Mizuno bring back the iconic limited edition Wave Ignitus
Mon, Mar 07.22
Mizuno fans rejoice. The 2010 Wave Ignitus is back with a bang - reimagined for the modern game with the help of one of their best athletes. Anyone else remember former Melbourne Victory star Keisuke Honda rocking these back in the South Africa World Cup? We do; and we know many more of our loyal Mizuno fans will too.
Mizuno is the pinnacle boot brand in football. Anyone who's tried a pair of the Made In Japan models will agree they are god tier boots. The best part is that the brand stays true to its glorious past. We've been treated to some unbelievable re-releases like the Wave Cup of late, but this might top the lot.
The Wave Ignitus drops as part of the 'Archive Pack', a project which remakes essential models devoloped for athletes competing on the world stage. These aren't straight up remakes though - they're packed with new materials and technologies to make sure they are up to speed for the modern game.
The Japanese brand has called up Keisuke Honda to link in with their development engineers to make sure these hit the mark once more. The concept of passing on these important records to future generations is a big focus. Mizuno has such a great history with their own national team as well. It's a history that needs to be told and kept alive through these products.
Of the 20 goals Japanese players have scored in World Cups, seven goals were made by players wearing Mizuno football boots. Every product in the Archive Pack lineup led to memorable goals that gave a boost of momentum to the Japan national team.
The colour of the design is the same one used for the Wave Ignitus Japan, which Keisuke Honda wore and scored in the 2010 World Cup.
Tsuyoshi Tomita, Mizuno Football Development Engineer, was the perfect man to hear from for all things Archive Pack ahead of the launch.
"The Ignitus Series inherits the concept of Speed & Control from its predecessor, the Wave Incision. The first Ignitus model had an improved DYNAMOTION FIT feature as well as Mizuno's original bio-panel, an advanced control panel attached to the upper. Then, we progressively made improvements as Ignitus 2, 3, and 4, and ended up employing two types of bio-control panels for the Ignitus 4."
One of the bio-control panels provides a spin area to more easily apply spin to the ball, and the other bio-control panel provides a non-spin area for knuckle shots. It's been these two panels that have let us take on the world. We also employed Japanese-made kangaroo leather for the first time with the Ignitus 4, helping to establish its high quality as a Japanese brand.Many people must have an image in their head of Ignitus = Keisuke Honda, but the first Ignitus model was not designed for him. We started developing the Ignitus shoes for the 2010 World Cup. As it so happens, Keisuke Honda, one of the players who had signed with Mizuno, scored two goals and got an assist in the World Cup held in South Africa in 2010, catapulting to fame as a result. The knuckle shot Keisuke kicked in the third game in the group stage against Denmark wowed audiences across Japan. Since then (after Ignitus 2), we have proceeded to develop the model around Keisuke Honda.
Especially with the Ignitus 3, Keisuke was attempting to kick a tatekaiten (vertical spin) ball, so we added an improvement to the bio-control panel to support him. We studied how Keisuke kicked the ball many times."
This level of dedication to making the perfect boots doesn't surprise us. We know Mizuno goes above and beyond for their consumers every single release. For this one - you're going to have to act very fast if you want to secure a pair. We'll be doing an in-store launch on Saturday the 19th of March in both our Melbourne and Sydney stores. These are limited to just 100 pairs worldwide, so make sure you're first in line.
Details on our Mizuno Archive Pack launch will be announced later this week over on our Instagram. Stay tuned! This is a big one.
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