Very rarely does someone outside of the professional ranks get the opportunity to fully customize a piece of their gear. While NikeID and MiAdidas may allow you to alter the look of a boot, the fit may still be off by a few millimeters once the boot is on your foot. While you can alter the look of some kits and customize the name/number, it has not been made to exact specifications of your body…but merely made with a preconceived concept of small/medium/large. So, when SAK approached us and offered the opportunity to fully customize a pair of shinnies and have them shaped exactly to my legs, I jumped at the opportunity.

After our initial post, and a few days of sitting patiently beside the mailbox, the SAK Elite shin guards arrived…and they are fantastic.

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Not only can you shape these to your legs, but you can slap some serious pic customization on these bad boys. While nobody will get to view this during a game, its a fantastic option that has buckets and buckets worth of “cool” factor. We could not have a pair without giving a shout out to the SoccerPro.com mothership…

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As you can see, I am bit eclectic. The Liverbird has always been one of the sharpest emblems for a team that I have ever seen and, despite shying away from most fandom as it makes idiots of us all, I do support Liverpool in the quiet of my own home. The other shin guard choice simply comes from one of my favorite movies of all time…

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The Stay Puft marshmallow man from Ghostbusters is one of the greatest “evil” characters of all-time. Plus, I have never been one for putting my photo/my wife’s photo/my child’s photo on something like this…so I went for something that would always make me laugh. And, this shows how fully you can customize these shin guards…there are no rules!

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An awesome carrying bag and the best fitting sleeves I have ever encountered also came with the guards, and any gear-nerd loves getting extra goodies. Factor in how amazing the sleeves help the shin guards feel on your feet and how slick the bag is, and you have a serious winner here.

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We are super pumped to test these over here at Instep HQ, and we will be doing a follow-up post soon talking more about SAK and the shin guards we received. Although we have only had the guards for a few days, it already feels safe to say that we may have found a pair of shin guards to last us the rest of my playing days.

 

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