This is not true. Exactly the same Midsole/Outsole.
That white part of the tooling you see on the lateral it's like a midsole rubber cover (think of basically a foxing) and that's the only thing that changed (to a more straight top-line), but it's just aesthetics in the end.
You can look at both shoes and they have the same midsole exposed on the medial side at the arch of the foot.


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I dunno, maybe it is supposed to have the same midsole/outsole, but it did not feel the same in hand or on the foot. I've been skating pairs of the og copa skate all year, and then bought the Copa Premiere right when it came out, and skated it, and the midsole/outsole really did not feel at all the same.
Did all the changes (and opportunities to cut cost/price) come from the upper then?
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Only thing that maaaaybe could’ve been changed is the hardness of the compound used for the midsole (but I highly doubt that). Also when you reuse the tooling parts that helps lower cost cause you don’t pay amortisation for molds anymore (it’s almost like a rent you pay on top as an adicional cost until you cover the price of the molds). If the midsole was new you would basically have to pay a new tooling as it counts as a TN (totally new shoe).
The last definitely wasn’t changed on this either, as it’s an existing tooling, and you usually can’t switch lasts, (you have to keep using the one picked).
So probably the different feeling you felt comes from pattern changes to the upper or the materials used on it. The cheaper price is most likely due to the reuse of the already paid tooling and the simplicity of the upper compared to the Copa Nationale, and maybeeee a bigger volume of production (the more made, the cheaper it gets each unit produced).