If any random person can name or recognize one quintessential boot, there's a clear front-runner: the adidas Copa Mundial. First designed ahead of the 1982 World Cup in Spain, it's become the classic boot in the game, worn by some of the greatest players to ever live.
Recently, adidas has improved on a great thing with a new, updated version: the Copa 17. The new boot reinterprets the original, keeping most of the original feel, but updating it with advanced boot technology suited to the modern game. To get a better sense of the Copa Mundial's history, as well as a detailed breakdown of the new Copa 17, we sat down with adidas senior designer Dave Surace.
MLSsoccer.com: What was the idea of introducing an updated and more modern Copa right now?
Dave Surace: The big thing was that it is the 35th anniversary. It’s never gone out of production; it’s been in production for 35 years. We’ve taken time in the past to celebrate it, but we wanted to come back at this point in time to do something special to celebrate. More importantly we wanted to do something that would bring the Copa back as a franchise that would be around for many years, and something that we’re going to continue to build and grow as a product.
There are still a lot of people that love the original shoe. The original shoe was great and it has lasted this long. But we felt like we didn’t want to only be tied to the past. We want to be able to reinvent our heritage in a modern way.
You took quite possibly the most iconic soccer boot of all time and reimagined it. What was that process was like?
The first thing is we changed the last, the shoe form that we build the shoe on. Every shoe that you build starts with the last. And the Copa has a very iconic shape. But it’s also iconic in that it is 35 years old. We wanted to make sure that the new Copa is fitted like a modern shoe, that it is a lot more sleek and a lot more anatomically correct.
The next part was getting into how the shoe would play. That’s all about materials and construction. One of the biggest departures from the classic shoe starts with the tooling. When you start to play with the materials and construction you are going to shave off a lot of weight. We used our most up-to-date injection polymers to make a lightweight tooling with an integrated heel counter that still has a lot of performance. You will find that it plays similar to the Ace.
In terms of the upper and the fit – the upper itself has changed, with a two-stretch material that also has the familiar touch of leather. We didn’t want to move on from that; that is still an iconic part of what makes the Copa, the Copa. But we wanted to reconstruct it in a manner that fits in a more modern way, which we feel is a more adaptable type of stretch. Between a new last, a new construction in the upper, some slight material twists, and some new tooling made out of better polymers, you get basically a modern leather shoe. But it still very much looks like a Copa.
That stitching and those elements help make the shoe feel more human. We didn’t want to throw everything out. There are still some nice details and construction that works.
Image courtesy of adidas
When you take an item with so much heritage, that people love so much, how do you walk that fine line between preserving the classic elements and revamping it?
As we got more into it, we realized that there is such a fine line in terms of being repetitive, and being too tied to the past, but also worrying about going too far and not having it recognized as a Copa any more. That was a very delicate balance in terms of designs markers – which elements to keep in and which elements to evolve or make a total revolution on.
Most of the process was centered around asking ourselves if we went too far and if we needed to take a step back. Or, is it too safe now and should we go a little more forward now? It’s not as easy as it might sound. We know that so many people love this shoe and you only get one chance to make a first impression when you are re-launching a shoe like this.
One of the toughest parts was the fold-over tongue, and how modern or clean should we make it, versus how traditional should it be. We went back and forth on that quite a bit. If you look at the whole range from the top price point to the lower price point, we offered some different versions. Some people might be attracted more to a fold-over tongue, while others might want to wear it up. The top price point allows you to decide whether you want to wear it up or down. It was a learning experience for all of us involved in the project.
How much will heritage adidas products continue to inspire future performance products?
If you work for a brand like adidas, then you know that the past should enable the future in some way. I can’t answer that question precisely, but you would be silly not to look at shoes like the Copa and all the love and heritage that it brings and try to figure out how to make it better now that materials are so much better.
In general, I think that is one of the great things about working for a brand like adidas. There is so much rich history that we can start to reinterpret and modernize. I think that’s where the magic starts to happen.
