I was in New York last week and had the chance to attend the opening of the new Nike Soccer Shop. I grew up playing a lot of soccer, and while I don’t play as much anymore, I’m always excited by the opportunity to check out new gear and keep up with what’s going on in that world.
Located within the massive 57th Street Niketown, the Nike Soccer Shop is a new space dedicated to both the competitive player looking to get fine-tuned equipment, and the casual fan looking for the latest colors to support their team. An entire section of the second floor has been rebuilt in the style of a classic soccer locker room, with wooden benches, and jerseys hanging in each locker. Because the store gets so much international traffic (not to mention the rise in popularity of European club soccer in the past few years), there are individual lockers dedicated to every club team that Nike sponsors. (Side note: I asked one of the staff what the best selling jersey was—Barcelona, by far.) In addition to all the licensed gear, the Soccer Shop serves as a location where players of all skill levels can have a pair of custom boots designed just for them.
To highlight this, Landon Donovan (the all-time leading US goal-scorer and active cap leader) was on hand to demonstrate the design process. While a score of press looked on, Donovan and a trained Nike staffer walked through having a custom boot created. He ended up with an old-school black-on-black look that I appreciated. Personally, being able to see Donovan talk about soccer—a few hours before the World Cup draw no less—will add an extra level of excitement to the World Cup this summer.
After watching Donovan walk through the customization process, I was invited into the Nike ID lab to run through the design process myself. It was an eye-opening experience. With the guidance of a Nike specialist, I was able to build a shoe that wasn’t just for wet grass or indoor, but could be tweaked down to the material on the instep, which is adjusted based on where on the field you play, the likelihood of taking shots on goal, etc. And that doesn’t even touch on the cosmetic options. Everything, down to the color of the stitching, could be changed to build a unique shoe.
I know that Nike ID has been around for a while, and the concept of building a custom shoe isn’t brand-new , but sitting there I couldn’t help but think back to when I was playing soccer as a kid. The idea of a wet-grass removable cleat versus a standard molded rubber cleat was foreign to almost everyone. They literally had to be mail-ordered (and good luck getting replacement screws).
I grew up a few hours outside New York City, and I’m fairly certain that if something like the Nike Soccer Shop existed back in the day, I would have been dragging my ass into NYC once a year before the season started for some custom goodness.
