Nike has launched their new Nike Total 90 Tracer ball in time for this season's Barclays Premier League.
The new ball has been designed for unrivalled consistency, accuracy, touch and visual acuity and developed in tandem with the world's premier footballers and teams.
It was meticulously engineered down to every detail including the bladder's tension, hand-sewn seams and surface texture. The result is a ball that delivers superior playing benefits for players at every level.
During an extensive two-year testing process Nike worked closely with the Premier League and other top leagues in Europe, with national teams including Portugal and the United States, and confederation matches throughout South America and Asia.
The Nike design team also spent 18 months testing the T90 Tracer Ball at the Nike Equipment Innovation Test Lab in Oregon, USA.
elite levels
"The world's best leagues, federations and players demand the most innovative product on the market, that's why our brief was very simple: to create the world's best football," said Chris Bond, Nike General Manager of Soccer Equipment.
"As the game gets even faster and more competitive around the world, we've designed a product to exceed the demands of today's players from the amateur to elite levels."
The result is the Total 90 Tracer, which delivers enhanced consistency, accuracy, touch and visual science. It is the most pinpoint accurate ball in the world, helping players hit their targets with consistency.
Testing shows that the Total 90 Tracer consistently hits a three-foot in diameter bulls-eye while the leading competitor ball hits a bulls-eye approximately six-feet in diameter, showing the Total 90 Tracer is more than twice as consistent as the competition.
The Total 90 Tracer ball's micro-textured casing regulates airflow equally across its entire surface, making it less prone to wobble and giving it a more direct, arrow-like flight. Rigorously tested at the University of British Columbia wind tunnels, the ball has less drag in flight than competitor balls and produces more precise and truer shots every time.
less energy
Stoke City goalkeeper Thomas Sorensen believes accuracy of the new T90 Tracer Ball means it is the best yet.
"We've been used to the Nike ball in the Premier League for 10 years now and it has progressed," he said. "I think it is a better ball now than when it started. A lot of research has gone into it.
"From a goalkeeper's point of view, you want confidence that you can make the ball do certain things and it's not the ball doing it on its own. Because that puts unpredictability in there as a goalkeeper if the flight of the ball is not true to the strike, it's not a confidence builder."
Testing at the Nike Equipment Innovation Test Lab found that the Total 90 Tracer is the most aerodynamically efficient ball in the marketplace, meaning players expend less energy kicking the ball.
Nike's T90 Tracer ball will make its competitive debut when Tottenham Hotspur play Manchester City on Saturday 14th August 2010 at 12:45pm.
http://www.premierleague.com/page/Headlines/0,,12306~2117423,00.html
