After being used by Nike as the lead European ambassador for the roll out of the Total 90 Laser III, it was something of a surprise to see Fernando Torres back in his old boots against Aston Villa.
The Liverpool striker played in the K-Leather Total 90 Laser II and scored the winning goal as the Merseyside club moved up to 7th place in the table and closed to within 4 points of Tottenham who are coincidentally their next opponents in the Premier League.
Torres’s strike gave Rafael Benitez’s side an invaluable 1 – 0 win and also saw the Spanish international become the fastest player to score 50 goals in Liverpool history.
Indeed, Torres has a fine record in the Laser II having scored a debut goal in them when Liverpool beat Real Madrid 4 – 0 in the Champions League back in March.
Speaking about Tuesday night’s match, Torres said:
We needed to win to be close to the top four. It was a massive game for us. Last season we kept working until the end of games and got points in extra-time, like today.
Just why Torres decided to swap back to his old boots isn’t clear. Speaking at the launch of the Laser III, he said he’d found the switch easy and that he’d encountered no problems in getting to grips with the latest Nike product.
He debuted the boots in the 2 – 1 loss to Arsenal and then wore them in the games against Wigan, Portsmouth and Wolves.
COuld be a weather thing, I imagine that leather is a bit warmer in the snow…. Maybe he was trying to get his feet to blend in 🙂
That’s a bit of a strange one. Apart from it going better with the Liverpool away kit I wonder what the thinking behind his decision is.
Did anyone notice the black laserIIIs been worn in the premiership? cant remember who wore them?..
seemed like a blacked out version of the green ones. . . .
maybe its just a superstitious thing that he had been scoring with the old boots so he wanted to make sure he played well and score in this crucial game
I think it’s clear that personally he doesn’t like the Laser 3’s, I mean of course in interviews he HAS to say they are good boots, seeing as he is payed by Nike to endorse them! Clearly he prefers the older version, as happens in many other cases like the vapors and air legends, people forget that these footballers are paid to wear certain boots by sponsors! But I think Nike have definitely failed with these boots, or at least the first colourway. They must be so glad they brought out the CTR 360’s!! What a success they’ve been! 🙂
i think ist because he’s more comfortable with the K-leather, the fit, its already broken into and he might not be as used to the new technology as he apparently said at the launch, as the shotshield covers the whole boot, whilst the rubber fins only cover the instep
Well El Nino has always liked his white boots so maybe that’s it? I personally would choose K-Leather over a synthetic upper pretty much anyday but there is a new white/black/gold colourway coming out soon for the Laser III’s that actually makes them bearable to look at 😀
shiv I think you hit the spot with that comment
Might it just be, that besides being butt-ugly, the new Laser III doesn’t perform as good as it’s highly popular predecessor. The things that Torres said at the launch really don’t mean that much. Did someone really think that there would be given anything other than high praise to a boot at it’s launch party?
It almost seems that it’s only a small fraction of players that have made the switch from II’s to III’s whereas the flagship of Adidas, the Predator_X is worn by a vast majority of the players that are using the predator line.
I agree with fredfunk and shiv, Torres is more confortable with the k-leather than the plastic laser III. As a nike model for the Laser III he has to say good comments of the boot, without that they can’t sell! He like me, prefers the old T90 and the leather exterior.
King William,
It was Martin Å krtel who wore the blacked out version in last night’s game.
From my personal observation, Torres always wore his Red/White K-leather Laser IIs with the Liverpool third kit… probably the colour but at the same time, as shiv pointed out, he likes his k-leather boots. I’m sure most of you can recall when he ditched his sexy brown total90s during Euro2008 and wore his white older version of k-leather laser IIs. BOOM!
Like a few people have pointed out I’m absolutely sure that the boot-switch is because of the material. Torres has almost been wearing K-leather Laser 2 all the time and not synthetic. I’m sure he’ll switch back to the Laser 3 as soon as a K-leather colourway comes out (probably the white/black/gold if anyone has seen it) and the boots gets the right shape of his feet 😀
Jaspi, can you find some pictures of those blacked version?
I’m a huge Nike fan and haven’t worn another set of boots whether it be outdoor or indoor. With that being said I think that Nike have dropped the ball with the Laser III’s. If the face of your product prefers K-Leather boots why wouldn’t you release a K-Leather version? Maybe Nike was trying to stay with the bright color theme that Adidas has with the F50’s but I think they need to take their players into consideration. I applaud Torres for going back to what he is comfortable with.
yah im with Adry most people just prefer leather to synthetic and torres has always worn the leather.
king william you are right i noticed skrtel i think it was wearing a blacked out version of the green laser III’s.
i know y he went back its b/c the laser III’s other then being lighter rnt that good. i like the color of them and i bet the pods and fins work but what happened to the e-vent material that made the laser series so popular. Plus there is no heel air zoom unit. thank god i bought some laser i’s in the summer when i had a chance, hopefully they last me the rest of my playing time.
i think those boots hes using r a lot better then the new total90, nike did a big mistake with it! and with that made ctr360 gain a lot of fan and users……
sorry if my inglish is not so good……8D love this site!
I think the t90iiis gave him blisters, so he decided to go with the comfort of leather t90iis until he has fully worn in his t90iiis at training
Eduardo has reverted to a Vapor III Footy-Boots, lets see an article about this as well. Even Benayoun prefers them it seems.
It’s avery good point MisterBroom and it is in fact, something we have taken a look at before.
http://www.footy-boots.com/benayoun-football-boots-6237/
Let’s not forget that the synthetic material used in Laser III’s is different from the synthetic in Laser II’s. Nike have chosen to use Teijin (same stuff as Vapor V) in their obsessiveness to create boots that are ultra light
Also, Modric likes to wear the old Vapor III’s
Daniel,
Look it up on gettyimages.com, there was atleast a picture of him wearing the boots during a training session.
It’s maybe because the color of those T90’s match the jersey for that fixture. I don’t think there’s any worry in that he’s wearing T90 II’s for just a little bit more.
skrtel in black and red laser III’s
http://www.gettyimages.com/detail/94744350/Liverpool-FC
BTW I think we will see torres back in the laser III boots pretty soon for many reasons.
At least he doesnt wear odd boots
http://www.gettyimages.com/detail/94448119/Getty-Images-Sport
actually Fifinho, I am led to believe that the laser 3’s are made of kanga-lite(the same material as the ctr 360.)
laser 3’s are made of kanga-lite, not teijin.
In his debut Laser III appearance, he missed what I was thinking was a certain goal for a man of his ability — he slammed it right into Almunia’s chest. I swore that was because he hadn’t felt adjusted to his boots yet and I’m still convinced he’s had difficulty with them. He will learn how to use the III’s — he must — but in the meantime I wouldn’t be surprised to see a period of swapping between the two.
This is quite obvious. He wore the laser II’s with a soft ground stud. It was snowing and the laser III’s with SG were either unavailable, not even released yet or just had not been broken in. The FG config on these boots sucks, it hurts my feet more than any other boot I’ve had and I def wouldnt wear them in the rain given a choice.
Am I the only one to notice this?
I think Torres will be very pleased with the new white/obsidian/gold colour way that came out yesterday 🙂 they’re white, wich fits Torres perfectly and i think he likes white boots more. And they’re k-leather. so i just think it’s a matter of time before El Niño is back in t90 III 😀
Actually, the synthetic t90 III IS made of tejin.. it’s just the material beneath the shotshield that’s kanga-lite 🙂