We’ve got a lot of respect for professional footballers who opt for some customisation on their boots – not willing to settle for out-of-the-box normality, some Pro’s go to the manufacturers and ask for more; and that’s an athlete who wants the most from their game.
We also hate them for being able to get custom football boots. But don’t tell them that.
So, we’ve been on the hunt for the best custom boots of the World Cup – and we think we’ve found some good ones – but we’re going to need your help on finding more and choosing the best!
So, here’s our best spots to get you started – then we want you guys to leave us a comment with your best custom-spots, or just telling us which are the best/weirdest customisations!
Nadir Belhadj – Algeria – MiAdidas Predator_X
Here’s one of the more distinctive ones to start off with- Nadir Belhadj of Algeria and Portsmouth has snagged himself a great pair of MiAdidas Customised Predator_X‘s to match his country’s Home and Away kits!
Robinho – Brazil – Nike Mercurial Vapor VI
With the lack of NikeSENSE studs and Glass Fibre sole it’s clear that Robinho prefers the Nike Mercurial Vapor VI. But could you tell that from his left (your right) football boot? Nosiree!
Do we think that Robinho prefers just to have the Lace cover cut off his Vapor VI’s, or is it'Â an attempt to make them look more like Superfly II Elites? You decide! Or ask him!
Julio Cesar – Brazil – Mizuno Morelia Blackout
Now, correct us if we’re wrong, but we reckon by the distinctive heel stitching and little box-shape around the top-eyelet that Brazil’s held-together-with-tape robo-keeper Julio Cesar is wearing some heavily-customised Mizuno Morelias.
Obviously having gone to expert lengths to remove and disguise the branding (makes William Gallas look like an amateur!) we can’t help but wonder why the Inter Milan stopper has gone to such lengths!
Fernando Torres – Spain – Nike T90 Laser Elite
As you can just about make out on the above picture – currently mis-firing Torres has the standard T90 Laser III heel counter on his Elites.
Nike dropped the standard heel counter from the Elites to save weight, Torres obviously prefers the added security and stability when shooting.
Torres is big lover of football boots and is notoriously picky – stating in his autobiography that he prefers white boots and won’t change out of a pair if he’s on a good run of scoring – which probably explains why he’s ditched the Elites altogether and gone back to the White K-Leather version of the standard model!
Kaka – Brazil – adidas adiPure III
With Lampard out of the picture, Kaka is adidas’ main adiPure man in South Africa. But what they probably don’t want to yell from the rooftops is that their golden boy prefers the sole plate from the adiNova II.
These rounded moulded studs are shorter than your average FG stud, and are laid out in classic 13-stud configuration – just like the legendary Copa Mundial. Kaka has been known to sneak in the odd training session in his beloved Copa’s every now and then, and this is probably a move by the midfield maestro to capture the magic of his favourite football boots.
Keisuke Honda – Japan – Mizuno Wave Ignitus
Despite being one of the athletes closely involved in the development of the Wave Ignitus, Keisuke Honda still clearly had some tweaks that he wanted making to his personal stock.
Looking firstly at the heel counter, you’ll notice that it’s yellow and not black/grey. What we can speculate is that Honda prefers a solid plastic heel counter, as opposed to the triple-density Tepex that Mizuno use on the standard Wave Ignitus.
Then you’ll see that Honda, like Kaka, prefers a more rounded stud on his boots – in this case it’s the soleplate from the Morelia – which you can recognise from the slight slant on the studs.
Xavi – Spain – Adidas Predator_X
Probably the most interesting of our spots is Spain’s Xavi in some very odd Predator_X‘s. You’ll notice that on the instep that Xavi’s Preds have no rubber swerve zone – so barring some sort of Green Lantern-like aversion to the colour yellow we can only guess that the deadly Spain midfielder just doesn’t like having it there!
We did see Xavi playing in the adiPure III in pre-season, so perhaps he likes an all-leather upper on his boots, but prefers the more side-offset lacing, PowerSpine and tighter fit of the Predator_X?
Jay DeMerit – USA – Puma PowerCat 1.10
More amusing than performance enhancing, we couldn’t help but notice that United States man DeMerit laces up his Puma PowerCat 1.10‘s with Nike (RED) laces. Obviously taking queues from his mostly-Nike USMNT pals, he’s backing the (RED) cause too.
And good on him for promoting and supporting the fight against AIDS! But, Jay – we’ve got to ask: Do Puma know?!
That’s all we’ve got! We’re done! But we want to hear from you and your best spots, and we’ll feature the most weird and wonderful in another article next week!
It may not be the custom you guys were looking for but I’ve got to believe that Iker Casillas has his Reebok Instante II Pro’s custom fit to his foot, after all, it’s their main selling point.
i spotted xavi’s cutom preds, but never really knew what he’d done
adidas should make a line like that, no swerve zone but the same fit
great shout on julio Cesars boots, i dont know why keepers are so strange about their boots.
Any ideas on Gomes’s blackouts that he wore before he moved onto CTR’s? possibly powerawerves?
I am not surprised at Xavi’s boots, even after Predator X came out, he persisted with the old Predators until the end of the season. I don’t think he likes them very much and I imagine that he had adidas make him specific versions of them.
xavi probably wanted the better feel for the ball the leather upper provides…………and julio cesar probably disguised his boots because he wears reusuch keeper gloves
I believe robhino wears the superfly 2 elite, but i think the studplate is from the first superfly actually. Luis fabiano has the same stud plate as him and its obvious because there is none of the orange outline, which makes it look like the old superfly plate. Didier Drogba’s elites have the stud plate from the vapor iv SL if you look closely.
jay demerit probably doesn’t have a boot deal with puma, which is why he can get away with wearing the (RED) laces. if i remember correctly, wasn’t he wearing Black/Red Total90 Lasers in the confed cup?
eric – awesome shout! He was indeed, pictures from the game against Brazil show him in the KL version of the Black/Red Laser II
Keegan – Interesting stuff, from now on you can be our Vapor sole-plate expert 😉 !
Do you think Robinho changes boots from game to game then? Because that photo definitely has him pegged in the Vapor 6 sole-plate, but we have seen others of him chopping and changing from other boots.
Robbie – Yep, you’re exactly right – he was in Powerswerves back in August 2009, and pictures up til April 2010 have him sticking with them, all be it in blacked-out form!
Notice no one has customised the Adizeros probably because they are the best boot out there at the moment! Stats dont lie…
hmm i initially thought kaka had the adizero studs on his adipure but in fact, its the rounded molded studs.. wont the adizero stud be better in terms of performance? is it possible for footy boot to do an interesting article regarding studs? lol im sure bladed vs rounded vs whatever configuration we have in the market would be a really good read for anybody here =)
@kyle Im sure robhino changes from game to game as he is one of the main “master speeed” spokespeople. I would assume he has probably three four pairs prepped every game for different pitch conditions and depending on if he is carrying a knock different studs could put less pressure on the knock.
hey i definetly saw julio cesears black outs, which reminds me of danny mwanga from the union, i saw him wearing black out cleats at an exhibition matc recently, i dont know how much you pay attention to the boots in the MLS but if you have any idea what he is wearing, that would be awesome cuz i could not tell what they were, but in the new stadium open he wore the new yellow F50 adizero.
hey, perrygroves…where can I check the stats you´re talking about?
Xavi also has a powerswerve soleplate rather than a powerspine, many pro’s opted for the powerswerve soleplate (van persie, van bommel, kuyt) just some i can think of that also had this customization
URUGUAY
1930-1950-2010
I wonder why you don’t see any pros who wear older boots rather than get a sponsor, I mean you get a boat load of money each game and I wouldn’t sacrifice wearing my Vapor 4s or 5s for that piece of crap Vapor 6 or superfly, I mean are there non-sellouts anywhere to be found?
about Honda’s wave ignitus, i believe it is called “wave ignitus MD”
i’ve seen a couple of Keisuke Honda’s ads for mizuno, at the end of the video, it said “wave ignitus MD”
so i searched for this MD version of wave ignitus (ok, i admit it… i’m an official ignitus fan now…)
it turns out to be a cheaper version of the wave ignitus (like F50 has F30, F10 and F5)
it doesn’t have that triple density heel counter and a slightly simpler studs.
so even if there’s a customization, it’s probably on the bio vamps -since the MD version had a downgraded version of this vamps.
what i really didn’t get is… why would such an iconic player for Japan as Keisuke Honda, wears (and advertised!) the generic version of wave ignitus??
even when Messi wear the F30, he still advertised for F50!
well, it could be just another Japanese thing though…
or, i could be wrong XP
Does anyone know what shoes Robinho is wearing in this video?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JsoCLxZzgw0
They are indoor shoes but I love the black out design, they look like vapors but I haven’t seen any like them.
@pablo, they’re the black and yellow vapor Vs. you can see if you pause at 11 seconds
channo – Good detective work – it’s a very interesting statement on Honda’s preferences when he chooses the MD.
Also – your comments are always spot-on!
Pablo – Peter’s onto something!
Here’s a screengrab for you:
http://img809.imageshack.us/img809/4705/robinhoveloci.jpg
Definitely the Black/Black/Yellow indoor Vapor V’s, with a lace cover, does that make them the Veloci or the Steam?
I think it’s the Steam, but I’ll need some help on it – I just got used to the new Mercurial naming system!!
That’s what i thought but I can’t find those specific versions.
It’s strange, maybe Robinho and them got custom shoes? I just want to know because I really like the way those look and I play a lot of indoor myself so it would be nice to get a pair.
thanks Kyle 🙂
@Pablo: the upper is almost definitely the black/black/yellow mercurial steam V
but the sole??
the sole looked like consists of two part and had nothing in the middle section. i couldn’t recall any nike indoor boots with that kind of sole design…
in a matter of act, it reminds me more of adidas F30.9 indoor! (just type “adidas F30.9 indoor” on google picture search, u’ll see what i’m talking about)
one more thing, the black/black/yellow mercurial steam V had a white lining just above the sole; Robinho’s didn’t.
Yeah its strange. I sent an email to Nike to see if they could Identify the shoe and they emailed me back saying that they couldn’t figure out what shoe it was. So they have to contact someone else at nike to see what shoe it is and they will get back to me in a few days.
I can’t wait to find out because this is kind of bugging me! haha
Xavi not only removed the swerve zone, but also has the tongue detached, ( much like the adipure 3’s) and not the regular collar tongue of the predator X.