Other colours included white/ice/black chrome/black black/chilli red dark charcoal/surf blue/white and shock orange/white.
A chrome/lime variation (worn exclusively by Ronaldo in the semi-finals and final) was released to the public in limited numbers (just 4,600, across FG, HG and SG variants quantity split unknown) in the period after the tournament. This was upgraded for the remainder of the Vapor I line. These three colourways were distinctive as they had limited heel cushioning and dimples on the inner heel cup for foot grip. The boot was first released in three colourways: cinder/white/maize University Blue/white/obsidian and medium grey/ red. The first glimpse anyone outside of Nike had of the boots was in the Nike cage advert starring Eric Cantona, Thierry Henry and Roberto Carlos, in which a close-up shot of the boots is taken near the end of the advert. The original Vapors were released in mid-2002, just before the World Cup of that year. The SG version's sole plate is fitted with six NikeSnap removable studs, which can be purchased in different lengths, for the first and second models, and traditional screw-in aluminium studs for versions 3 to 8 the FG version has seven moulded blades.įltr, Cristiano Ronaldo wearing the black/volt Vapor Superfly, Zlatan Ibrahimović wearing the voltage cherry/obsidian/silver Vapor VI Clint Dempsey wearing a pair of Nike Mercurial Vapors, Drogba wearing a pair of Nike Mercurial Vapor football boots The boot is available in either Soft Ground (SG now Soft Ground Pro/SG-Pro), Firm Ground (FG) or Artificial Ground (AG) versions. The boot is in its fourteenth version, the Nike Mercurial Vapor 14. In 1998, Nike launched the first "Mercurial" football boot –the R9– a shoe inspired by and designed for Brazilian star Ronaldo, which he debuted at the 1998 FIFA World Cup. The Mercurials were Nike's first boots to be made using synthetic materials, and also their first venture into the market of lightweight boots designed for speed. These were identical in shape, size and fit to the originals, but they had a different insole and a smaller Nike "swoosh" symbol on the side of the boot.
In 1999, the Mercurial 2 was released in two colourways, black/blue and black/red. All boots were made in Soft Ground (SG) and Firm Ground (FG) varieties, with the SG version using non-removable studs. The boots were originally released in black, but a version in silver/blue/yellow was released for the 1998 World Cup and a blue/black version followed soon after. The origin of the Mercurial Vapors can be traced back to 1998, when Ronaldo debuted the original Nike Air Mercurial boots. 1.10 Mercurial Vapor VII and Mercurial Vapor Superfly III.1.9 Mercurial Vapor VI and Mercurial Vapor Superfly II.1.7 Mercurial Vapor V & Mercurial Vapor Superfly.