Nike Tiempo Legend 9 leaked

The Nike Tiempo Legend 9 looks hella sleek.

Update with close ups on the Nike Tiempo Legend 9 PRO variant – 21 June 2021

Our first close up of the Nike Tiempo Legend 9 comes in the takedown Pro version. It looks great but its bulk and lack of Flyknit tongue (featured photos involve a synthetic mesh) is a dead give away. Swipe the photo gallery below to view more. Photos taken from futbolistayoutube on Instagram.

Despite this being a Pro edition, there are promising hints of what the final Nike Tiempo Legend 9 Elite would offer. The embossed zones with the grip dots around the toe box and instep hints at a boot that is looking to arm itself with “control” features like past favourite – the Nike CTR 360. This feature does slightly overlap with the Nike Phantom GT‘s value proposition in regards to a grippy contact with the ball.

The soleplate and studs look roughly similar as its predecessor and we don’t expect any radical changes in its performance or concept. I would have liked less blades on the FG variant so it seems I’ll be sticking to AG for my playtests.

Overall, it does feel like Nike is rehashing old concepts and it comes as little surprise that Nike may be struggling to find new stories to tell about their leather boot. There isn’t much more innovation that can be done with leather boots, especially when they’re tasked to come up with a new concept every 18-24 months.

Their last leather boot, the Nike Tiempo Legend 8, was barely a leather boot with most of its insides synthetics and knit. I hope the Nike Tiempo Legend 9 Elite would be less bulky but still bring about the classic luxurious touch that a leather boot is known for – recycled concept or otherwise.

Original post from 21 May 2021 below

Expect the next generation Nike Tiempo, the Tiempo Legend 9, to drop within the upcoming few months as we spotted them on the feet of Nike’s sponsored athletes in training. The blacked out football boots were seen on Chelsea’s Antonio Rudiger and FC Barcelona’s Clement Lenglet as they put the Nike Tiempo Legend 9 into practice.

It’s a bit of a challenge to extract details from the stealth colourway but from the photos, the Tiempo is as trim and sleek as it has ever been. The silhouette could be mistaken for a Nike Mercurial Vapor from afar as opposed to a classic “bulky” leather boot. Part of the reason for this is that Nike ditched the geometric, diamond shaped design on the leather upper for a smoother finish.

The minimalist look sees a return of a very thin leather upper combined with Nike’s proprietary Flyknit material that is evident across that entire lace area. I do wonder if we get to see a return of Quadfit, a material I absolutely loved but hasn’t been given its due props by fans. Quadfit provided a compressive fit to make sure your feet stayed secure during the hard turns and pivots but hasn’t been implemented in many of Nike’s footwear since its inception three years ago.

With so much knit around the midfoot, I do expect the boot to feel less like a leather boot (plush, elegant touch) to one which feels more like an airy sensation from a sock-like knit padding instead. This was what I felt in the Nike Tiempo Legend 8 and you should expect the Tiempo Legend 9 to feel similar based on the amount of knit present in the photos.

There is not much more we can derive from these pictures. The soleplate is a big question mark and the heel counter looks to be of a smaller volume but don’t expect anything too radically different in these areas, especially with the soleplate.

How do you find the Nike Tiempo Legend 9? Is Nike making leather boots the right way? Let us know in the comments below and check back in as we update you on new findings regarding the Nike Tiempo Legend 9.