The Nike Magista Legacy With Max Blau : Interviews : Soccer Bible

On the eve of the highly anticipated Nike Magista 2 launch, we sat down with Max Blau, VP for Nike Football Footwear at Nike’s Paris HQ to talk about the influence the Magista silo has had on the industry since launching in 2014 and what the next chapter brings. From working closely with professional players to overseeing all parts of the product development, Max is the ultimate insight into Nike Football innovation.

Two years have passed since the launch of the first Magista. How do you look back on the success of the first-generation boot?

"It’s been great. The 2014 Magista was obviously the first time we worked with Nike FlyKnit and we learned a ton from that. All these things we learned have slowly started to become quite evident as we made the transition into the Magista 2. The past two years have been successful, they’ve been the time for us to learn and spend a lot of time with players. We’ve gathered a lot of feedback from them – things they really like, things that we can eventually improve – so I’d describe the past two years of Magista as a great start. We learned a lot from the first Magista but we’ll learn a ton more from the Magista 2."



The first Magista was a landmark boot with a completely new silhouette. Were you surprised how quickly the hi-top design of the Magista became the norm?

"It was really hard for us to keep up with demand, especially younger generations who adopted it extremely fast and it’s quickly became standard equipment. We still believe the low-cut Opus plays a key role and the nice thing is that the player has options. We’ve focused on the Opus as much as we have on the Magista Obra 2, but I have to say the energy and the movement with players adopting the Obra has been extremely fast."

It must be a credit to the product when a 30-something player who has always worn low-cut boots wears the Magista Obra and loves it?

"Yeah, you see players that love the collared boot and switch straight into it and then you see others who stick with the low-cut and we respect that. Someone like Iniesta for example, he tried it, liked it, but grew up playing with the low-cut so has remained in that. The younger generation are the players that have embraced it faster. When we go to youth tournaments we see that the high-collared boot is becoming the standard. It’s been great to redefine what football boots are all about."

Is it a target to get all players into the high-collared option in the future?

"No. We’re fully committed to having both options. To me it’s like the car industry – you can have two doors or four doors, you offer both, it’s a preference. We need both, we need to obsess over innovation for both options. It adds a little more work for us but it’s worth it because that’s the expectation of the consumer."



Is the second generation Magista more important than the first?

"The key is to stay inline with the reality of the game and where the game is going. We believe this boot is very much inline with the reality of the playmaker. The playmaker, in my opinion, is one of those positions that has evolved the most and we’re going to keep seeing it evolve. I wouldn’t be surprised if the playmaker of World Cup 2014 is completely different to what we’ll see at the 2018 World Cup in Russia, and our job is to not just keep up with it but eventually try to stay ahead of that to make sure we provide the proper tools for these players."

Nike were the first to land a high-collared football boot. That has shaped the market with competitors now offering their own version of the tech. How do you feel about that?

"I’ve been in footwear for a very long time and I’ve been lucky enough to be part of many successful projects and sometimes that happens, but that’s the price of success. I often say that you should be concerned they day that they stop following you, because the fact that they do follow is a sign that you’re doing the right things. I take it as a compliment and now our job is to continue to push ourselves and take it to the next level. It’s not a case of keeping and eye on retail or competition, it’s about staying connected with the game and very connected with the players and that’s why we keep improving."



What’s the Nike Magista Obra 2 all about then?

"First and foremost we truly wanted to push the boundaries of what’s possible with Flyknit and it’s an interesting exercise because the more we pushed ourselves we learned the more we can do, as well as other things that we could potentially do in the near future. We’ve focused on playmakers as the inspiration for this boot and they face a very challenging environment, mainly because of speed and physicality, the impact it has is on space. There’s less space for a playmaker to make decisions in the modern game, so when there’s less space and time, being very accurate and very clear on what needs to happen is critical."

"So for us the challenge was what can we do to feed the brain with as much information as possible so that you can make those decisions. That’s when Nike Flyknit came into play. We felt that we needed to evolve from the texture being exclusive of the external part of the upper to be be external and internal, especially internal playing a key role on stimulating the senses so that you can make better decisions – we call that boot to brain. In the past we talked about boot to foot, boot to pitch, boot to ball and the new interface is boot to brain."

"If you slice the Magista 2 open you will see the geometry, the peaks and valleys are pretty much the same externally and internally. Traditionally the boot would have a flat surface to connect to the ball, whereas the Magista 2 is very specific. It’s the 1-5% difference that makes the massive difference on the pitch at elite level."

"Speed is not exclusive to a silo, position or style of play anymore. Nowadays every player wants to be fast so the plate on the Magista 2 is a hybrid. The key focus is to give rotational freedom to the playmaker to move in multiple directions. Another feature is that the front studs enable propulsion whereas the heel studs are set up in a way to aid deceleration. The plate is 30% lighter too."

"Last but not least are the changes to the Dynamic Fit Collar. It’s not about stability or protection, it’s about sensation and integrating the lower leg with the boot seamlessly so you eliminate any distractions. The big difference compared to the first Magista is that it isn’t a straight line and the objective of that is to enable freedom of movement."



When did you start working on the Magista Obra 2?

"We started working on the Magista 2 as soon as the first Magista stepped onto the pitch at the 2014 World Cup. We already had some ideas around texture and the boot to brain concept and we spent a lot of time with players asking how they sense and feel the ball."

The colourway. We can’t not ask about that… care to explain?

"It’s impactful but it’s not just visual. I like to say that great designs are very intuitive, they don’t need much explanation and we call this one the heat map. It elevates the areas in which the ball makes the most contact with the boot. The medial side for holding and distributing the ball and the lateral side for that quick pass. The idea of the heat map is to bring to life those key areas of the boot."



Why did you choose to launch the Magista 2 after Euro 2016 and not before?

"We wanted to pace ourselves. There’s been a lot of innovation this year so far, starting with Tiempo, then anti-clog and Mercurial, so we wanted to spread all the innovation across the year to give consumers enough time to digest the products. We also thought it would be important to have something for the 2016 Olympics in Rio and the start of the domestic European season."

2016 has been an incredible year for Nike so far. How do you look back on those seven months to date?

"It’s been a great summer for Nike and for Nike Football. A very successful Tiempo launch, Innovation Summit in New York which launched, what is in my opinion, some of the biggest innovation that football has seen over the past 20 years, Ronaldo’s Champions League winning penalty, Chile winning the Copa America, Neymar and Jordan presenting their unique collaboration and now Portugal winning Euro 2016 in an all Nike final. And on top of all that the Magista 2 launch. You could say the stars are aligning but we work hard to make sure they align for us."

Want a pair? Pick them up here from July 26.