vapor-veloce

Ve·lo·ce  (va-lochae)

According to the dictionary Veloce means “very rapidly”.  Perfect description for a such a great shoe. Nike’s Mercurial Vapor is endorsed by Cristiano Ronaldo but it is seen worn by many professional soccer players.  It is designed to be a lightweight speed boot.   Of course you aren’t going to see a professional wearing a take down silo, after all soccer is their career and they usually are being paid to wear specific shoes instead of the other way around like the rest of us.  Of course the Vapor is a great shoe but is it really worth twice the price of the nearly identical Mercurial Veloce?

When looking to buy a shoe my initial reaction is “GET THE BEST” and I instantly go toward the Vapor. But now that I’ve developed a way to weigh in the pros and cons my thinking has changed a bit.

Major Differences

There are two major differences in the Veloce from the Vapor.  1.ACC (All Conditions Control)  2.Double layer outsole in the Vapor is not included in the Veloce.  First off let’s discuss ACC.  ACC is very beneficial in a leather shoe because leather absorbs water and becomes heavy.  This really isn’t going to happen in the Mercurial line, being synthetic shoes.  It actually looks like Nike covers the front half of the Veloce with ACC (makes it more shiny) and leaves the back half untreated, as you can somewhat tell in the picture above.  So besides the fact that your shoe isn’t going to be as equally shiny the ACC removal is a bust.  The second difference is more tricky to discern, the two layers of glass fiber composite look really great on the Vapor… but how often are you or anyone else going to be studying the bottom of your shoe.  Rarely.  As far as functional benefits, it’s hard to compare and contrast the two, as this is when it comes down to time wearing the shoe, and personal preference.  The sole of the Vapor does make it slightly lighter, but the Veloce is still a very light shoe. Putting both shoes on, it was hard for me to tell the difference in the shoes without actually looking at them.

Bottom Line

If you want the absolute very best and the same shoe that the professionals are wearing, get the Vapor.  If you can find something else to better spend a $100 on, get the Veloce.   Either way you aren’t going to become Cristiano Ronaldo by putting on a shoe. BUT putting in the hours of practice will, and thats going to wear out your boots, so you’ll need to buy replacements more frequently.

 

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