New Balance made their highly anticipated dive into football at Liverpool FC Academy this week. After months of build up and tease phases the brand finally lifted the lid on their debut boot collection made up of two silos, Visaro, for those who 'make' chances and Furon, for those who 'take' them.
LFC's Football Academy played host to the unveil as we were invited to speak to the designers behind the brand's re-introduction to football and to lace up and test the new Visaro and Furon boots for ourselves. Backing up and rivalling adidas' 'two types of player' theory New Balance have rolled out a simplified choice of footwear centered around attacking football, the maker (Visaro) and the taker (Furon).
New Balance kicked off proceeding by presenting both boots and explaining in great detail the concepts and materials behind each silo and the years of research and development that went in to creating a collection worthy of carrying the famous 'NB' logo. Applying their strong heritage in running and expert knowledge in this field to the endurance of football has allowed New Balance to create a football brand with a unique identity using science and player feedback as the keys to success.
After the tech low-down from Global Product Manager Robert Ashcroft and Sports Research Engineer Dr. Pedro Rodrigues we headed to the Under 21's changing rooms to slip into the latest New Balance innovations. First up, the Visaro. Built as a control boot the Visaro features a lightweight one-piece upper compressed in specific places for added shooting power, control padding and flexibility in the sole-plate. Performance wise it excelled, think Hypervenom I meets Predator meets CTR, in many ways the Visaro has combined the best assets from previous favourites and applied their own identity to them.
Once we'd been put through a series of agility and passing drills by the LFC Academy coaches we swapped Visaro for Furon, the boot to be worn by Alvaro Negredo and Adnan Januzaj. Designed with a stiffer sole-plate and strategically placed studs to enhance speed the Furon features a 'Burrito' tongue to enlarge the striking area. There's something about that 'NB' logo on the Furon heel that we're all over. The wait for New Balance was long, but it was worth it.
The New Balance Visaro and Furon are available at select stockists including Pro-Direct Soccer.
