One of our favourite ever Youtube videos from Nike took us on the journey of 3 pairs of football boots as they were created at Nike’s Montebulluna factory and found their way on to the feet of Ronaldo, Rooney and Fabregas.
And, thanks to the Nike Football Insider, we can now take an even closer look at the process involved in creating a pair of the new Nike Tiempo Legend IV‘s!
Nestled just north of Venice in Northern Italy, Montebeulluna is the home of Nike’s master craftsmen.
Far from being just another place where football boots are made, this is where the cleats of all the elite Nike players in the World are produced to the highest standards by Nike’s top cobblers.
Nike say that creating the new Nike Tiempo Legend IV Elite is a process that takes no less than 128 steps, each one a demonstration of the passion and expertise that the men and women who work at Montebelluna have for footballing footwear.
Nike boast that every boot ‘starts with the athlete’ – and that’s certainly not a hollow boast from the American brand as the shelves are stacked with moulds of players individual feet, used to create lasts that are truly unique to each player, accounting for and previous injuries or scarring suffered from surgery.
With the focus being on the Tiempo Legend IV, the lasts belonging to Ji-Sung Park of Manchester United and South Korea are picked off the shelves, but if you look at the bookcases in the background you’ll see two shelves dedicated solely to ‘C. Ronaldo’ and ‘Drogba’. Even Nike New-boy Chris Smalling has a pair on this wall of fame!
The upper is then shaped to the last using these two machines to apply heat and pressure to ‘mould’ the premium K-Leather upper of the Tiempo Legend IV.
Notice the pair of football boots that have crashed through the wall – whilst most players would love SG versions of the new Legend Elites, not only are Nike not selling them – they’re using them as wall decorations just to rub it in!
Before the sole can be applied to any pair of football boots, any leftover material from the upper must be sheared off to ensure a flush fit.
Easily one of the most important steps in the process, this will prolong the life of the boot, increase the comfort and really goes to show the attention to detail that Nike’s craftsmen dedicate to each pair of their signature soccer cleats.
Once everything has been put together, any special needs of the player are taken into account thanks to a handy data-sheet Nike keeps on each and every one of their players.
In this instance, Tiempo Legend IV poster-boy Gerard Pique is the lucky recipient of these hot-off-the-press football boots, and we can see that he’s requested an SG sole (suola) and the Barca Centre back likely has a special insole or insert in his boots (‘inserire’ in the ‘Note’) section.
Pique’s football boots aren’t the only ones on the shop floor, mind you, as this great shot reveals that Ruud Van Nistelrooy prefers a size 10.5 boot, Flywire Elite upper with a non-elite sole on his Tiempo Legend IV! Amazing!
What do you think to the Nike football boots-building process?
Is there a football alive who wouldn’t want a pair of boots made there!?
Personally, I’d be more interested in seeing some shots of the process in their Asian factories, where the retail boots are made. Sure, handcrafted boots are beautiful and stuff like this is great for publicity, but it’s not REALLY where the boots come from.
For me these Tiempo Legend IV offer the perfect blend between classic and modern football boot manufacturing. For me one of the boots made by Nike till date. I wish I could afford one of those made in Italy.
Does the company have any vacancy to replace that puppet in the wall with a real person? If so, Nike contact me I am your man! Yes, I am that desperate to get a pair of these shoes.
tbh, i dont think it really how long it took it and what detail the boots whent through, good quality boot and good quality price and it WILL sell. nike are flopping with the price atm.
Yet again Nike people are buying into the bull**** Nike crap out again and again. Made in a sweatshop in china by some poor 7 year old who gets payed 5p a week. At least Adidas will admit that they’re boots are made by a machine (with brilliant German efficiency and accuracy).
OY dirtbag the Ekites versions you buy in the shop are all hand made in italy so check your facts hippy.
Yet more bull from Nike who won’t show people how they’re boots are really made. No pictures of the 7year old children working for 5p a week in a chinese sweatshop? At least adidas admit to making their boots with a high-tech german efficient machine.
You’re right. Adidas is much better. They have the decency put their sweat shops in El Salvador. At least then when the laborers get off work they can go enjoy the beach.Â
Just like the rest of the pple commenting I would appreciate if nike just stopped shoving this pointless annoying advertising down our throats. Nobody buys into this junk. Show the sweat shops nike, where my boots would come from, so we can see why you charge 275 Euro/400$!!! Geez. Give us some credit and stop with the nonsense Nike!
Get over the Nike and sweatshop thing. All sports companies like Nike, Adidas, Puma etc use factories in developing nations around the world to manufacture their products. Thinking that Nike only uses sweatshops and Adidas uses a “high-tech german efficient machine” is both ignorant and ridiculous.Â
That being said, it would be interesting to see what the process is with the retail boot being made in volumes.
Indeed! The only adidas boot that says “Made in Germany” is the Copa Munial/World Cup… My adizero’s aren’t made in Germany, they are made by an Asian guy that doesn’t even know where Germany is…
Agree and besides nobody is forcing the workers to stay there; if they didn’t work at those factories they would be out on the streets starving and China wouldn’t be the world power that it is today…
Factories in China are not really as bad as you might think. For many of these people in remote areas of China they would have no employment at all if it weren’t for foreign business’ investing there. I wouldn’t want to work there, but if I were a poor Chinese farmer I’d rather work stitching leather together than plowing the ground by hand…
The mere fact that they choose such employment is evidence that they prefer it to whatever the alternative may be. Sweatshops are beneficial to those who are employed there.
The reason its bad is because its price fixing wages to be as low as possible. They can barely live off the money they earn and are kept in unsafe conditions.
D AMOUNT OF BOOTS PROS MUST GO THROUGH A SEASON WHEN NORMAL PLAYERS LIKE US GET 1 OR 2
Then i guess you bought into Adida’s bull*** just search about their sweatshops in El Salvador…
I like watching the videos of how they are made rather than looking at pictures from around the factory but I like the legs going through the wall that’s really cool
I love the new Nike Tiempo 4’s there awesome and I only bought them last month
I’d love to work in the Nike factory so I could get loads of free stuff
I’m gonna make my own Nike football boots and buy them but I’m never gonna wear them even though my Mom always says that I better wear them for ÂŁ100.00
My mate is probably gonna copy me by making my own footy boots but he’s a massive Adidas fan but it’s sooooo hard to make footy boots on Adidas I think it took me about 2 hours just to make them and it’s so much money for them it’s ÂŁ230.00 and on Nike it’s 100.00