The number of football-loving amateurs far outnumbers the number of competitive and nonprofessional players. For the amateur often the cheapest top-level boot they can get is what they go for. Unless they are kids to whom only appearance matters they will prefer to buy an adizero for 200 rather than a mercurial glide or victory or whatever take down of the vapour has the similar price because they want the best bang for their buck. What better bang than to wear the same boot you see top-class players wearing on tv but while spending only $70? At the moment the stealth is the cheapest high level boot available and is very good; getting glowing reviews from buyers and reviewers. There’s a reason so many people in lower leagues wear them. Cheap and good and with decent looks. All rounder boots: light enough to not hamper movement, able to add power and accuracy to shots due to padding, synthetic material and ridges, providing protection and durability…..no other boot on the market provides these features for this price. It is even superior to some more expensive boots. I see more of this boot around and about than I see of any single line of puma boots….I have nothing against puma, I have some pairs myself and I like their boots. I’m just pointing something out.

This release of a new version might mean the original stealth goes down even further in price which is good. However it was not necessary at all…unless from a money spinning perspective…which is what matters to the companies anyway.

what did i do?
i buy mizuno

those guys took 25 long years just to came up with the second morelias LOL
and they’re pretty stingy with colorways too :p it’s never a sin if u’re still wearing a yellow wave ignitus nowadays. but imagine if someone are still wearing the green T90 III, people would go like “ow, yeah… those were the first colorway… have u seen the NEW T90 colorways??”

anyway, despite the controversial lifespan of it’s predecessor, i like how those stealth II looked

The development concept dictates how the boot is recieved at launch and this boot went missing. The only option is to repackage with improved material. Kangaroo Leather will give it half a chance.

Nike CTR defined Control and made people think differently about how they play. The fact that it was Synthetic didnt matter, the concept was strong enough to create momentum.

The whole Chicken/Fox/Egg nightmare is the best example of this, Umbro are having some identity issues and struggling to deliver innovative product that sits alongside the Speciali.

The thought of asking my dad to shell out hundreds for boots i just couldnt bare.

But since the vapor 4 had quite a long life, i wasnt too bothered with my vapors as they were the red ones (which were quite popular) and the fact that all the new colorways were just the exact boot with different colours (although i did find the k-leather E8 vapors mouthwatering).

So i guess a long boot life is better if your a wearer than just an observer as the only expired feeling you could get is that there is a new color of the boot you already have and would have prefered, instead of feeling down that you have the old model of a boot and that theres a newer model out.

Also, a K-leather version of the original Stealth would be excellent. I’d probably think hard about picking up a pair of those if Umbro released them.

As they update their boots, parents or people who want to imitate their favourite players are forced to fork out money to buy new boots / kits and ditch those barely used ones.

I say if you are clever enough to stick with whatever you bought until it’s breaking apart, good for you. If however, you are idiotic enough to get yourself into debt trying to keep up with the verocious pace of manufacture advertising / hype/ new products, well that’s your fault. Manufacturers don’t care about you, they care about the money in your wallet. They want it in their wallet.