This particular colorway of the Nike Mercurial Vapor Superfly III FG dropped at the start of the month and was subsequently incorporated into a relatively large campaign of Nike Football viral videos. What followed up on its release was Cronaldo’s new stellar signature colorway in black safari. Nevertheless, I was surprised when these came via the UPS man. I was just about to leave for the day when I was caught with a relatively heavy box. I usually don’t get Nike packages all that often aside from some gear once in awhile, but the shoe box sized outer box was heavier then usual.

A discrete black box with UV printed detailings were on the lid. After opening it, there was a box with a large book which offered a comprehensive look and explanation of one of the latest Mercurial Vapor Superfly III offerings as you see above and below. The Mercurial franchise has a bit of a mythical status as the one that started the all new segment of “speed boots”. But up until now, I had never worn a pair due mostly to fit. I was actually pretty surprised when I first put the boots on.

Fit wise, the tooling is actually much wider than I had anticipated. If you look beneath, the tooling might actually look narrower than it actually is due to the use of tonal colors around the edges. My foot is entirely over the tooling however it’s the last that makes for a tight/narrow fit. It’s not very roomy to say the least. This is perhaps further compounded by the use of Flywire all along the sides which properly do their job in keeping the foot fully supportive but foreshadow a lack of stretch. The boot doesn’t exude the same obvious lightweight WOW of the F50 adiZero Prime but that’s a given. There’s much more to the boot than the ultra-minimalistic nature of adiZero Prime. It was a bit of a struggle putting them on and the final lace job was done rather gingerly. I don’t need to really tighten them up all that much to get a locked down fit, but additionally the boot seems to run longer in length than some of the other Elite boots from Nike I’ve worn. Should these stretch out as Tim suggests, this could be a pleasant surprise as my left big toe is subject to constant pressure against the tip.

Aesthetically the boot screams “performance” in a way Nike does best, by advertising and giving its own unique aesthetic to the technologies involved. That means not so subtle use of Flywire which shows itself prominently over the upper, a disruptive instep pattern which clashes deliberately with the purple Teijin synthetic leather and a strong outsole story with the neon Sense studs.

I’ll give my thoughts in a few weeks as well as post a thorough F50 adiZero Prime review.

Thanks again to Tim for the gracious hook-up.

-Eugene