Behind The Scenes: adidas Nitrocharge Commercial
Earlier this year we were asked by adidas to board a flight to Barcelona. The reason? To get a behind-the-scenes look at the making of their global commercial for the Nitrocharge 1.0. SoccerBible was invited to Barcelona's Olympic Stadium where adidas had rounded up three of their biggest names.
The guys at adidas made no secret about it. This was going to be an explosive ad of epic proportions and they wanted us on set to witness the onslaught first hand. The athletes called upon to star in the madness were Barcelona's Dani Alves, Bayern Munich's Javi Martinez and Roma's Daneile De Rossi - three of adidas' headline Nitrocharge recruits.
We spent three days on set within Barcelona's Estadi OlÍmpic stadium, as adidas orchestrated a series of sequences that would come together to make one of the most explosive films of the year. As for us, we were free to take a behind-the-lens look at how such a blockbuster commercial comes together.
Unkown to the Catalan locals, their iconic Olympic Stadium was being used as the set for one of adidas' most exciting campaigns in recent years. Three days of mud, sweat and cold mid-February temperatues went into the filming. It was to become one of adidas' biggest-scale video productions for a boot that had been in the making for over two years.
With the public release of the adidas Nitrocharge still a few months away at the time, this was one of the first opportunities given to Alves, Javi Martinez and Daneile De Rossi to experience the Nitrocharge football boots. Coordinated tackles, jumping onto crash mats and shouting down the throat of a camera were all parts of the script. Before leaving Dani Alves was handed a pair of bespoke prototype models to use in training.
The man tasked with orchestrating the film was Canadian film director Tristan Patterson, who spoke to us on set about the film. "Adidas have identified a new type of player called the engine. It's a player that exhibits raw energy, is relentless and doesn't stop on the field. The film is a portrait of these players."
"The players were in Barcelona and we chose the Olympic Stadium because it has a track around it so we're able to shoot things at speed on the track. I think the biggest challenges of shooting with players is that you have a limited window to shoot with them and you don't get to prepare with them before they show up."
"You've got to think on your feet and maximise your time and get as much footage as you can. So just making sure you make every minute you're shooting count.
Unveilled today, the adidas Nitrocharge 1.0 comes with an utterly distinctive design, engineered to deliver ninety minute energy to a new breed of player, identified by adidas as 'the engine'. Armed with a new array of boot technology, the Nitrocharge targets the box-to-box midfielder who drives their team from the first minute to the last.
The Nitrocharge football boots feature totally new innovations from the adidas lab that are inspired by spring geometry to provide maximum energy output. The distinctive Energysling - a feature that's become synonymous with the Nitrocharge over the past year - is a high-elasticity rubber band designed to support side-cut and turn movements.
The second key innovation is housed within the revolutionary outsole. Inspired by spring geometry, a new high-elasticity material titled Energypulse, provides high energy output during toe-off phase. Built on adidas' sprintframe construction with Traxion shape studs, the responsive chassis enables optimum energy output by returning to shape far quicker.
So here it is. Take a deep breath and watch the explosive Nitrocharge commercial from the folks at adidas football. Take a look and let us know what you think. Join the conversation online, on Twitter and on Facebook.
