Comparison: New Seaweed Vapor VIII vs. Old Bright Mango Vapor VIII

July 24, 2012 by 12 Comments

After some severe durability issues arose with the launch colorways of the Mango and Sail releases of the Vapor VIII, Nike went back to the drawing board and decided to change up the upper on their future releases of the Vapor VIII. With the “peach-fuzz” that everyone talked about getting rave reviews, was Nike able to create an upper that everyone would still love but while preventing the masses from being scared to drop the cash on the VIII.

The upper on the new Vapor is amazingly leather-like. Gone is the peach-fuzz and the upper that you say “feels like nothing you have ever felt before.” Now the Vapor is covered in the same Teijin-synthetic but it now has been coated to feel exactly like an extremely thin leather boot. The touch is still amazing, and you still have the same amount of joy when using the boot as you had when you used the release Vapor VIII. Performance wise, I feel that you could blackout these boots and you would not notice too much of a difference on your feet. Although you would definitely be able to separate the two in your hands, when you have them actually performing their necessary function, they both have that same great feel on the ball.

Before I wrote this piece, I took my pair of Seaweed Vapor VIII’s and played every single day for weeks. I used them on hard ground pitches that had not seen rain for over a month and then I used them the day after a major thunderstorm. I used them on natural surfaces and I even used them on turf. I have never pushed a boot so hard and done so many things to try and see if Nike had fixed the problem and I even had to completely change my mind-set. I used to make sure that I never walked on concrete or anything besides a football pitch when I am wearing boots, but I practically stomped my way down a sidewalk with these things. When running a drill practicing slide tackling at a recent practice, I used myself as the main training tool by having them slide tackle the ball away from me.

The verdict: Nike have fixed any and all issues with the upper’s durability. As stated earlier, I did everything but run over this boot with a car. I even was going to wear them while going whitewater rafting on the Ocoee River in Tennessee to further test them…but the raft guide would not let me. If your major worry from getting the new Vapor was that you were worried about it lasting for longer than a season, then you should have no worries now. Now, whether this has altered some of the soleplate durability issues that some encountered, I never had issues with the studs on the first model and I have not had any issues with the current one either.

Make sure you check out the Inside Look articles on the current Adidas silos- the adiPure 11Pro, the F50 AdiZero, and the Predator Lethal Zones. Also take a look at all the current Nike silos- Tiempo, T90, CTR360, and Mercurial.

About drewplaysbass

The "old man" of SoccerReviews.com...currently holding down the "View from the Couch" articles and enjoying every second of it.

Comments

  1. Victor Echeverria
    July 24, 2012 at 6:00 pm

    Great Article! Love your guys stuff, always quality.
    And I’m glad to hear Nike fixed the issue without compromising none of the original best qualities I’m thinking of getting a pair but in the mean time I got me some Nike Tiempo IIIs for only $40 so imma give those a run first lol
    Great stuff Soccerreviews!

    Reply
  2. Papasmurf
    July 24, 2012 at 6:29 pm

    Brilliant. I loved the seaweed Vapors, but does this mean that Nike will still release a K-Leather Vapor as stated in the boot calender? Great testing!

    Reply
    • Jordon English
      July 24, 2012 at 7:04 pm

      Hey Papasmurf,

      The K-Leather Vapor was a product of misinformation from my Nike rep. I was told a leather Vapor was to be released, and upon asking another Nike rep, they told me they think it was going to be a K-Leather upper, but it might be Kanga-Lite. They did not tell me too much more about it, but it turns out they were talking about the Nike Green Speed (a response of sorts for a leather Vapor). There are whispers, however, that Nike is earmarking a leather Vapor release before the World Cup of 2014, but we still remain very skeptical about it. We will keep an eye on the situation and tell you if anything new comes up.

      ReplyReport user
  3. Mike
    July 24, 2012 at 7:52 pm

    I have the Mango versions and yes, the durability is quite poor – roughly on par with the AdiPowers in my opinion. The new material is great, but if I had to pick it’d be the peach fuzz …. minus durability issues of course.

    Reply
  4. Nick Saenz
    July 24, 2012 at 9:31 pm

    hi great article, do you guys know when they will release these boots in the U.S.? i know its probably in august or september but wanted to know the exact date.

    Reply
  5. Chris Matombe
    July 25, 2012 at 2:24 am

    Great article man. One little confusion I’d like to settle though. The Upper on the Clash Collection Vapor VIII, is it “peach-fuzz” or like the Seaweed?

    Reply
  6. Herman Ng
    July 25, 2012 at 8:37 am

    My teammate had a pair of clash vapors that had a major seperation from the upper and soleplate after less than 10 hours of use on proper firm ground..

    Reply
  7. Anthony
    July 26, 2012 at 7:23 am

    ive got a pair of vapor clash’s, and wanted to black them out, but ive got no idea what to use with out ruining the upper, any tips?

    Reply

Speak Your Mind

*