Soccer Cleats 101 Soccer Cleats News and Reviews
A little bit of bootspotting for a Monday afternoon. Checking out the Milan v Roma match and AC Milan striker Mario Balotelli took to the pitch wearing a boot entirely kitted out in newspaper headlines about himself. Super Mario, has been a long time Nike CTR 360 wearer (odd choice for a striker, but then it fits the bill with Balo), but that deal is close to a conclusion. I bet he is wondering “Why Always Me?”
In fact in recent weeks the striker has been covering the Nike logo’s on his CTR’s, which could be a sign of a move to a new brand. While I’m sure Nike would love to re-sign him, these boots look like nothing Nike offer at the current moment, and having just released the Hypervenom at the beginning of the current European campaign and the Tiempo Legend V last week, I seriously doubt they’re preparing to debut another boot silo mid-season.
So operating on the idea that Mario is leaving Nike. The two main suitors would be Adidas and Puma. Now Adidas have been busy recently releasing the Samba collection, featuring the entirely redesigned F50 that Bryan has just finished reviewing and the adiPure 11Pro was treated to an overhaul. So, they’d appear to be unlikely to be testing out a new silo at this moment in time.
Which brings us to ‘The Cat’, they’ve been quiet of late with new releases, and having looked at the pictures above I can only say that the heel of the boots Balotelli is wearing were tailor made to feature a big cat on them. Rumour has also been doing the rounds that Puma have been developing a Power/Control boot to replace the PowerCat, which will be known as the evoPOWER. So I’m going to go out on a limb and say the deal has been done, and what you’re looking at is the new face of the upcoming Puma evoPOWER range, Mario Balotelli! After all, Puma do have a habit of releasing limited edition camouflage style boots before the real one hits market.
So what say you, SC101 readers? What do you think Mario Balotelli is wearing, or who do you think he should sign with? Leave a comment and let your opinion be heard.
They seriously look like a Warrior Sports boot with the cut-outs in the heel.. like the Gambler.
I don't think it is a cutout, instead it is where the brand's logo will sit! But I get how you can see the Warrior similarity.
Oh, okay, yeah I can see that now!
If it is in fact an evoPOWER, the Puma has indeed struck gold in this striker. It is also notable that they could definitely market him with the Italian team's Puma jersey!
The off-set lacing with open instep seems to be another indication that this will be a boot marketed towards "power" or "striker" segment.
This was a marketing genius move by Puma. What a way to unveil your new biggest star and your new boot. These look like the new EvoPower boots. They look exactly like the leaked photos I have seen especially the heal part. This is one of kind boot and I wonder if you will see more copy CATS, no pun intended…(-:
Glad Puma look to be on the rise, make the best boots imo
No idea about the maker of those boots, but I have to say I really like the newspaper headline design. I highly doubt they'd be released to the public, but I think it's a really good idea and hopefully they'll end up promoting a great silo. We don't have that many good power boots on the market, so it'd be nice to see another high quality one out there.
Adadis would not replace a pair of custom cleats when all they did was print his name on the side. We spent $270.00 and the Cleat snapped off. Do not buy custom products.
I think the headline pattern is more about it being prototype camouflage (similar to black tape versions) rather than it being "custom", but just adding a hint of publicity stunt to it.
I'm pretty sure that guy is just a troll who is just trying to bash adidas.
These are def new evoPowers, the heal ‘oval’ is the giveaway. I work at a store and when the rep brought them by they did actually feature that black oval, no puma logo (in that location). The ones we were shown were bright orange and likely the first release colour in north america (Jan?). Nothing like the powercats I’m afraid (if you’re a powercat diehard), way lighter and less material to them, what was interesting though and different to a lot of current cleats is there was a lot of padding in the heal area. We were also shown an all leather version (in black) of this shoe that will be about $10 more than the synthetic version. You can roll these things into a tight ball, very much a power/speed hybrid with some raised ‘pads’ along the strike area.
This is the EVOpowers, earlier today, @PUMA (on instagram) released a promo for these shoes including a picture made out of news headlines and the face of Ballotelli, i just might have to pick up a pair! … Why always me? 😀