Everything started with a Nike box Trip to Portland with Francesco Totti, exploring the new Tiempo and more
One of the most vivid memories of my childhood is my father walking into the house carrying a Nike shoebox. It was 2000, maybe 2001: Totti was winning his first and only Scudetto with Roma, and Zamorano was still playing for Inter. Now, I know: you must be wondering why on earth I mentioned Zamorano. Well, it’s no coincidence, and yes, it’s all connected to that memory.
My brother, a die-hard Inter fan, tried in every way to convert me to the black-and-blue colors. One of his attempts was to give me Lotto boots worn by Zamorano, complete with trading cards inside. A gift that, in hindsight, I appreciated, but which certainly was not what a 7-year-old really wanted. What I wanted with all my heart was what one day my father brought home from work: the Total 90. Black and gray, seen on TV they seemed like magical shoes, capable on their own of improving my performance and helping me score more goals than I could imagine.
This little excursus serves to show you how deeply connected I have always been to Nike and how, as a child, it influenced the way I played and what I wanted to wear both on and off the field. That swoosh represented a dream for me, a way to chase my goals and always give it a try. When the football school, Juventus’ academy, started providing me with all Nike kits, since the Bianconeri were sponsored by the Swoosh from 2003 to 2014, the circle closed definitively. No more Lotto Stadio: I wore Nike from head to toe, and for me, nothing could have made more sense. I needed little to be happy, I’m aware of that. Over the years, this obsession grew: I collected objects, posters, watched and rewatched every commercial, bought cleats of every kind. That logo, which in the mind of its creator Carolyn Davidson represents movement, speed, and energy, has always been a necessity for me.
For this reason, when at the beginning of November I was asked if I wanted to be part of a trip to Portland to visit the Philip H. Knight Campus, my happiness peaked. A perfect way to close the year and consecrate that memory of my father silently coming home with a shoebox in his hands. Seeing the place where it all began for one of the companies I love most, not only for its products but for what it represents, was like fulfilling a dream. Entering Prefontaine Hall, walking down Bowerman Street, seeing the first waffle shoe with which Philip Knight brought Nike to life, something unrepeatable. Retracing the story told in "Shoe Dog," which I’ve read several times, was like giving tangible form to a dream: just like in the commercials created in those buildings where every day 12,000 people work.
At first glance, the Nike campus seems like a place created for those who truly want to dream. A place where ideas take shape and where every employee can work, train, and take their time in a facility that is continuously improving. We couldn’t see every corner of the campus — although I would have liked to — but we visited areas closed to the public, played on Ronaldo Field, explored the rooms of the Serena Williams Building, and attended a meeting in one of the splendid rooms of the LeBron James Building. And it didn’t end there: once again, the circle closed. We had the privilege to have lunch, play, and get to know up close one of the most iconic number 10s of our football: Francesco Totti. With him, we tried the new Tiempo boots, which I will tell you about shortly, and previewed another of my obsessions: goalkeeper jerseys.
The 2026 World Cup will make history with the most beautiful kits ever. Thanks to Nike, which for the tournament between the United States, Mexico, and Canada decided to dare like never before. Confirmation comes from the Hollywood Keepers collection, the lifestyle line with bright colors, psychedelic patterns, geometric shapes, futuristic elements that reinterpret classic aesthetic codes and - finally - give hope for the great return of goalkeeper jerseys. But beyond the Hollywood Keepers, Nike also officially presented the new version of the Tiempo Maestro, a symbol of football boots, returning in a completely revamped form to meet the demands of modern football. Deep restyling, intact soul, more aggressive design, and a new colorway. Two new features we were able to touch firsthand exclusively in Portland.
In Court 21 of the Serena Williams Building, I also had the thrill of trying Aero Fit, the new technology tested worldwide in recent months. Imagine a lab full of instruments impossible to decipher at first glance. Imagine finding yourself among thermal cameras and then inside a sort of portal that projects you from extremely high temperatures to extreme cold. A very strange feeling, hard to explain: like stepping into the future while remaining still, sensing that everything around you is changing. And it will really change the way we perform on the field: maximum freshness when needed, heat retained when necessary. The work in Portland doesn’t stop at 90 minutes: Nike has also thought about post-match, and we tried it. On our feet, they put the Nike Mind: a sole made of microspheres that stimulate the sensory receptors under the foot, exploiting the mind-body connection. It’s something impossible to explain in a few lines, almost science fiction, but once you try them you understand that at the Mind Science Department they have truly paved the way for a new category of products to recover and perform better.
A 48-hour dream that allowed me to become a child again and relive the emotion of my father coming home with those Total 90. And that made me appreciate even more the time spent in Portland with the Nike team.
