When you're launching a boot which incorporates seventeen years of relentless craftsmanship, not just any venue will do. For this reason SoccerBible travelled with Nike to Barcelona, the home of the best club side in the world, to launch the Tiempo Legend IV football boots alongside the Tiempo's new global icon.
For a few years now, the Nike Tiempo has had to watch on as younger brothers the CTR360 and Mercurial have stolen the headlines. But now Nike have re-invigorated the Tiempo range to combine heritage and design innovation, with quite stunning effect.
Waking up in the Spanish sunshine, the day began with a coach trip on the Barcelona team bus to the clubs training facilities. There we were greeted by a stage hosting a luxurious leather armchair, and the promise of a Nike star to emerge.
Before doing so, it was time to learn more about the creation of the Nike Tiempo Legend IV Elite football boots from the experts who helped to create the boots. Unbelievably, it takes 128 steps to create the new Tiempo Legend IV Elite and a total of 80 different components, 56.50 metres of Flywire technology and 4,751 stitches go into each boot!
Nike's design brief was to build the best leather football boot out there, staying close to the heritage and pureness for which Tiempo is known, but at the same time they felt there was a true need to innovate to meet the demands of the modern game.
The two main driving forces behind the creation of the new Tiempo's, came from listening to the athletes. Talking to defenders, midfielders and strikers they all said 'touch' was important, so Nike focused on getting the strongest and softest vamp. Another area for the Nike players was foot lock-down, because the modern game is quick and super fast, you don't want your foot to be moving inside the boot.
Every year Nike try to create the best product for the best players in the world, with an obsession to try to come up with something new and innovate that helps their athletes to play better on pitch. And with that FC Barcelona defender Gerard Pique was introduced to the stage, alongside a video montage of some of his greatest moments.
In three seasons Pique has collected three La Ligas, two Champions Leagues, one Copa Del Rey, two Spanish Super Cups, one European Super Cup and one Club World Cup. Perhaps the reason why, as Pique showed off his new boots to the crowd, we were informed he is to become the new face of Tiempo.
After a quick photocall, Gerard sat down in his thrown-like armchair to talk football boots, and of course our SoccerBible reporter was on hand to ask Gerard's opinions on his new boots.
“I know all the history of these boots” started Pique, before going on to say: “But this kind of boot is so modern, you can feel the weight is minimal. I think that when you wear them they adapt really well to your feet, and when you touch the ball you can feel the ball really well”. There'll be more to come from an exclusive chat with the Barcelona star later.
We then moved on to the hallowed turf of the training ground, for the best team in world football. The immaculate pitches where the world's best footballers practice and train daily, and of course, Mr Pique stuck around to offer some expert advice as we tried out the new Nike Tiempo Legend IV Elite football boots.
What first became apparent was the great on-pitch presence the new Tiempo Legend IV's have, with their classic black colourway and stand-out white and orange detailing. The leather is fantastically soft, but we'll bring you our full Play Test later. We will tell you though that we played a game, with Spanish media versus the rest of the world, for whom the SoccerBible played, and we won 2-0 with our player putting in a credible performance and claiming a generous assist for the second goal.
As the event came to a close, thoughts turned to the boots we had been immersed in all day and had just worn as we played on Barcelona's training ground. The new Nike Tiempo Legend IV football boots combine heritage and design innovation, Nike set-out to create the best leather football boots on the market, and although opinions will be divided...we think they've come pretty close!
To see more from the Boot Launch of the Nike Tiempo Legend IV Elite's stay tuned to SoccerBible, and don't forget to check out our full reveal of the new Nike Tiempo Legend IV football boots by clicking here, and join in the chat with the SoccerBible community online, on Twitter and on Facebook.