Creating the Greatest Invitation

The feeling is universal—a ball rolling in your direction invites anyone and everyone to play. The journey to create a new one began with that invitation at the heart of the game, and ended up somewhere extraordinary. Meet the new Nike Flight Ball, with 30% truer flight than its Nike predecessor.

1700 lab hours. 800 soccer players. 68 iterations. 1 robotic leg. In order to improve the ball the world loves, we needed data—and a lot of it. So we tracked the kicks of elite players around the world, capturing, well, everything—from rate of spin to speed and angle of flight. Then we recreated those conditions with a robotic leg that could test the tiniest variations in design tirelessly. The result? A ball with 30% truer flight than our previous ball.

It's what we heard from soccer players was most important, and it’s what we’ve created with the Nike Flight Ball. The breakthrough Aerowsculpt technology uses features on the surface of the ball to help air move around it more easily, much like the dimples on a golf ball. That means less wobble in the air and a more stable, predictable flight path than the Nike Merlin.

Unlike a traditional ball that might have up to 32 panels, we designed the Nike Flight Ball with only 4. They are fuse-welded rather than stitched, which means fewer stiff seams and a prominent sweet spot. Then we added a 3D ACC (All Conditions Control) ink on the surface to create a consistent touch that we found soccer players love.

The Nike Flight Ball is the result of years of research, a team of engineers, and a ton of soccer players. We’re passionate about the science, but at the end of the day it’s about your foot, the ball, and what it feels like to play.