Pro:Direct Breakfast Club: Haaland Phantom 6

Earn your breakfast.

That was the rule behind Michael Jordan's original Breakfast Club. Jordan and trainer Tim Grover began putting on 7am workouts for the Chicago Bulls around the 1989/90 season, built around strength, conditioning and being ready before the day had properly started. Jordan's chef would have breakfast waiting afterwards, but only for the players who finished the session.

Simple rule. Do the work first.

Football understands that pretty well. Early alarms, runs to training, conditioning blocks nobody particularly enjoys and enough ball work at the end to find out whether your first touch is still there. That is the bit of the game the Pro:Direct Breakfast Club is built around.

What Is the Pro:Direct Breakfast Club?

Breakfast Club is our early-morning training series at PD:FC Manchester, bringing players together with some of the biggest brands in the Bootroom and putting the latest product straight into a proper session.

No two mornings have been exactly the same. We have run from store to pitch, had product sessions in changing rooms, put unreleased boots on feet and finished mornings with legs already heavy. The format can move around. The rule does not really need updating.

Earn your breakfast.

Haaland Breakfast Club: Nike Phantom 6

The latest Breakfast Club took us to Hough End with Nike and the new Erling Haaland Phantom 6, with the group wearing the boot before its official release. A Nike rep took everyone through the Phantom in the changing room before the session moved onto the astro, eventually finishing with a block inspired by Haaland himself: movement towards goal, quick setups and plenty of finishing once there was already some work in the legs. A full group in an unreleased Haaland Phantom, rubber crumb everywhere and shots flying by the end of the morning. That is a pretty good first look.  

New Balance Breakfast Club: Furon v9

New Balance made the journey to training part of the session. The group started at PD:FC Manchester in the SC Rebel V1 and ran down to the pitch before swapping into New Balance Furon football boots. Then came the proper stuff: big sprints, heavy conditioning and sharp ball work with very little let-up. By the time the Furons were on, the morning was already well underway.  

PUMA Breakfast Club: Ultra NITRO 7

PUMA followed a similar route, with the group running from store to pitch before getting into a hard session with RH Elite Coaching. Heavy conditioning, sharp ball work and plenty of pace gave the PUMA Ultra NITRO 7 a proper morning out rather than a quick on-foot. It was one of those sessions where the breakfast at the end starts sounding particularly good about halfway through.

Nike Breakfast Club: Mercurial Vapor & Superfly

Nike was there for the first one. Mercurial Vapor and Superfly went on feet at PD:FC Manchester for the opening Breakfast Club, with the session setting the tone for everything that followed: early start, proper intensity and enough running to make the name make sense. There was no bigger concept needed. Get the Mercurials on, get outside and work. Breakfast Club was up and running.

The Work Before Matchday

Jordan's Breakfast Club was built on a pretty unforgiving rule: breakfast was there, but you had not earned it yet. Grover's sessions had a purpose, the work had to be finished properly, and only then did everybody sit down to eat. That standard is probably the part of the original story that has lasted longest.

Football has its own version of that work. Early alarms, damp astros, conditioning blocks, repeated sprints and technical work when your legs have stopped being helpful. Boots with rubber crumb stuck on the soleplate and another finishing drill when everyone thought the last one was the last one. That is where the Breakfast Club belongs.

Four mornings in, we have already had the Haaland Phantom out at Hough End before launch, New Balance running from PD:FC Manchester to the pitch before switching into Furons, PUMA putting the Ultra NITRO 7 through a hard session with RH Elite Coaching, and Nike Mercurials on feet for the morning that started the whole thing.

Different sessions, different boots, same rule Jordan had all those years ago. Finish the work first.

Earn your breakfast.