Marvin Harrison Jr. showing off the New Balance Prodigy football cleats, part of the brand’s entry … [+]
New Balance has a mission to grow as a global sports brand. The Boston-based independent athletic company has ticked off entering new sports, one after another. The latest effort has it tackling football, releasing a pair of football-specific cleats this summer—the Prodigy and the Fortress—New Balance’s first ever foray into football.
“Anytime we get into any sport it is because we can make it better and improve the athletes’ experiences,” Dave Millman, general manager of field of play and sport at New Balance and the lead developer of the football cleats, tells me. “Football is no different.”
Millman says the brand has the knowledge around how to build cleated plates and how to create a superior fit in performance sports. “The timing was right for football,” he says. “We can deliver a unique experience for the athlete centered around fit and comfort. We believe high comfort and high performance can live together.”
That’s the focus.
The New Balance Fortress football cleat in a special-edition colorway from New Balance.
New Balance, a 1906-founded brand, got its start in running. It has added a host of sports over the past decades, everything from the cleated sports of soccer, baseball and lacrosse to the recent additions of court-specific basketball and tennis. Moving into football—something Millman calls “an exciting opportunity to get into a mature marketplace with a fresh perspective”—simply drills into the knowledge the brand already has (watch the introduction video here).
MORE: New Balance Basketball Technologies Grow Across Four Silhouettes
Millman says the value proposition in football comes in creating a fit-focused design with an enhanced level of comfort.
New Balance has long been known to offer varying widths of footwear. That’s no different in football, with the skill-focused Prodigy coming in two widths and the more robust Fortress offering three different widths. “We over-invested in widths and delivered a new last built for the American football athlete,” Millman says. Using 3D foot scans done in the brand’s sports research lab, multiple rounds of prototyping and years of on-field testing, Millman says the new cleats have a fit that comes unique in the industry, offering a range of options to match the different shapes and foot sizes common in football.
Prototyping cleat plates was done in the lab and with on-field testing.
The take on comfort is unique, too. New Balance is delivering the brand’s FuelCell foam cushioning as an insert in the cleat, featuring a level of comfort not typically found in the sport. “It is a proven technology for us as a brand and can be brought to an athlete who hasn’t experienced it yet,” Millman says.
Debuting two different models allows New Balance to hit the range of athletes that span the sport. The Prodigy is built for the skill player, the burner. Designed with a low-cut upper, the stud geometry is T-shaped to for multi-directional traction and turning. Millman calls the upper the “right weight,” a blend of enough material to support the athlete, but still lightweight enough to allow for speed.
A special-edition white and gold version of the new New Balance football cleats.
The uppers on both cleats feature a bootie construction to give athletes a secure feeling without being constricting. With a traditional lacing system built over that, Millman says it allows athletes to tune their fit how they like.
Testing of the New Balance cleats.
The Fortress features a built-up design, a mid-top intended to offer security. “This athlete is thinking about driving through and not around,” Millman says. “We lock them in in a manner to do that.” With more ground force pressure asserted by athletes wearing the Fortress, the triangular-shaped lugs are built for digging in.
New Balance used high-speed video to help understand the different movements and forces put into each movement, helping define both the lug engineering and the upper construction. Working with athletes at all levels—New Balance recently signed Marvin Harrison Jr., who will wear the Prodigy, while Chase Young and Will Anderson Jr. will wear the Fortress—from professional through college to high school, Millman says the combination of on-field testing and lab data helped both refine the engineering at the beginning of the project and then fine-tune the details near the end.
The core colors of the new football cleats from New Balance, the Prodigy and Fortress.
Lab testing allowed New Balance to tune the stiffness of the plate based on specific flex testing and select plate and lasting board materials based on stiffness and energy return values.
The Prodigy football cleat from New Balance.
It all debuts on June 26, as New Balance launches black and gold and white and gold limited-edition colorways. Then, on July 18, the black and white core colors launch. Expect those to be the main colors for the first year before New Balance starts expanding the range in 2025.
Marvin Harrison Jr. is the face of the Prodigy football cleat from New Balance.
“We are getting into a marketplace that has a lot of brands,” Millman says. “We want to make sure the design element is truly uniquely New Balance.” He says that the clean and detailed aesthetic with a “great hand feel” shows the brand’s intelligent approach and focus on performance. By limiting the colorways early on, it allows New Balance to really highlight the introduction of the cleats and keep them recognizable across the industry.
“We wanted to take an intelligent approach to a better-fitting product and believe we were able to do that with the Prodigy and Fortress,” Millman says. “We want to deliver an athlete experience we don’t believe they have had the opportunity to experience yet.”
MORE: What Year One Of Coco Gauff’s Signature New Balance Tennis Shoe Taught Us
One Community. Many Voices. Create a free account to share your thoughts.
Our community is about connecting people through open and thoughtful conversations. We want our readers to share their views and exchange ideas and facts in a safe space.
In order to do so, please follow the posting rules in our site’s Terms of Service. We’ve summarized some of those key rules below. Simply put, keep it civil.
Your post will be rejected if we notice that it seems to contain:
User accounts will be blocked if we notice or believe that users are engaged in:
So, how can you be a power user?
Thanks for reading our community guidelines. Please read the full list of posting rules found in our site’s Terms of Service.
