The all-new Nike Phantom VNM football boot has been already released in mid-January 2019. There was no big launch event of the boot, but Nike recently has shared an interview with the Senior Footwear Design Director Jeongwoo Lee that gives us interesting insights as well as a look at some prototypes.
Nike Phantom VNM Designer Interview
As revealed in the video, Senior Footwear Design Director Jeongwoo Lee and his team used a robot leg to test and inform data-driven designs in order to create Nike's most precise boot ever.
The Volt prototype boots shown off by Nike give us a preview of an upcoming colorway, the 'New Lights' Nike Phantom VNM football boot thta is set to be released at the start of next season.
Lee's team started by meeting with a range of players, from elite professionals like Harry Kane and Alex Morgan, to aspiring youth players and everyday ballers. According to Nike, attackers need more than just speed or power in the modern game—they need precision.
"'Clean-strike' was a word we heard a lot", Lee said. "It's that accuracy that we really wanted to elevate on the Phantom Venom to redefine what the modern-day finishers' boot should be. As the modern-day game is getting faster, we really want to leverage the data".
The consistency of the robot allowed them to eliminate human variables and engineer the boot's forefoot into a striking area. Test results from the robot leg were used to fine-tune the geometry, height and angle of the blades on the Strike Zone to optimise performance in four areas: spin, elevation, power and accuracy.
With more than fifty prototypes were tested at the Nike Innovation Lab before the Strike Zone was perfected, it was no problem for the Swoosh to reveal some of them.
"That", Lee said, "is something you cannot sketch".
Do you like the concept of the Nike Phantom VNM? Would you like Nike to show off even more prototypes and better pictures of them? Let us know in the comments below.