Umbro is less mainstream than Nike, adidas, and Puma (perhaps lagging behind even the likes of New Balance and Mizuno). Suffice to say that its Velocita speed boot, after several generational models, still has little recognition. That could possibly change with the English brand launching the Alchemist, the latest Velocita generation that promises to transform our concept of football boots and turn the impossible to reality. Yes, yes….we’ve heard that phrase countless times. But perhaps Umbro does have something up with its speed boot silo this time, partnering with fabric company Texon to give the Velocita a groundbreaking innovation.
At the heart of Umbro’s innovation for the Velocita is the use of the ProWeave material for the upper. ProWeave is a patented world-first woven technology made exclusively available for Umbro to use in its football boots. The Texon-trademarked, recycled polyester-based woven technique brings in a set of benefits to the latest Velocita, but the thing that Umbro likes to highlight is the inherent balance of elasticity and rigidness in the material itself, all in a single layer only. As you can see in the launch colouway of lime yellow with black, only the external biomimicked bee-wing structure made of TPU yarns provide the structural reinforcement (while maintaining the multidirectional stretch of the polyester base yarns). ProWeave also gives life to jacquard patterns, and Umbro is quick to apply that by directly weaving its logo to the upper.
We are delighted to be working with Texon on this ground-breaking innovation. At Umbro we believe that products crafted with style and true player insight give athletes a competitive advantage. With the introduction of ProWeave we are able to offer our consumers another world-first.
–Colin Lomas, Category Director Footwear and Equipment at Umbro
On top of that, it is extremely water-resistant. All of this means that there is no need for the Umbro Velocita Alchemist to have additional post-weave treatments like those done in the more popular boots. The result is a boot with an adaptive fit and a lighter and more sustainable profile.
At the bottom, Umbro retains the Pebax Sprint+ outsole of the previous Velocita. So nothing changes on this silo from a tooling experience as it has the same balance of triangular bladed studs and conical ones, with a stud height that makes the boot more suitable for harder, artificial grounds. It’s also worth mentioning that with the Sprint+ at the underfoot, the Velocita Alchemist would fall on the flexible side of the spectrum among soleplates.
