Football is a sport that brings out the best and the worst in people and if the football performs in a way that isn’t familiar to players it can cause mistakes and somewhat spectacular goals. Who remembers the 2006 Adidas +Teamgeist and the 2010 Jabulani? One didn’t go where players expected and the latter ended up slowing down part way through flight.
Nike Flight is said to change all of that, addressing the issues of inconsistent aerodynamics through the revolutionary ball design. Called AerowSculpt technology, the ball is said to travel 30% truer than its predecessor. That means if you miss, it is 30% more likely to be your fault than the ball’s.
The Nike Innovation Lab spent eight years of research looking into improving the consistency of a football’s flight. This meant measuring ball flight through numerous different kicks in a game, recreating in the lab with a robot leg before turning to testing different constructions and materials.
The team worked through 68 different iterations over thousands of hours with over 800 athletes participating in the research. The result? Nike Flight.
Fitted with Nike’s proprietary aerodynamic technology called AerowSculpt, the ball promotes air movement around it rather than gripping it much like the dimples on a golf ball.
It is built with a fuse-welded four-panel construction with 40% fewer seams than a traditional 12-panel ball. Nike didn’t stop there and went to its All Conditions Control department and borrowed some 3D ink to ensure optimal grip in the dry and wet whilst adding ‘micro-flaps’ to further optimise aerodynamic stability.
The Nike Flight is going to be official Premier League ball for 2020/2021 and is available now for £119.95 and can be purchased from the button below.
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