Adidas Nemeziz

For the launch of the new Adidas Nemeziz boots, we helped our friends over at Espadaysantacruz to design and create the 3D model for a parametric sculpture that captures one of Messi’s most iconic plays: his goal against Bayern München in the 2014-2015 Champions League.

Developing the blueprints to build Messi’s run required both work from an animator and from parametric designers. Once the play was decided upon, videos from its broadcast were used to recreate a 3D animation that spanned from the moment he received the ball until he shot it. Each frame of the video was translated as a position in the model. After the play was reconstructed, regions of interest in the body were selected to create an array of points in space that defined the surface Messi created while running. From this representation, and through conversation with the building team, a series of slits were parametrically extracted and modified, using algorithms and also manually, to get the final shape. The main constraints were set by the construction phase, and were related to how the bands would cover the geometry and how and where the piece was to channel its weight.
The project was a digital endeavour that was then carefully prepared for the reality of a workshop.