Friday March 29th, 2024
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F50ing Adimazing

Adidas' latest line of battle pack football boots boast functionality, style and optimum performance. Timmy Mowafi tries out their sleek, super-lightweight Adizero™ F50s. Watch the video here.

Staff Writer

I was obsessed with football boots growing up. I would spend hours ogling at all the new technologies and styles, getting sucked into the flashy subterfuge surrounding each new boots release, then carefully analyzing the statistics of each, and which players wore them before making a purchase. Now if I had spent less time doing that and more time practicing I’d probably be playing at the World Cup now instead of writing about it.

At some point when I got a little older, wiser, and less fit, I realized it was the player that maketh the boot, not the other way round, and I eventually settled on the powerful Adidas Predators, before eventually hanging up my boots. Now when I look at the boot releases that have come out in the run up to Brazil '14 I scoff at the ridiculous gimmicky commercialization of the industry that most brands play into. Like Puma, for instance. How will a florescent pink boot on my right foot and a turquoise boot on my left foot help me to get past a player? And Nike seem to have confused football with ballet with their new ankle support attached to boot product; that’s like when my Mum used to buy me jeans with the top of the boxers attached to make me seem cool.

What I like about Adidas though, apart from the fact that their boots aren’t made in abysmal Cambodian sweat shops, is that they get the basics right and epitomize what a boot should be about. They’ve stuck with the same formulaic technology and simply develop on it each year. So when Adidas announced the release of their limited edition battle pack of boots for the World Cup, I was excited to try out a pair.

With the battle pack it really is a case of the player making the boot. The technology used for each fitting is based on the type of player you are, and what you aspire to be. The Adizero™ F50 is based on Leo Messi’s unparalleled pace and control. The Predator® LZ’s are moulded on an atypical midfield playmaker like Mesut Özil or Oscar. The Nitrocharge™ is designed for the midfield engine room types like Javi Martines and Dani Alves, whilst the 11Pro’s micro-fiber PU synthetic outer helps players lsuch as Frank Lampard to perfect passing and distribution.

Following Messi’s incredible late goal against Iran in the World Cup, I was inspired to take the Adizero™ F50s out for a run. The first thing I noticed was the boots' slick design, sticking to Adidas' black and white tradition, which works perfectly for me considering everything in my wardrobe is either black or white. The colours are formed in a sort of cheetah pattern to represent speed, with blue hints in reference to the brand ambassador's native land.

The second thing I noticed was just how ridiculously, ridiculously, light they were. I mean, literally, lighter than the box they came in. This at first made me feel apprehensive because I couldn’t imagine a lot of shooting power was possible, and secondly when I tried out Nike’s ulta-light boots before it took all of one hour before my feet were covered with blisters. Upon slipping them on though I found I could shoot with the same explosive power from back in the day. Whilst dribbling, it was easy to fantasize about actually being Messi, and after the session I was blister free.

The technical spiel is there’s precision engineering with every aspect of the boot design, aimed at making the wearer as fast as possible on the football field. Features include high speed stud alignment for maximum acceleration and to pinpoint changes of direction, and a revolutionary material that combines lightweight softness and durability for a comfortable, yet locked down heel fit. But when it comes down to it, it’s just a superb boot that I’d recommend to any budding player... just remember to spend more time playing with them than looking at them.

Check out some footage below from when I tried them out...

The Adidas Battle Pack range is available at Adidas stores across Egypt for a limited time only.