Unlike a lot of folks in this country, I didn’t stop watching the World Cup just because the US lost to Ghana. The level of support for football (soccer) in this country is appalling and a bit disgusting but that’s typical, I suppose.
With the semifinals slated to begin today with Holland taking on Uruguay, I started to wonder if a certain pair of boots might be scoring more than any other. Having grown up with Nike in my backyard, I’ve always had a fascination with elite athletic equipment. As a runner, I was fortunate enough to have access to track spikes that most kids weren’t privy to. The materials alone were dramatically thinner and more lightweight than anything else available.
The same can be said for soccer cleats. I remember when Nike first released the Mercurial Vapors and when Adidas launched the Predators. You think they’re just boots and nothing can make them that special but that’s so far from the truth. I recently had a chat with Jozy Altidore and Aubrey Dolan, Sr. Product Manager for Adidas soccer about the F50 AdiZero boot but the audio files were somehow corrupted between then and now, so I can’t publish either interview. And believe me when I tell you that there was a lot of tech that actually went into the production of these boots.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YOMF4S8LNGo]
But I’ve seen the boots in person on more than one occasion and it’s a bit jolting to hold a pair of anything that weighs a measly 165 grams or 5.8 ounces, which is one more ounce than the iPhone 4, making the F50 adiZeros the lightest boots in the world. Durability was the first thing I asked Dolan about. He assured me that despite the weight and feel of the boots, the F50 adizeros were built to meet the needs of the world’s most elite soccer players including David Villa, who is the leading Golden Boot award candidate with five goals. He even told me that a pair of F50 adizeros are still on the testing machine some nine or more months later. Besides the outward appearance of the boot, the inside is slightly more interesting because of the TPU bands, which Altidore says increases touch on the ball.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8e0G2_elmmM]
Is the boot making a difference? Check out these stats for the first 60 matches.
Golden Boot candidates
PLAYER / BOOTS / GOALS
• David Villa (Spa) – F50 adiZero – 5
• Thomas Mueller (Ger) – F50 adiZero – 4
• Gonzalo Higuain (Arg) – F50 adiZero – 4
• Robert Vittek (Slo) – adidas Predator – 4
• Wesley Sneijder (Ned) – Total 90 – 4
• Miroslav Klose (Ger) – Total 90 – 4
Overall goals
BRAND/ BOOTS / GOALS
• adidas – adiZero – 36
• Nike – Total 90 – 17
• Nike – Mecurial Superfly – 15
• adidas – Predator X – 12
• Nike – Maestri CTR360 – 12
• Puma – Puma – 8
• adidas – adiPure – 7
• Nike – other – 7
• Nike – Tiempo – 5
• adidas – other – 1
• Other – 11
After 60 matches:
• 43% of goals have been scored with adidas boots, that’s more than any other brand
• 47% of the “Players of the Match” have been adidas players, more than any other brand