The wait is finally over and the new Nike Mercurial Vapor VIII cleats have finally arrived. The new Vapor’s look great and feel even better. Normally, Vapor’s are not the most comfortable cleats out of the box, but these feel great as soon as you put them on your feet.
Style
The color scheme of this cleat is sure to stand out on the field. Nike describes the color as bright mango with challenge red and metallic dark grey. To put it in simpler terms, it is more of a salmon color throughout with a dark gray swoosh on the front of the foot as well as the instep. They also feature blue, yellow, orange, and red on the heel to give some more color. The upper is made of soft Tejin synthetic leather that is much thinner than with the previous model. This synthetic leather also helps to mold to your foot to provide very good comfort as well as touch. The bottom of the cleat features two layers of glass fiber composite and direct inject TPU studs to give great traction and durability.
Feel
As I said above, these Vapor’s are the most comfortable version that I have tried on out of the box. Right when you put them on, they instantly provide a glove-like feel that will only get better when you break them in. The sockliner mirrors the natural shape of your foot and it has low profile cushioning to provide great comfort. There is soft cushioning around the ankle and heel so these should not rub your ankles, which caused blisters with the previous versions. At 6.6 ounces, this cleat is much lighter than previous versions of Vapor’s to help you have an extra step on your opponent. One thing that could cause a problem with these cleats is the fact that the upper is much thinner. This could cause them to possibly rip easier and getting stepped on will definitely leave a mark, however, if you are a Vapor fan, you are already used to a thin cleat that doesn’t provide much protection from being stepped on.
Overall
This cleat is definitely an improvement from previous generations of Mercurial Vapor’s. They are lighter, more comfortable, and look great. The thinness is both good and bad. With a thinner cleat, you are cutting down on weight but are also cutting down on protection of your foot. However, if you want a lightweight cleat, none of them are going to provide a great amount of protection since they are all thin. Now that the Vapor’s are as light as the Adizero’s, it is truly a toss-up between the two for who is king of the lightweight cleat. After trying these on, my first impression would be to give the edge to this new Vapor because it is very comfortable and the glove-like fit cannot be beat.
Written By: Eric Stoyanov, Contributing Writer, soccerprose.com
