While American’s expect a football to be shaped like… well, a football, the rest of the world knows football as the game played with the round ball. It might not seem like there is much that can be done to the football/soccer ball, but actually Nike begs to differ and its new ball could be the biggest game changer since the introduction of the now legendary white footballs, which were introduced in 1951 to help spectators see the ball during night matches.
Introducing the Nike Seitrio Hi-Vis ball, which builds on the legacy of excellence in the T90 football range that has served as the official match ball in the world’s leading leagues including Barclay’s English Premier League, Italy’s Serie A and Spain’s La Liga. Continuing to bring new innovations to football, the Hi-Vis ball features Nike RaDaR technology, which means Rapid Decision and Response.
Nike has tested the ball in the lab and on the field and the result is the Nike RaDaR technology, which makes it easier for players to see the ball better and capitalize on split second scoring and passing opportunities. In the game of football, precision sight is of utmost importance, and the Nike Seitiro is engineered to stand out on pitch even when conditions are not ideal. The yellow and purple color combination flaunts additional fluorescence and brighteners, making it even more visible in low light conditions than previous generations of Hi-Vis balls.
The Nike Seitiro features patented hi-vis casing, performance graphic, and unique five-layer construction, along with aerodynamic stability. The new ball saw its official debut on the pitch this past weekend. Chances are we’ll be seeing a lot more of it.
Nike just released its Nike T90 Laser IV soccer shoe. The “football” shoe is 20 percent lighter than the previous version. It features a streamlined silhouette that provides enhanced fit and lets wearers feel the ball. The forefoot area has a newly configured adaptive shield design that works with the foot’s natural motion to boost performance. Constructed from high performance synthetic leather, the upper provides a soft and close-to-the-foot fit. On the sole, a new stud design enhances speed and movement, without added weight or pressure.
To coincide with the launch, Nike Football created the T90 Strike Counter on Facebook. This app allows users to log their goals, and recreate the action in a 3D image. Report the spot on the pitch from where a goal was scored; where in the goal the ball went, and what part of the boot (shoe) was struck the ball. The data render a 3D image that can be shared with friends. Participants can also check out the 3D image and input from pro football players.
While no one wants it to rain on game day, too much sun can be a real pain – and actually a health hazard for those in the stands. There are indoor stadiums of course, but that’s not the same. And even retractable roofs don’t always shield everyone away from the glare of the sun’s rays.
This is no doubt a concern for the 2022 World Cup games that will be played in Qatar, where extreme summer heat is something that can’t be easily beat(en). The solution, according to The Daily Mail is a cloud. We’ve heard of the digital cloud – as in online hosting of digital data – but this is actually an artificial cloud. And least you fear that this is some of gaseous creation, it is actually lightweight carbon structures carrying a giant envelope of material containing helium gas. In other words, large balloon like objects. So maybe a retractable roof would be the better idea?
However, because of the region has so much sun, organizers are looking to power the artificial clouds via solar power, as well as the air conditioning in the stadium. Hopefully as this will let spectators beat the heat.
Imagine you’re on the soccer field, and go for the ball, but the cleats on your shoes are just a hair short for the muddy surface and you slip. The opposing team gets the ball and scores the winning point of the game. Get the a pair of Nike CR Mercural Vapor SuperFly IIs and you’ll have an extra 3mm on the adaptive studs depending on the ground conditions and pressure exerted by the player. The adaptive traction system can extend or retract by those 3 mm, possibly saving the field and maybe even the shoes from undue wear when not needed.
Blades are positioned directionally on the forefoot to maximize cutting and allow for quick changes in direction. Secondary toe traction provides added toe-off power to get you started on that sprint during a play. Read the rest of this entry »
There’s a group that plays soccer in the North end of Central Park in New York City. They play until the grass wears bare, and there’s nothing left of the field except hard-packed dirt. We’ve wondered why they wear the field down to dirt, but it turns out they’re probably playing a variation of their favorite football, Sala. There’s three variations on football popular in Europe, Central America and North America. Those are cage, caneta and sala. Nike just introduced a collection of Nike5 shoes addressing each sport. Read the rest of this entry »
As football season starts here in America, it’s still worth thinking about the sport the rest of the world calls football, what we call Soccer in the U.S. Just in time for fall ‘futball’ Nike introduced its Total 90 Tracer ball. The new ball is designed for consistency, accuracy, touch and visual acuity. The ball has hand-sewn seams, improved bladder tension and the surface texture you expect to kick around the field. The surface texture is actually a micro-textured casing, which regulates airflow equally across the ball’s entire surface. The ball is then less prone to wobble, and takes a more direct, arrow-like flight. Read the rest of this entry »
Research shows men kick the soccer ball differently than women. The study, published this month in the Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery, finds males activate certain hip and leg muscles more than females during the most common soccer kicks – the instep and side-foot kicks. While men activate more muscles, the data may explain why female players are twice as likely as male players to sustain anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury.
“By analyzing the detailed motion of a soccer kick in progress, our goal was to home in on some of the differences between the sexes and how they may relate to injury risk,” said orthopaedic surgeon Robert H. Brophy, MD, the study author and assistant professor of orthopedics at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. Read the rest of this entry »
How many calls came into question during the recent World Cup competition in South Africa? In just about every competitive sport, referees must call who crossed the line first, or if the ball was inside or outside of a line. Many sports have addressed the issue. Tennis uses a Hawk-Eye technology that films and replays the ball play in question. Cycling uses cameras on the finish line and transponders on each bike. Football draws a digital line in the replay to measure the ball and distance it’s traveled. More technology is on the way.
One thing was proven at this year’s World Cup tournament: you need to have eyes like a hawk to keep track of the ball. That’s why Dr. Paul Hawkin, inventor of Hawk-Eye, is pushing for adopting of his tracking system by the International Football Association Board. If adopted this could see the use of goal-line watching technology put in place this year.
Hawkins isn’t new to the world of sports either, and he previously developed the ball-tracking device used in cricket, snooker and tennis, and is pushing for similar technology to be used in football/soccer. The system includes six cameras facing the goal from different angles to track the ball, where a signal is transmitted via a bank of computers to a referee with half a second of the ball crossing the line. Given some of the disputed calls during the World Cup, this could make a huge difference.
However, not all are in embracing the idea. It has been noted that many English Premier League matches are carried by Sky TV, which has eight cameras on the field, so a simple replay should often be enough to determine a call. But the real question is whether you can ever really have enough eyes – Hawk – or otherwise watching the action?
This week the California Institute of Technology gave new meaning to the concept of “air ball” as aerospace engineers at the prestigious school put the controversial new “Jabulani” football (that’s soccer to most of us Americans) to the test in a wind tunnel. The ball, which was developed by adidas, is currently being used in the World Cup, where players, coaches and fans have blamed it for missed shots. So much for blaming bad play?
According to reports two balls were put into the Lucas Wind Tunnel and exposed to wind speeds of about 10 meters per second, which is actually slower than a typical kicked ball. To determine the movement of air around said balls, a smoke machine was called in. This helped the engineers visualize the air movement. The findings actually matched some complaints from teams in the World Cup. The ball reportedly had some “bizarre trajectories.”
Developed by the adidas Innovation Team (a.i.t.), the ball has been tested as new “match ball” for the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa. This mean tests under the toughest laboratory conditions, but it isn’t clear if this is in fact the first time the ball went into a wind tunnel. At this point it doesn’t look as if the ball will pulled, but with more studies coming dare we say that the windofchange is blowingthrough.
These players are kicking on a hybrid natural grass and artificial turf.
Field caretakers at this year’s World Cup may get a break from patching grass at this tournament. The fields are sewn with reinforced natural grass produced by Belgian-based company Desso Sports Systems. An article appearing in USAToday details “a surface with 20 million threads of synthetic grass fibers woven in between and beneath the natural grass.” The surface is far from Astroturf of yesterday. Natural grass composes most of the playing field, but is reinforced with artificial threads driven eight inches into the surface and intertwined with the roots of the real grass to keep the field intact for the long series of soccer games to be played.
The enhanced surface is already installed in a number of fields worldwide. For soccer, or football as the rest of the world calls it, Arsenal and Liverpool in the U.K. and the training grounds of Real Madrid. For American football, the Denver Broncos and the Philadelphia Eagles already use the reinforced natural grass.
The heart rate monitor and GPS device is no longer personal for world football players. Australia’s World Cup players are picking up data via satellite for each player’s workout. Teams get competitive data on their own performance, and their competitors, according to “Socceroos go high-tech to gain an edge over rest of the world,” an article published in The Sydney Morning Herald.
Players down under were able to compare their training to that of their Russian counterparts. Team coaches also use the data to provide support for their players. “We’re analyzing the players’ volumes of sweat and composition so we can accurately predict how much fluid they’ll lose during a game and at training,” Australia’s strength and conditioning coach Darren Burgess told the paper. “We want to have a rehydration strategy for each player.”
It will be interesting to see what other teams and leagues pick up this method of training. Will it lead to real-time data access to personal workouts instead of uploading details upon return from a run?
Nike makes team uniforms from recycled plastic bottles.
The recent trend in sports and fitness clothing is green, sustainability. Nike is part of this trend and especially when it comes to football (that’s soccer to many of you), and the upcoming 2010 World Cup in South Africa. This year Nike is outfitting the Brazil team with home and away kits, plus eight away kits for other Nike-sponsored federations appearing in the games. What’s so sustainable about these kits or outfits you ask? Nike’s fabric suppliers sourced plastic bottles from landfill sites in Japan and Taiwan to produce the jerseys and shorts.
Eight plastic bottles produce one jersey. To turn bottle into soft, breathable fabric bottles the manufacturer melts the plastics down to produce new yarn and then convert that yarn into fabric to construct jerseys. Just because the jerseys are made from plastic doesn’t mean players will drown in their own sweat. Designed to keep players drier, cooler, and more comfortable, the outfit has a handful of features. The Dri-Fit fabric is 15 percent lighter than previous Nike kit fabrications, which also benefits players’ ability to do their stuff out on the field. The coordinating shorts have additional ventilation zones below the waistband and near the base of the spine to keep the outfit breathable.
The outfits have some protection built in as well. Nike Pro Combat, adds protection against light impact and abrasion in the Slider and Impact shorts. The Pro Combat also features a therma Mock that protects a player’s neck against harsh conditions such as sun.
The process saves raw materials and reduces energy consumption by up to 30 percent compared to the manufacture of virgin polyester. For the upcoming season and competition, Nike salvaged roughly 13 million plastic bottles, totaling around 254,000 kg of polyester waste from landfill sites. That’s enough to stretch a distance of 3,000 kilometers if the bottles are laid out end-to-end.
The games take place in South Africa with teams from Brazil, The Netherlands, Portugal, U.S.A., South Korea, Australia, New Zealand, Serbia, and Slovenia. Get your own team kits at nike.com and nikefootball.com.
While American’s expect a football to be shaped like… well, a football, the rest of the world knows football as the game played with the round ball. It might not seem like there is much that can be done to the football/soccer ball, but actually Nike begs to differ and its new ball could be the biggest game changer since the introduction of the now legendary white footballs, which were introduced in 1951 to help spectators see the ball during night matches.
