Nike Mercurial Vapor 13 Elite FG 'Singles' Day'
Colorway: Black/Hyper Crimson/White · Style code: AQ4176-018 · Release date: November 11, 2019 · Price: $370 · Availability: Available now
More colorways: Nike Mercurial Vapor 13 Elite FG 'Black' (AQ4176-001) · Nike Mercurial Vapor 13 Elite FG 'Desert Sand' (AQ4176-005) · Nike Mercurial Vapor 13 Elite FG 'Desert Sand' (AQ4176-006) · Nike Mercurial Vapor 13 Elite FG Cleat Sneakers (AQ4176-010) · Nike Mercurial Vapor 13 Elite FG 'Bred' (AQ4176-060)
The release date is the whole reference. 11/11 became Singles' Day at Nanjing University in 1993, where students built a celebration for people not in relationships around a date made of four ones: the numeral resembling a guānggùn, a bare stick, and Chinese internet slang for an unattached man. It spread outward from dorm culture over the following years.
In 2009 Alibaba attached commerce to it, and the day grew into the largest shopping event anywhere, eventually outselling Black Friday and Cyber Monday several times over. Which is how a football boot ends up carrying it: by 2019, putting a product out on 11 November in China meant something specific.
The boot itself is a Vapor 13 Elite on a firm-ground plate, the Mercurial line's low-cut half, with no collar and everything else cut back to what a forward needs to change direction at pace. It went out at $250, on the date itself.