How have Nike created a game changing ball?

Nike have produced plenty of different types of footballs over a long period of time. They are one of the best-selling companies for footballs. Every year they come up with a new design and each year there are improvements to the design to improve the movement and flight of the ball. This year the ball that they have launched is called the 'Nike Flight Ball'. Nike have said that this new ball has been designed in such a way that it will produce '30% truer flight than its Nike predecessor'.

Nike have deemed the research behind this ball is an eight year investigation into improving the consistency of the flight produced by the football flight. There were three stages behind the development of this ball. The stages were 'Explore, Recreate and Innovate. Nike have changed the design by introducing the new 'Aerowsculpt Technology' ; this has been designed by creating grooves around the ball. This was done in order to improve its speed and flight whilst in mid-air.

The 'Explore' phase involved using various types of tracking systems which measured the flight of the ball during different styles of kicking the ball. The tests involved bringing professional footballers and testing their styles of kicking the ball. 

The 'Recreate' phase involved replicating kicking styles observed on the pitch with a robotic leg. This way of testing allowed them to repeat it plenty of times. With this way of testing, Nike could compare a large set of different balls and see what was required to make the new 'Nike Flight Ball' better than its predecessors. 

The 'Innovate' phase involved testing the ball with 68 different iterations. This process took over thousands of hours in the lab. This shows how keen Nike were to create a ball that was far superior with its aerodynamics than its predecessors. Nike also brought in 800 professionals to test these different iterations; this allowed them to create a final version. 

The main difference that was clearly visible which was the introduction of the grooves in the ball. This was to reduce the wobble and enabled it to provide more consistent and predictable flight. The design of the grooves were improved over the 68 different iterations. The main intention was to promote a more stable flight. In my opinion, the final design with the grooves in the ball is a very remarkable thought as it provides the ball better aerodynamics and allows the ball to have a stable trajectory towards its target. 

Another benefit of this new ball is that it will be easier to get curl on a shot. With previous balls, the flight of the ball wasn’t always too stable and wouldn’t curl to its maximum ability. Whereas with this new ball, due to the more stable flight, the ball is able to curl into positions where the player kicks it. This enhanced feature is very useful while taking free kicks as players have to curl the ball around the wall of defenders. 

Free kick technique

In the picture above it shows the technique of how to take a free kick. With the new ball, this technique can be performed more easily. The new ball features moulded grooves to prevent inconsistencies in flight which as I mentioned earlier improves shot accuracy.