Started Making Soccer Cleats for Women and Seeks to Establish Itself in a Space Neglected by Major Brands

Felipe Manuk is a 27-year-old entrepreneur. A fan of soccer, he played five times a week with his friends and had always had a particular interest in the footwear used in this sport. Within that dynamic, he asked himself a question: why were there no cleats developed specifically for women?

At that time, he was working at Mercado Pago and still did not imagine that this concern would lead to the creation of his own venture focused exclusively on women's sports.

The turning point came in 2023. While researching how to manufacture a cleat, Manuk enrolled in a shoe-making school to learn the complete process, from artisanal development to industrial manufacturing. At the same time, the Women's World Cup was taking place, and demands from players and specialists for the lack of products designed specifically for them began to multiply in various countries.

In a conversation with Ámbito, the entrepreneur recounted the entire history of what would become the brand NITA, which is about to hit the market with soccer cleats specifically developed for the female foot.

"I wanted to create a cleat brand and started researching. During that time, two things happened simultaneously. The first was that I enrolled in a shoe-making school to learn from start to finish how the process of making any type of footwear develops. And the second was that at that moment, in 2023, the Women's World Cup was taking place. I saw that there were very strong demands from countries like the United States, England, and Spain, regarding the lack of specific clothing for players. This further sparked my interest in developing a women's soccer brand in Argentina," he explained.

Thus, Felipe began talking to professional and amateur soccer players, physiotherapists, designers, and sports science specialists. He found situations that, viewed from a business logic, revealed an opportunity. Among Argentine female soccer players, there were professional players who wore children's size cleats because they could not find a specific alternative that offered the level of performance they sought. "That was all the offer available; it was unisex or for men," he recalls.

From the Question to the Laboratory

Manuk states that NITA did not arise from adapting a men's cleat with different aesthetics, designs, colors, or size scales. "Our goal from the very beginning was to develop a specific product from scratch," he emphasizes.

Felipe Manuk, CEO and founder of NITA.

The first decision was to work on the last, the structure that determines the shape of the footwear. According to the founder, historically, sports footwear was developed based on a last designed for the male foot. NITA decided to invert the logic and build its own sports last starting from the female foot.

To do this, they used biometric information from Volumental, a Swedish company that has a database of millions of data points obtained from foot scans. But the research was not limited to an international database. The team developed a size 38 and contrasted it with hundreds of scanned feet of Argentine women to determine the characteristics of the average foot corresponding to that size.

With this data, a custom curve was built that ranges approximately from 35 to 42, aiming to cover a significant part of the female market.{#p-1785776981927-64510}

The upper was another chapter of research. The team spoke with professional and amateur players to understand what they were looking for in a boot and what features they particularly valued in terms of comfort. The development ended up combining mesh and TPU, based on these learnings. However, the component that required the most research was the sole, highlights Manuk.{#p-1785776981927-14137}

The Boot as Part of Injury Prevention {#p-1785776981927-38050}

The sole of NITA was not designed solely to improve the feeling while playing. The team paid special attention to the relationship between the boot, the surface, and the movements a female soccer player makes.{#p-1785776981927-11003}

Manuk points out that women suffer between two and three times more ACL injuries than men. He clarifies that this is a multifactorial phenomenon and that no boot can solve the problem on its own, but he maintains that the type of sole can help reduce certain risks.{#p-1785776981927-37189}

The research focused especially on rotational traction, that is, what happens when the boot is planted while the player turns to change direction, jumps and lands, or tries to take off in another direction.{#p-1785776981927-52681}

"We studied how the different shapes of soles behaved," explains Manuk. For this, they combined laboratory tests with interviews with boot designers, footwear specialists, and kinesiologists.{#p-1785776981927-76332}

The result was a sole with conical studs, which the team considers more forgiving against rotational movements. They also opted to use slightly shorter studs in greater numbers, aiming to maintain traction without creating an excessive level of foot locking against the ground.{#p-1785776981927-36805}

The development also includes differentiation based on the surface. NITA is preparing a sole for traditional synthetic grass used in Argentine 5-a-side soccer fields and another for natural grass used in 7-a-side and 11-a-side fields.{#p-1785776981927-52318}

The distinction responds to a premise that Manuk considers fundamental: a boot should not be used interchangeably on any surface. The height, distribution, and characteristics of the studs must relate to the terrain.{#p-1785776981927-82022}

An Argentine Brand Manufacturing in Brazil {#p-1785776981927-11310}

The industrial paradox is that the product is Argentine, but the boot will be manufactured in Brazil. The development, research, last shape definition, product proposal, and design belong to NITA. The manufacturing will take place in Novo Hamburgo, in southern Brazil, where the company works with a specialized manufacturer.{#p-1785776981927-74942}

Manuk explained that the company is currently in the final stage of development. They have already received commercial samples and started a testing phase with players and people linked to the project before moving towards production. The commercial launch is scheduled for mid this month.{#p-1785776981927-48089}

However, the entrepreneur admits that the company faces a double challenge, as it is not enough to demonstrate that NITA developed a different boot: first, it has to explain why a woman needs a product specifically designed for her, and then convince her that this product is better for playing.{#p-1785776981927-12400}

Regarding the market they are targeting, Manuk asserts that he does not consider the entry of major brands into this segment a threat to his project. On the contrary, he believes that the interest from the big players "confirms that the need we detected is real, it exists".

He has studied the movements of market leaders: "Adidas launched its first exclusive model for women's feet last year. Puma adapted some shapes, but it is not a completely developed product because it shares the same sole with the men's boot. And Nike currently sells all its unisex boots. There is a market, everything indicates that we are on the right track."

The Business Growing Around Women's Football

NITA's bet coincides with a broader transformation of women's football. Manuk maintains that various international studies project it could become one of the five most practiced sports in the world by 2030 and points to a market growth of around 300% since 2021.

In Argentina, he also finds concrete signs. He cites a report by Win Sports and Voices conducted in 2025, which states that one in four women played football that year.

But for Manuk, there is something more important than statistics: what is happening on the fields.

"Today we can go to any 5-a-side or 7-a-side football field in the city, and we see women's football," he says. There are schools, academies, and teams of different ages and levels. In conversations with field owners, he even found cases where female occupancy represents half of the activity or exceeds that of males, in a very different scenario from ten or fifteen years ago.

This growth is also happening from the ground up. The development of women's lower divisions in clubs is generating a generation of girls who start playing football at younger ages. For Manuk, this process may end up being more important for the future of the sport than the initial leap into professionalism.

"The most valuable thing I think has been done so far, even more than declaring professionalism, is the development of academies," he asserts.

The reason is simple: a girl who starts playing at 8 or 10 years old will have a completely different relationship with football than a woman who discovers the sport at 20.

Manuk observes this even in his own environment. His friends play football on weekends, form teams, and enjoy the activity, but many started later in life. The growth of the academies allows new generations to enter the sport with a different training.

And there lies a market opportunity that exceeds professional players.

From Boots to an Ecosystem

NITA does not want to remain in the footwear business. Manuk's intention is to build a brand linked to the entire ecosystem of women's football. "We are building something much bigger than the boot," he states.

The idea includes working with both professional footballers and amateur players, with a special focus on initiation spaces for the sport. But it also aims to build a connection with areas that have historically been fundamental in bringing men to football: fashion, art, music, media, video games, and popular culture.

Manuk recalls his own childhood: sports supplements from newspapers, magazines, stickers, video games. For him, football was not just about playing. It was everything that happened around it.{#p-1785776981927-12430}

"Today there is no doubt that women's football is being played. You go to the little field. But now you ask: who watches women's football?" he poses. This, in his view, is the next territory to develop.{#p-1785776981927-33402}

That is why the team also incorporated designers linked to the fashion world and seeks for NITA's identity to engage with art and culture. The goal is for the product to have its own aesthetic, although some design details are still kept under wraps.{#p-1785776981927-94185}

The company aims to occupy a place within an industry that is beginning to grow around women's football: footwear, clothing, entertainment, content, fashion, and experiences.{#p-1785776981927-78252}

Manuk and his team did not leave even the chosen name for the brand to chance, which refers to a woman who had to challenge the rules to be able to play. "NITA is inspired by Anita Carmona, a Spanish footballer who played during the 1920s in a men's club and who even disguised herself as a man to compete," recalls its founder.{#p-1785776981927-34009}

Her story was discovered decades later by club historians, who reconstructed her journey from interviews with former teammates. Thus they learned that this woman had played on the men's team and that, moreover, she had been one of its best footballers.