The dropping of a flashback to an iconic Mercurial, Mario Balotelli’s newspaper football boots, another batch of fresh colourways for the Tiempo and Hypervenom, it was a pretty insane week in the boot world! And of course, a fresh boot spotting is the best way to start off what will hopefully be another exciting boot week! Nike dominated our boot spottings this week, and who can forgive them after the massive week they have had. With a host of new releases (and a few different boots for good measure), we tell you who was wearing what in our in-depth boot spotting…
Neymar (Barcelona) – Nike Hypervenom Phantom
After quite a few big releases from adidas, the tide is slowly starting to turn towards Nike’s favour with their assault on the festive season after the release of the new Mercurial, Hypervenom and CTR colourways. In our opinion, Nike have nailed all of the releases in the new pack, especially the new green Hypervenom. Nike have been favoring two block colourways, but we love the generous spread of green on the new colourway, which was given it’s goal scoring debut by Neymar during Barcelona’s midweek tie.
Ross Barkley (Everton) – Nike CTR360 Maestri III
Something we have been loving about the CTR360 Maestri III in the year and a half it has been on the market is the diverse nature of the colourways we have seen from Nike. Whether it be the clean predominantly white Reflective pack colourway, the summer inspired Blue/Volt/Black CTR or the new bright Orange/Black colourway, every colourway is distinctive to anything else Nike have released. Barkley scored a smart goal for Everton to give the boots a nice goal scoring debut, but he actually showed the boots off during the week on his Instagram page. Cheeky cheeky Barkley…
Francesco Totti (Roma) – Nike Tiempo Legend V (Custom)
We know the professionals get pretty fussy when it comes to boot customizations, but Totti has certainly asked for something a bit different when it comes to his new boots. The Roma talisman has always had a yearning for blackout Tiempos with a fold over tongue, but now that Nike have moved him on to the new Tiempo V, Totti seemingly demanded the same preferential treatment for his new pair of boots. The fold over tongue is seemingly dying in the football boot world, but it is great to see Totti rocking a classic design with the Tiempo V!
Jason Hoffman (Melbourne Heart) – Nike Hypervenom Phantom
Okay, so maybe adidas and Lotto tackled the whole ‘reflective technology’ idea before Nike, but there is something about the look of the new Nike Reflective pack that has left all the staff here at the Instep absolutely raving. Strangely, there were not any big name European stars who brought out any boots from the Enlightened pack, but the A-League came to the rescue with a number of players showing off their new reflective boots. Jason Hoffman pulled on the HV from the reflective pack, but his side went down 3-1 to arch rivals Melbourne Victory and remain cemented to the bottom of the A-League table who’s side remains without a win since February.
Pedro (Barcelona) – Nike Mercurial Vapor IX (Custom)
We will be honest, if you score a 9 minute hat-trick, it surely deserves a mention in our boot spotting article! While Barcelona did struggle momentarily without the talismanic Messi, the goals are hitting the back of the net again for Barca, and part of that is down to Pedro’s amazing goal scoring rout against Getafe on the weekend. Pedro did it all in his new Neo Lime/Total Crimson Vapor IXs…which really do not look like the 1998 Mercurials they are meant to be a throwback for. Oh well, but as usual, Pedro’s boots rocked his usual Vapor VI soleplate that we have seen from the forward over the past few years.
David Mcgoldrick (Ipswich Town) – Nike Premier
It was seen as the boot that could knock the Copa Mundial out of the market, and while my colleague Andrew is currently exploring the merits of the Premier and Copa in his new series of articles, Nike let us know that the Premier is not some boring old leather boot with 3 colourways heralding the World Cup successes of France, Brazil and England. Considering the limited edition nature of the boot, we were surprised to see Ipswich Town’s David Mcgoldrick wearing the France colourway of the Premier. The boots cost a little more than the normal Premier, but you gotta admire Mcgoldrick for not only sourcing out the special boot, but also showing us how kit to boot coordination is done!
Connor Pain (Melbourne Victory) – Nike CTR360 Maestri III
Just like we said in Mcgoldrick’s boot spot, you just have to love a bit of kit co-ordination, but has Connor Pain presented us with the best kit co-ordination we will see this year? The predominantly white boot matches with the body of the Melbourne Victory away kit, and the light blue piping the soleplate of the boot matches the flashes of blue on the jersey and socks. It is certainly an awesome look, and it almost seems the Reflective CTR360 Maestri III was made with Victory’s kit in mind!
Luke Brattan (Brisbane Roar) – Nike Tiempo Legend V
It is not too often that we see a boot hit the pitch before it is officially released, but we think those in the higher echelons of Nike will not be too impressed with Brisbane Roar’s Luke Brattan showing off an unreleased Tiempo Legend V colourway before it’s scheduled release. While Nike always release a clean predominantly black colourway, they have certainly changed things up this time around with a two block black and white Tiempo V that hits the eye a lot stronger than the average black heritage boot. We love how bold Nike are with the boot, but I dunno, a plain black boot would have been nice…
That is it for our boot spotting today, what was your favourite spot this week? Share your thoughts in the comments section below.
at 10:01
ney,ar should quit football he is a disgrace and those boots uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh nike are the worst they produce horrible boots that no-one will wear so shut up nike and let’s kill nike