About

Nike Mercurial

In 1998 Nike wanted a shoe that looked as fast as the man who would wear it. Tinker Hatfield, the designer behind the most famous Air Max models, created for Brazilian striker Ronaldo a football boot of thin synthetic material instead of classic leather: the first Mercurial. The silhouette with wavy lines became world-famous at that year’s World Cup and the name, taken from the Latin word for quicksilver, fitted perfectly.

Since then Mercurial has been Nike’s speed line, with two main flavors. The Nike Mercurial Vapor is the low variant, minimal and snug around the foot. The Superfly is the same idea with a high Dynamic Fit sock collar that wraps the ankle. Current generations carry a Zoom Air unit in the soleplate, meaning the line uses the same cushioning technology as the brand’s running and basketball divisions. Those who want to view the whole department can find the overview on the Nike football boots page.

The details reveal the family. A MERC script runs across the vamp of the Vapor, the studbeds mix conical studs with bladed ones for cutting at top speed, and special editions go far in their tributes: the CR7 version that celebrated Cristiano Ronaldo’s Ballon d’Or got a sparkling upper, gold-coloured screw-in studs and an edition number on the sole edge.

The line also found a second life on the street. The HTM group converted the Superfly into a sneaker in 2014, Virgil Abloh put the Zoom Fly Mercurial into his Off-White era take on the line, and with the recent Cryoshot series Nike places the original R9 look from 1998 on a translucent sole with visible Air chambers, including the characteristic fold-over tongue. Those street versions are also included on this page, alongside the match models.

On this page you can see which versions of the Nike Mercurial are hottest right now according to the Hypescore, the starting price and how many shops have them in stock.