and pressure zone behaves underfoot. Their modelling ensured a precisely tuned sensorial design that delivers consistent feel and feedback across every size and stride.The big unlock was using computational methods to crack the scale challenge. Nike Mind has many small parts within a larger system. We wrote scripts that determined where each node needed to be for athlete performance and how those placements could still be manufactured consistently.Our goal was to make sure every athlete has the same experience no matter their shoe size. We used FEA to test variables like node size, height and material. That helped us identify the sweet spot between too much and not enough sensation. Once we had that, we could scale it proportionally across sizes so the product felt consistent from end to end.For me, this has been a dream job I didn't know existed. I get to combine tough technical work with the creativity of working alongside designers, sports researchers and other specialists. After 23 years, I still haven't been bored.What excites me most is how fast the tools are evolving. We've built a strong foundation and now new technologies are coming in that let us do things we wouldn't have thought possible a decade ago. It changes how we approach products and opens doors for the future.

THE BRIDGE BUILDER: SEAN LU Footwear developer For more than two decades, Sean Lu has helped take Nike's boldest concepts from prototype to production. As a developer, he works at the crucial handoff point where innovation meets scaling the shoe production for Nike's business. On Nike Mind, that meant solving unprecedented production challenges like how to create and bond 22 independent cushioning nodes while preserving the precise sensory design that makes the technology groundbreaking.My expertise is to bring a design to life by practising project management and leadership while working closely with many different functional teams. The goal is always both team excellence and product excellence, making sure the product meets the brief, the design intent, is tested and proven.The biggest challenge was producing and attaching 22 individual nodes in a consistent way. Regular shoes might have five or six major parts. Here we had 22, each needing to be made and bonded precisely. Solving that required new methods of make very different from conventional shoemaking.One crucial breakthrough was the stretchy strobel. In normal shoes, it's stiff. But here, it had to stretch multidirectionally so the nodes could move freely and transfer sensation. Without that, the whole system wouldn't work.There were moments we thought, this is too difficult, maybe we can't do it. But we always asked ourselves: are we truly doing the best we can or is there another way? Once you achieve it, the value for the athlete makes it all worth it.

THE CREATIVE VISIONARY: ERIC AVAR VP, creative director, Innovation Few designers have shaped Nike's visual and performance language more than Eric Avar. After spending decades creating some of the brand's most iconic footwear from Foamposite to Free to the Kobe line, Avar joined the Nike Mind project to help translate complex neuroscience into design. His focus: find simplicity, stay curious and create a shoe that reawakens the body's natural connection to movement.What made this project next-level was the chance to forget everything we knew about traditional footwear. Instead of chasing propulsion or flight, we asked how to create a more natural sensory underfoot experience—one that could strengthen the mind-body connection to help make athletes feel calm, focused and present.My role was to help guide the creative vision. To connect the macro and micro details of science, art and story. The best ideas happen when those dimensions align. My job was to help the team see the true north and to bring clarity to how the science should feel once it's on foot.Every dimension of this project was new—new science, new engineering, new design language. Each insight from the lab reshaped how we approached materials or geometry and every prototype fed new questions back to the scientists. That constant back-and-forth was where the breakthroughs happened.Performance design is always a balance. Too much cushioning and you lose sensation; too much sensation and it becomes overwhelming. Our challenge was to find harmony between comfort, clarity and awareness.This feels like a new frontier—a new paradigm of performance. We're proving through science, but we're also discovering through intuition. The more we lean into that mix of curiosity and expertise, the more magic we'll uncover.What I love most about this new technology is that it represents the unknown. It's a reminder that performance isn't only about going faster. It's about feeling more, thinking deeper and reconnecting with the moment.

THE MASTER ORCHESTRATOR: MATTHEW NURSE, PHD Chief science officer, NIKE, Inc. With a background spanning biomechanics, physiology and performance research, Matthew Nurse has guided Nike's most ambitious science-led innovations. As chief science officer, he oversaw the Nike Mind project from a multidisciplinary vantage point, coordinating scientists, designers and engineers to keep the various parts moving in sync.Most people don't fully appreciate the importance of sensory feedback from the body, especially the feet. The foot is full of thousands of sensors that give the brain constant information about balance, position and spatial awareness. This is the first product built with the intent of influencing that feedback to help athletes stay focused, present and more aware of their environment.If the body is the engine, the mind is the driver. With Nike Mind, we're starting to think about how to make the driver sharper and clearer. Mental preparation has become just as important as physical, and we're only scratching the surface of what's possible.Science and creativity have to leapfrog each other. Science shouldn't limit dreams, but it can help target them. Some of these concepts aren't new, but only now do we have the design and manufacturing capabilities to make them real. Building floating, independent nodes that compress and rotate to deliver sensory information to the brain wasn't possible 20 years ago. Today, it is.Athlete feedback drove everything. We went through hundreds of iterations, tuning the number, density, flexibility and placement of the nodes to make sure the sensation was enough to feel and focus on, but not so much that it became distracting. It had to be "just right", and only athletes could tell us where that balance was.The beauty of Nike Mind is that beyond feeling grounded, you are grounded. Using tools like EEG, we've measured changes in brain activity in the areas linked to focus and presence. That's the first time we've been able to show—and prove—that footwear construction can influence how the mind works.And this is only chapter one. We've focused on the body for decades. Now, as we look at the mind alongside it, the opportunities for athletes are limitless.

THE PROBLEM SOLVER: BRYAN YOUNGS Innovation programme director, Footwear Bryan Youngs brings more than 20 years of footwear expertise focused on transforming innovation into manufacturable reality. For Nike Mind, he led the scale-up effort, translating a handcrafted sensory prototype into a system that could be produced consistently and reliably. By bridging advanced innovation with global manufacturing, he helped ensure the concept could move from lab experiment to product launch.The idea of sensory footwear has been around for a decade, but the challenge was scale. For years it was an arts-and-crafts project—something&nbsp;you could hand-make but not mass-produce. With Mind, we had to move past that to create something we could build with our manufacturing partners while still preserving the complex architecture underfoot.With our manufacturing partners, we developed a system that simplified the build from dozens of individual attachments down to just a few key steps. That shift allowed us to replicate the sensorial experience athletes loved from the earliest prototypes while making it manufacturable at scale.Our willingness to wrestle with the hardest problems is something that makes Nike very unique. We'd failed to solve sensory footwear for 10 years, but each attempt taught us something. We have the willingness to keep asking the big questions and then the patience and persistence to finally crack them. With these two new products, we're just getting started. <a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://about.nike.com/en/topics/nike-football-2026" target="_blank">See more of our universe of Nike Football.</a>

Rachel Cavanaugh is a Portland-based freelance writer who covers food, lifestyle, travel, fitness, adventure and the outdoors. Her work has appeared in Men's Journal, Outdoor Life, GearJunkie, MSN, Yahoo, The Independent, The Hollywood Reporter, Digital Trends, Bustle, Elite Daily, Mic, Travel Oregon, Matador Network and others. She has a background in digital production and brand storytelling and holds a journalism degree from the University of Montana.

Rachel Cavanaugh

It took more than a decade to crack it: shoes that can connect your body to your mind to help you stay calm, focused and present.

Zach Doleac's work is as eclectic as he is, a tasteful blend of polish and grit. His imagery forges honest connections with real people—from boxers in Goma to refugees in Beirut, clowns in Cairo and cowboys from Polson to Houston.&nbsp;When not on assignment, Zach is rarely still, pedalling around the Pacific Northwest, grooving to a beat or sliding on snow, usually in the company of his pup, Frida.&nbsp;You can find more of Zach's work on his <a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.zachdoleac.com/" target="_blank">website</a> or follow him on <a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.instagram.com/zachdoleac" target="">Instagram</a>.

Welcome to the Universe of Nike Football