** Soccer/Futbol/Football Feet - 2010 **

[never wear them]

Originally Posted by T21D

I guess Adi Dasler's influence long history and Germany's loyalty goes beyond $. 

But if you look @ the '94 WC and the USMNT- rocking the 3 stripes wasn't so bad. How about Maradona donning  Le Cog Sportif back in the day. It was appealing when I saw local major brands fitting their national teams. e.g. Atletica- Mexico, Hummel- Denmark, Kappa- Italy, et.al

Way beyond if you ask me... IMO, and from a lot of my friends/co-workers from different countries, they hate Nike.

I don't know if it's a racial issue, but they look at Nike as a brand dominated by African Americans, for some reason. And they don't like that.

 

[riphamilton]

Originally Posted by never wear them

Originally Posted by T21D

I guess Adi Dasler's influence long history and Germany's loyalty goes beyond $. 

But if you look @ the '94 WC and the USMNT- rocking the 3 stripes wasn't so bad. How about Maradona donning  Le Cog Sportif back in the day. It was appealing when I saw local major brands fitting their national teams. e.g. Atletica- Mexico, Hummel- Denmark, Kappa- Italy, et.al

Way beyond if you ask me... IMO, and from a lot of my friends/co-workers from different countries, they hate Nike.



I don't know if it's a racial issue, but they look at Nike as a brand dominated by African Americans, for some reason. And they don't like that.

you're definitely not the only one who's heard that. in HS we had a foreign exchange student from slovakia who hated nike and was adidas and puma to the core. it wasn't racism with him, i think it was more like how i have a general disdain towards under armour.... they're the "punk kid" brand.

that being said, if people hate nike because they sponsor black athletes.... well, good for nike. i think it's great how they went out of their way to sponsor the "stand up speak up" anti-racism program that thierry henry led back in the day when he was still with nike. i love the guy, but part of me thinks titi is a bigtime sellout for going to reebok because nike helped him out with that. they've been doing a lot of great charitable stuff recently, of course the project(red) program that drogba's been the face of is probably the most high-profile (i just wish the red laces weren't so terrible - i can't wear them because they became untied at least once every half!)

racism is definitely still a huge issue in football, especially in europe. mario balotelli was booed by his own italian supporters during a friendly last month (the one rossi captained) simply because he's black.... the italian ultras had a banner that read something like "we will never support a multiethnic national team." anelka again lashed out this week about the french world cup disaster, saying that players like benzema (a muslim) were demonized by the french press, while yoann gourcuff - "a good french boy" in anelka's words - is looked at as somebody who can do no wrong. and those two examples are from france and italy - countries considered to be modern and tolerant! i can only imagine how bad it gets in other countries.

 

[engoi]

Originally Posted by riphamilton

Originally Posted by never wear them

Originally Posted by T21D

that being said, if people hate nike because they sponsor black athletes.... well, good for nike. i think it's great how they went out of their way to sponsor the "stand up speak up" anti-racism program that thierry henry led back in the day when he was still with nike. i love the guy, but part of me thinks titi is a bigtime sellout for going to reebok because nike helped him out with that. they've been doing a lot of great charitable stuff recently, of course the project(red) program that drogba's been the face of is probably the most high-profile (i just wish the red laces weren't so terrible - i can't wear them because they became untied at least once every half!)

racism is definitely still a huge issue in football, especially in europe. mario balotelli was booed by his own italian supporters during a friendly last month (the one rossi captained) simply because he's black.... the italian ultras had a banner that read something like "we will never support a multiethnic national team." anelka again lashed out this week about the french world cup disaster, saying that players like benzema (a muslim) were demonized by the french press, while yoann gourcuff - "a good french boy" in anelka's words - is looked at as somebody who can do no wrong. and those two examples are from france and italy - countries considered to be modern and tolerant! i can only imagine how bad it gets in other countries.

Thierry Henry complained about Nike, because he had to asked to be part of the campaign (No joke!).
Eto'o is a popular player among Inter-fans and Mario Balotelli was apparently a little bit cocky and lazy on the field.

 

[drewdioxin]

If Eto'o acted the same way as Balotelli did, they would have crucified him. and Honestly I think the italian fans don't like him not because he was black but because he is lazy. Him being an adopted immigrant added fuel to that because most countries outside of the US have a great amount of nationalist leanings.

As far as the brands go, I always grew up playing in Adidas( I even pronounce it correctly lol) and wouldnt even touch Nike till I was about 16-17. That is all I really knew was Puma Kings and Adidas Mundials. that was what I wore and that was that. Having collected footwear for years now I have come to enjoy Nike boots far more because of the fit. Most boots nowadays are just to narrow out of the box for me to wear and justify spending the money when I can't wear them very long due to discomfort.Nike is one of the few brands that can fit my wider foot out of the box. But I still love Puma and Adi and always try the newer boots to see if they actually may fit this time around. Even after buying Umbro and sponsoring some of the top athletes, Nike still seems to be having trouble installing in countries that traditionally had nothing to do with their football stuff.

 

[never wear them]

Love this thread. You guys know your stuff/history

 

[t21d]

I still have my Predators from the mid 90's and couldn't play in Nikes forever d/t the width issue (narrow). But, when they finally worked out the kinks, I decided to give a swoosh another try and was surpirsed. This was the same thing w/their tennis shoes.
It's just sad that as liberal as we think the Euros are, we (Americans) get alot of press for our race and class warfare. Anyway, back to the boots!

 

[jking0821]

Ive played in nike boots for most of my life. I had one pair of predators in the middle just to try. But nike was the only company for a little making super light cleats and i fell in love

But sad to say....i don't want to pay superfly prices....i made the switch...ordered my adizero's in white and pink yesterday for 130 free shipping. Sorry nike....lol

When all the pro's start popping up in adizero's its obvious what the best shoe out is for a speed boot.


ps here is a close up on Robinho's blacked out superflys

 

[onlyfootball]

Originally Posted by Jking0821

Ive played in nike boots for most of my life. I had one pair of predators in the middle just to try. But nike was the only company for a little making super light cleats and i fell in love

But sad to say....i don't want to pay superfly prices....i made the switch...ordered my adizero's in white and pink yesterday for 130 free shipping. Sorry nike....lol

When all the pro's start popping up in adizero's its obvious what the best shoe out is for a speed boot.

Agreed, the adiZero is definitely the premiere lightweight boot right now. Puma's v1.10 SL has about 1 blade on the entire soleplate, and they make it run extra, extra small in order to cheat the scales.

All things considered though, I think the current lightweight craze is a bit much. Do three ounces really make that much of a difference?

 

[riphamilton]

Originally Posted by engoi

Originally Posted by riphamilton

Originally Posted by never wear them

Originally Posted by T21D

that being said, if people hate nike because they sponsor black athletes.... well, good for nike. i think it's great how they went out of their way to sponsor the "stand up speak up" anti-racism program that thierry henry led back in the day when he was still with nike. i love the guy, but part of me thinks titi is a bigtime sellout for going to reebok because nike helped him out with that. they've been doing a lot of great charitable stuff recently, of course the project(red) program that drogba's been the face of is probably the most high-profile (i just wish the red laces weren't so terrible - i can't wear them because they became untied at least once every half!)



racism is definitely still a huge issue in football, especially in europe. mario balotelli was booed by his own italian supporters during a friendly last month (the one rossi captained) simply because he's black.... the italian ultras had a banner that read something like "we will never support a multiethnic national team." anelka again lashed out this week about the french world cup disaster, saying that players like benzema (a muslim) were demonized by the french press, while yoann gourcuff - "a good french boy" in anelka's words - is looked at as somebody who can do no wrong. and those two examples are from france and italy - countries considered to be modern and tolerant! i can only imagine how bad it gets in other countries.

Thierry Henry complained about Nike, because he had to asked to be part of the campaign (No joke!).
Eto'o is a popular player among Inter-fans and Mario Balotelli was apparently a little bit cocky and lazy on the field.

never mind the fact that balotelli admits constantly that he's an ac milan fan hahah.... not exactly the smartest way to endear yourself with the inter supporters! he's been solid for man city lately tho, the change of scene has been good so far.

 

[keepie uppie]

Originally Posted by DrewDioxin

That is all I really knew was Puma Kings and Adidas Mundials. that was what I wore and that was that.  

Puma King and adidas Copa Mundial - dude,i think you just mentioned two of the best boots of all-time...

i noticed though that the newer Puma Kings are a lot different from what i remembered back then...
i preferred the old King(Maradona era) - they had those big-%** tongue flaps and the stitching was different...
they're also not as narrow as they are now and there was hardly any break-in time needed...

 

[riphamilton]

kinda threw up a little bit in my mouth when i read this, but the main football story on the bbc sport website right now is that barcelona has agreed to a shirt sponsorship with the "qatar foundation" that will pay £25M/year for the next 5 years.

the bad news: barcelona's identity has always been that they're the pride of catalonia, and have generally always been against "selling out" their kit because that's akin to selling out catalonia - "mes que un club." also, how the **** does a non-profit afford to pay $200M for a sponsorship?!?! call me a cynic and a hater because i supported the us 2022 bid, but i think this whole qatar thing is some sorta bernie madoff ponzi scheme on steroids. it seems "too good to be true." i know legends like zidane and pep guardiola have arabic ancestory and supported the qatar bid (after being paid, of course).... but so did people like sir alex and former US national team head coach bora milutinovic (again, after being paid). they throw money around like it's nothing.

the good news: unicef will still be on their kits, and the report states that it will take priority over the qatar foundation logo. the qatar foundation is a non-profit (not exactly bwin.com haha) that seems to do good things in the middle east. also, barca will have an extra $200M to spend. however, it's not like they really need any new stars, all 3 finalists for the ballon d'or play for barca lol (xavi, messi, iniesta - sneijder got robbed!).

http://news.bbc.co.uk/spo...tball/europe/9276343.stm
http://www.qf.org.qa/output/page3.asp

 

[onlyfootball]

I heard that the Qatar Foundation would be the prominent logo on the Jersey, but that could have been wrong.

I don't think there's really any ponzi scheme going on here. The US has some "non-profit" organizations that are clearly not all about being non-profit--looking at you, every university in the United States (and especially Harvard).

And as far as trying to buy support (i.e. bribery) goes, I think pretty much every country that bids for the World Cup does it. Australia threw some crazy party and bought all the delegates diamonds or something absurd like that, and I'm sure the U.S. did some shady stuff too. I'm not trying to burn the U.S. or Australia, because I think it's really the system and not the countries that is broken.

In other news, here's the adiPure SL courtesy of NIKE-PRO from BigSoccer Forums. It's the "Prime" (adidas's version of Nike's Elite series) version of the adiPure. The Predator Kinetics in that video I posted earlier are the Predator "Prime" version as well. The biggest difference between the regular adiPure/Predator and the Prime adiPure/Predator is that both will use the Sprint Frame tooling (slightly modified in the Predator's case) for the Prime version.

Here's a catalog image of the non-Prime Predator Kinetic:

Gerard in the Kinetic Prime FG:

This is the SG version:

And lastly, here's a pic of several of the adiZero Prime colorways that will be releasing (also courtesy of NIKE-PRO):

 

[riphamilton]

^great find by nike-pro.... i noticed you're on bigsoccer as well. i realize this thread is nowhere near as prolific as theirs, but i think it's nice getting input from fellow NTers who aren't necessarily only soccer.

i knew adidas would come out with an imitation of the elite line! i would think it means that nike's line is doing relatively well, which is a plus for sneakerheads like us because this will hopefully force both companies to pour even more money into soccer. my first instinct when the elite line came out is "nobody's dumb enough to spend $350+ on boots".... but, sure enough, even i play in the CTR360 elites now haha (world cup colorway, of course - shout out to carlos tevez!).

if adidas releases the adipure primes in a white/SG combination, my bank account's gonna take a serious hit. the non-prime preds being $220 isn't a good sign haha.... it'll be interesting to see how the adizero primes are priced compared to the superflys.

 

[onlyfootball]

The WC colorway of the Maestri looked pretty nice. It is probably the only Elite boot I would consider buying. There's some debate as to whether the specs I posted above are actually for the "Prime" version of the Predator or not. It's all getting very confusing. But I would agree that Nike's Elite series must have been pretty successful if adidas is deciding to copy it.

You know which Elite model confused me? The Superfly II Elite. Nike said they were 5% lighter than the regular Superfly II, but I couldn't figure out how they were different and what would make them lighter. Also, the fact that there were no Superfly II Elite aside from the WC colorway makes me think Nike realized there wasn't any point in labeling the Superfly II as Elite because they are essentially already the Vapor VI Elite.

 

[riphamilton]

^haha agreed with your point on the superflys.... i'm still trying to get my hands on a pair of the T90 WC elites in a 10.5 for a reasonable price because the (synthetic) leather that those used is completely different than even the other colorways of the T90 elite. the heel is exactly like the maestris, but the forefoot looks/feels nothing like kangalite - more like a fabric. i'll have to do more research.

more importantly for me, the WCs don't have the obnoxious "T90" logo on the inner heel, which is honestly the main reason i switched from the T90s to the maestris. i had been wearing the T90s since i guess 1999ish when nike first came out with the asymmetrical lacing - which opens up a whole different can of worms as to why nike moved the laces from the lateral side of the foot in the T90s to the medial with the CTR and nike5 lines.

 

[t21d]

Yeah the prices on the Elite series IS steep, fortunately I have a homie, out of the kindness of his heart buys it on his swoosh acct. The WC elite Tiempo I got from were from a local flea market

 who actually had a Jordan acct since late 90's and even got rare samples (Lebron AZG's snow camo allstars) that a friend bought for $75 and then flipped on the bay to get some money back. The darn thing sold for $500 plus shipping. The same can be said w/ the WC elite series, random sizes and styles, CTR360 and Tiempo's. All this was sent to him right after the WC. I purchased a pair thinking that I would come back the following week. The following week passes and I enquire about them, apparently some Mexican nationals came through and bought the whole lot

 

[onlyfootball]

New catalog scan of the next Predator. Looks like they've dropped the Kinetic name and added adipower to the front.

New F50 adizero scan:

And just for kicks, here's a scan of the American Football adaptation of the F50. Looks like they've added a toe stud, changed the tongue, and added two little "ribbed" studs to the center of the plate.

 

[riphamilton]

smh at adidas using calf leather for the preds..... again, i only wear synthetic, but isn't kangaroo still exponentially better than calf - in terms of weight, touch, durability, water resistance, etc? unless there's been some huge advances with the "taurus full grain calf leather," i don't understand why adidas would make the switch with one of their top of the line models.

i remember beckham took a hit from PETA and other animal rights groups when the predators switched from syn to kangaroo (i believe it was the model before the pred_x).... going to calf seems like a further step down the technology ladder.

nike's kangalite (the latest version, which looks exactly like regular leather) has been excellent in my experience.... i'm currently playing in the elastico finales and a pair of the elite and non-elite maestri's. there's a little chip in the leather at the top of the collar on the non-elites, but that's it - definitely not voucher worthy. i've heard of bonding issues with the adhesive between the toebox upper and soleplate with the maestris, but haven't noticed anything myself, and i'm putting about 200-250 midfield minutes/week onto those boots combined now that it's indoor season. that being said, i have plenty of teammates (usually OGs) who will never wear anything other than kangaroo and think i'm a freak for wearing synthetic.

 

[onlyfootball]

Originally Posted by riphamilton

smh at adidas using calf leather for the preds..... again, i only wear synthetic, but isn't kangaroo still exponentially better than calf - in terms of weight, touch, durability, water resistance, etc? unless there's been some huge advances with the "taurus full grain calf leather," i don't understand why adidas would make the switch with one of their top of the line models.

i remember beckham took a hit from PETA and other animal rights groups when the predators switched from syn to kangaroo (i believe it was the model before the pred_x).... going to calf seems like a further step down the technology ladder.

nike's kangalite (the latest version, which looks exactly like regular leather) has been excellent in my experience.... i'm currently playing in the elastico finales and a pair of the elite and non-elite maestri's. there's a little chip in the leather at the top of the collar on the non-elites, but that's it - definitely not voucher worthy. i've heard of bonding issues with the adhesive between the toebox upper and soleplate with the maestris, but haven't noticed anything myself, and i'm putting about 200-250 midfield minutes/week onto those boots combined now that it's indoor season. that being said, i have plenty of teammates (usually OGs) who will never wear anything other than kangaroo and think i'm a freak for wearing synthetic.

I got schooled not long ago on k-leather, and apparently yes it's better than calf leather in every way (durability, touch, etc.). I don't know why adidas has started with the "Taurus" leather.

Personally I'm a big k-leather guy, but I agree that Kanga-Lite is a really amazing synthetic. It's very soft, and it creases really naturally. Also, I believe the chip you're talking about actually isn't on the Kanga-Lite section of the boot, as the Kanga-Lite on the Maestri is only from the "demarcation" line down to the toe. In other words, I don't think it was the Kanga-Lite that chipped, just some cheaper (and lighter) synthetic material. If the upper was fully Kanga-Lite I'm willing to bet they wouldn't have chipped.

Here's a very crude PS of what I'm talking about in terms of the Kanga-Lite area of the boot (see inside the circled area):

EDIT: Courtesy of noelbati from BigSoccer

 

[riphamilton]

your illustration makes sense in terms of there the kangalite actually is.... i noticed that in the promo material above, adidas forgot the 'e' at the end of 'silicone' - although i wouldn't be stunned if it is 'silicon rubber' and the new preds have a computer chip!

aca sports has "50% off" the adipure IIIs for the rest of today, so i picked up a pair of the SGs in white for $90 shipped from the UK. they're too sexy to pass up at that price. i blame this thread 100%!

 

[onlyfootball]

Nice! I haven't tried the adipure III out myself, but I've only heard good things in terms of comfort and performance. Word is that durability (mostly the soleplate separating from the upper) is a bit of an issue, but for $90 shipped it's more than worth it. Plus they look really great. Let us know how you like them after a few training sessions.

EDIT: Pro Direct images of the F50 adizero Prime

 

[bc60997]

^^^ Really liking the silver/oranges

 

[onlyfootball]

Yea those are the only ones that interest me at all. We still have yet to see a real image of a leather version. I wonder if adidas is going to stagger the release of the leather F50 the same way they did with the originals.

 

[drewdioxin]

I am not even gonna lie, those black/white f50's are class. reminiscent of all the classic black/white copa's and predators. white stripes and all black.

release date/price point?

 

[onlyfootball]

Those are for American football, so they have a toe stud and probably a more bulky upper than the F50 adizero. Also the tongue/laces look cheap.

If you're still interested, they're releasing in May and are called the adizero 5-Star