Nike Launch The 'Renew Pack'

Taking a dip into darkness once more, Nike prepare for the upcoming season by wrapping their roster in black coats, with flashes of blue standing out predominantly on the Swoosh branding. It also sees the pack debut for the Tiempo Legend 9, while the Phantom GT also sneaks under the radar for a stealthy debut.

Offering up that toned down option for the coming campaign, Nike launch the ‘Renew Pack’. But while the story is pretty standard on first glance, it’s on closer inspection that the real headline stands out: namely the first retail drop for the next generation Tiempo Legend 9 and Phantom GT II, the latter of which lands unexpectedly with no solo fanfare to speak of.

Black boots will always hold a certain level of appeal, often reserved for grassroots pitches, and here the black is accented by flashes of blue across the Mercurial Vapor 14 and Superfly 8, Phantom GT II, and Tiempo Legend 9, as Nike gets its next generation game up to gear ahead of the new season.

So starting with the new Tiempo Legend 9, and the ‘Black Pack’ represents the first chance to get your hands on the next gen boot, along with the special edition ‘Focus’ version, which also drops today. After it was revealed at the beginning of the month its well known that this is one of the lightest Tiempo to date, boasting a redesigned soleplate and refined upper. But don’t think that it abandons the legacy the legacy of its previous eight generations; the upper is still constructed from premium K-leather, which looks all the more sumptuous here in traditional black.

For the Phantom GT II, the changes are minimal. Some new lines are instantly apparent on the newly tweaked upper, highlighted in grey tones. The blue flashes through the Swoosh branding and the stud tips. We saw Borussia Dortmund’s Thomas Delaney training in what was believed to be the new Phantom GT II back in early May, and even then the changes looked minimal, something which now seems to be confirmed.

For the Mercurial, in both Vapor 14 and Superfly 8 form, it's a similar story to the 'Black x Prism' drop from February, with the flashes of yellow and red instead replaced by the blue that runs throughout the pack.