Bah, international breaks, damn these things suck. So while it was a somewhat quiet week on the pitch, there was still a few big results that went down. Who would have had Faroe Islands down to beat Greece and San Marino snapping their 61 game losing run with a draw against Estonia? Still though, while football took a back seat this weekend, the boot world keeps on steaming ahead and it threw up some very fascinating boot spots this week. New boots, boot switches and a few cheeky custom boots is the name of the boot spotting this week, check it all out first with The Instep!
Wayne Rooney (England) – Nike Hypervenom Phantom
Wayne Rooney made it 100 not out this weekend, and after tucking in a penalty during England’s 3-1 win over Slovenia, the talismanic striker is now just 5 goals away from breaking Sir Bobby Charlton’s all-time goal scoring record. However, it is the century of appearances that mattered most on Saturday, and Nike presented Rooney with a pair of Hypervenoms marking the special occasion. We hardly ever see Nike extend a customisation onto the outstep of a boot (it is normally restricted to the collar), making the boots that little bit more special.
Aaron Ramsey (Wales) – New Balance
The cat has been let out of the bag. After weeks of tantalising previews provided by the likes of Marouane Fellaini, Adnan Januzaj and Aaron Ramsey himself, Aaron Ramsey finally lifted the lid on what has been a rather interesting lead on by New Balance. It indicates the transformation of the Warrior name to New Balance is starting to take shape, as Ramsey hit the pitch for Wales with his boots rocking the instantly recognisable ‘N’ of New Balance. We do not know when the full unveil will occur, but we would think it is not too far away from happening now.
Toni Kroos (Real Madrid) – adidas adiPure 11Pro II
From one new release to another, it looks like we have some busy few months coming up in football boot land. Toni Kroos gave us a sneak peek at the next generation adiPure 11Pro, with the midfielder wearing a whiteout pair of the boots during the week. While we cannot unveil all yet about the boots, the new adiPure is expected to see a return to a pure K-Leather upper, something that is sure to excite fans of heritage boots. A look at Kroos’ boots reveal that the upper also seems to be stitch-free, making it one solid piece of kangaroo on your foot. There are some good times ahead for the adiPure range!
Robin Van Persie (Netherlands) – adidas Predator adiPower? (Custom)
Blackout boots are just the hardest things ever to decipher, which is probably why the companies always black out things when they want things to be done incognito. While Van Persie has been wearing blackout F50 adiZeros for several weeks now (boots that originally started life as the Earth Glow colourway), we spotted him in a different pair of blackouts this week. The thing is though is that we cannot quite work out what they are, but we think they seem to have the shape of the adidas Predator adiPower. It is ultimately pretty hard to make out what we are looking at, but we will be keeping a close eye on what the Dutchman wears when he steps out for United against Arsenal next week.
Keisuke Honda (Japan) – Mizuno Wave Ignitus III
Boot releases normally happens in pairs, and that has been the case with Mizuno. Fresh off the release of their Red/White/Black Morelia Neo colourway last week, it seems a new pair of blue Mizuno Wave Ignitus IIIs have been pushed into Keisuke Honda’s hands. Although we will have to admit that it looks like Mizuno has kinda recycled the Blue Danube/White/Dress Blue Wave Ignitus II colourway, but we think Honda’s boots still look fantastic out on the pitch.
Daniele De Rossi (Italy) – adidas Predator Instinct
It hurts to say this, but we think the Nitrocharge range is starting to hit the wall a little bit. With athletes wearing the boot disappearing by the week, adidas really could have done without Daniele De Rossi trading in his Nitrocharge boots for the Predator Instinct. De Rossi was one of the four headline athletes for the Nitrocharge when it was launched alongside Dani Alves, Javi Martinez and Ezequiel Lavezzi, and Javi Martinez now remains as the only athlete still representing the Nitrocharge range out of the four. Adidas will need to weave some magic to resurrect the Nitrocharge.
David De Gea (Spain) – adidas Predator Instinct
It was not a good international break for United fans, as it looks like the Red Devils have lost both Daley Blind and David De Gea to injury, with the later walking off with a dislocated finger. But it is what is on De Gea’s feet that we are interested in, as the De Gea boot carousel carries on. After a few weeks in the evoSPEED, the Spaniard trained in the Predator Instinct this week. This is all on top of De Gea starting the season off in the Tiempo Legend V. It seems De Gea is just feeling out the options available on the market at the moment, but it is also noteworthy that De Gea has also made a switch to adidas gloves in the past few weeks, perhaps signalling which brand he has signed up with.
Jose Vazquez (Mexico) – Concord
It is always fascinating to see the ‘little guys’ out in the boot market make it onto the feet of international superstars, and Concord is one of the boot brands that always seems to pop up on the feet of Mexico’s international players. While we do not know too much about the boots being worn by Jose Vazquez (except for them looking quintessentially Mexican in their ways), the brand does tend to put themselves out to the middle to lower tier boot market, with some of their boots taking on the designs of Nike and adidas releases.
That is it for our boot spotting today, what was your favourite spot this week? Share your thoughts in the comments section below.
at 21:06
I’d be willing to bet that RvP is wearing a pair of Battle Pack F50 in his usual custom specs. If you look closely you can see the joint of the leather to the SpeedFoil. The all white outsole is the give away. That is the only model that had a white outsole and because RvP has the adiPower outsole on all his F50 models that is why the studs are also white as a disguise.
My second guess would have been the red miadidas model he sported before the current design was unveiled as they had a white outsole as well, but that boot had a full leather upper vs. the split SpeedFoil that is visible.