THE LIGHTWEIGHT BATTLE

The "Beautiful Game" feet endured a revolution back to the year 2002 and the introduction of the first NIKE mercurial Vapor at the world cup in Japan/Korea. the text above state the spirit of the actors in integrating the values of Michael Johnson golden shoe into football.

This shoe is a pure revolution since it integrates 10 major improvement in industrial footwear. Those values which have been a guidance for the next 15 years of lightweight boot design and engineering. what a Vision fitted in a minus 200 gr.

4 years later Puma launched the 165 gr shoe called PUMA V1 06 in the year of the world cup held in Germany. The Carbon fiber plate has been the first ever mass commercialized in football history.

Even if it comes third after a fila boot and the first generation of adidas F50, the v1 features the really first fine ripstop fabric as the main upper material.

The year 2008, adidas innovation team teased the rest of the company with an objective to answer the need of players to accelerate the game. 

Reacting after an advice given by Wolfgang Dremmler player scout at the Bayern Munich, AIT came up with this product called the ADIDAS DASSLER weighting 136 gr, performing the first ever triangular studs in history injected in polyamid and nano carbon fiber. 

All about speed, the shoe features the very first horizontal stripes, the future adizero branding principle.

The 2010 FIFA world cup held in South Africa celebrated the best scoring boot of the tournament. the shoe featured the silhouette, the branding, the derived stud shapes taken from its older sister the Dassler. 

This fantastic shoe demonstrate the strenght of a product designed with simplicity and guts that makes it a timeless piece of performance. 

The Nike mercurial vapor Initiative created a true revolution which wide spread accross all main actors of the field, with different constructions, stories and partnerships.

136 gr were apparently not enough, neither full opaque fabric. Adidas and Puma pushed the boundaries way further.

Adizero 99 gr  has been commercialized in a limited number starting by summer 2015, while Puma radicalized the finesse of the two matches only 120 gr EVOSPEED SL.

Are we now reaching the limits of such exercise?

Apparently not if we trust this image. The lightweight story maker has lost the battle in 2006 in favour of its competitor Puma and the V1 06. 

Nike featured heavier shoes since then. This swoosh-less prototype promises an approximate 80gr . I have no evidence of an intro date so far....

would somebody challenge the pinnacle of lighter boots?