Gareth Bale Real Madrid F50 Crazylight edited

Sure, the title might be a little over the top and there are tons of factors that led to Real Madrid surrendering the La Liga summit to Atletico after their loss to Sevilla. However, during the counterattack that saw Madrid go down 2-1 and lose all three points against the squad from Seville, Gareth Bale was on the sideline changing out of the adidas CrazyLight…that means that Madrid was down to ten men and conceded the game-deciding goal while at this disadvantage. So, if Madrid are unable to return to the top, will conspiracy theories start and Madrid fans develop a severe hatred for the adidas concept boot?

Although most gear heads fully expected the CrazyLight to be the 99g boot that adidas had touted recently, the CrazyLight still became the lightest boot to hit the pitch by shaving a full ounce off of the regular F50. On top of that, the colorway chosen by adidas made sure that their highest profile boot release in 2014 would be easily recognized during any matches that it might be used in. To add to that, the Germany-based brand slapped the CrazyLight on the feet of Gareth Bale and hoped that Madrid’s newest star would give the boot a proper showing.

adidas Crazylight F50

In the first few matches, it seemed that adidas had made a fantastic marketing decision and Gareth Bale’s exploits were all directly attached to the CrazyLight. Even commentators during Madrid matches were commenting about the crazy nature of Bale’s boots and how easy they were to spot…it was working a treat for adidas. However, as we have seen from Ronaldo and other quick-footed players in the past, Bale’s feet started to take a serious pounding in La Liga. With 70 minutes gone against Sevilla and Real’s title-hold slipping away, Bale decided that he needed a change in footwear. So, the Welsh wizard left the pitch to retrieve the yellow/blue version of the previous F50. While gear heads and boot nerds were wondering what caused the switch and why Bale did not switch into a current F50, Sevilla launched the counter attack that might end up being Real’s downfall this campaign.

Does this mean that the CrazyLight does not offer the type of protection that Bale wants when getting into a fairly physical game? Does it mean that he simply did not like the way the ball felt on the CrazyLight upper? Perhaps the altered soleplate of the boot made it difficult for Bale to find proper purchase on the pitch…whatever the case, the CrazyLight was not doing the trick and was “substituted.”

While we would love to see what the CrazyLight is all about here at The Instep, we have been unable to obtain a pair for ourselves and we can only speculate that there is a serious reason that this model was a limited release. If a player that is probably being handsomely rewarded for wearing the boot seems to not be completely pleased with them, perhaps the general public would have found fault in the boot. What do you think was the reason for Bale’s swap? Have you gotten to try the CrazyLight?

 

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