College football players will have some flashy feet this bowl season — thanks to Nike.
The athletic apparel and shoe giant just unveiled The Nike Vapor Untouchable —a Flyknit cleat made with recycled polyester yarn described as “the most innovative football cleat to date.”
Yes, that’s right. This cleat is made with the equivalent of five plastic soda pop bottles.
Designers at the athletic shoe company went through 70 iterations of the cleat, before settling on the final design.
All four of the college football teams to make the first-ever playoff — Florida State, Alabama, Oregon and Ohio State — will wear the shoe when games kick off on Jan. 1.
In addition to the shoes, each team will wear Nike Mach Speed uniforms, with special enhancements.
Here’s more from Ken Link, the Nike Football Cleated Design Director, who says the goal was to create “an extension of the foot.”
“The Nike Vapor Untouchable pushes the limits of speed on the field, and leverages the power of sustainable innovation to reduce environmental impact off the field. Over the past 18 months, we gathered deep athlete insights and tested this cleat at every level. Athletes have told us that this cleat feels like an extension of the foot – allowing them the speed they need with freedom of movement unlike anything else they’ve tried.”
You can see a gallery of the uniforms for each of the playoff-bound teams here.
