Get the latest and greatest in the world of football footwear releases in our latest football boot roundup!
For most football fans, new seasons mean a fresh start with endless possibilities. Optimism across the board reaches all time highs, while common sense and reality momentarily plummet.
For a select population of football boot sickos however, the excitement that comes with the beginning of a new year doesn’t just stop with their teams and on-pitch play. A new season means a fresh slate of footwear models and colorways to get us hyped.
As most of Europe’s top leagues have either kicked off or are about to, it’s time for our yearly roundup of the best new boots from the sport’s biggest brands.
PUMA
PUMA comes into this season with a dynamite lineup of cleats. During the Olympics, the brand dropped a throwback collection titled “The Olympic Tricks Pack,” which harkened back to the days when PUMA would release different colored boots meant to be worn together. These “Tricks” boots were most famously worn by Mario Balotelli, whose ostentatious style of play warranted the flashy mis-matched boots.
PUMA brought back the “Tricks” schtick last year with Balotelli’s trademark hot pink and neon blue for its ULTRA Ultimate model, as well as a neon yellow and pink FUTURE Ultimate. This year, the color combo was a classic PUMA orange and pink that dazzled in Paris.
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Additionally, PUMA brought back carbon fiber soleplate technology, something which many manufacturers have nixed in recent years due to cost and their complex manufacturing process. The PUMA ULTRA 5 Carbon, engineered using material science gleaned from the Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 team, is, as PUMA claims, “their fastest boot ever.”
PUMA also claims that the redesigned stud pattern, in combination with the carbon fiber, gives the boot 32% more propulsion in comparison to their non-carbon fiber version of the ULTRA 5.
Finally, we have the boot pack that most PUMA athletes will be wearing when the league season returns, the “Volume Up” pack. This collection is inspired by the creativity and expressive nature of football, taking aesthetic design cues from street art and giving players a boot that is just as bright and intense as they are on the pitch. For this pack, all of PUMA’s boot silos (outside of the carbon fiber edition of the ULTRA 5) get a new paint job, with the FUTURE and the ULTRA receiving similar schemes, whereas the KING gets the all-blue treatment.
The KING colorway in particular returns to the nostalgia well, as it looks eerily similar to the evoPOWER boot which featured a bright blue colorway through so many years and iterations of the boot.
Nike
Nike had a hot summer as their football boot collection merged with the rest of their Olympics line, which was dripped out in the brand’s signature Safari print. Dubbed the “Electric Pack,” the entire line was hyper-visible at the 2024 Olympics thanks to bright colors and that unmissable pattern. Safari print has long been a staple among various versions of Nike footwear, and its use generally brings with it a feeling of significance.
While Nike will drop another new pack later in the fall, expect countless footballers under the Swoosh umbrella to continue wearing these boots throughout the start of the season, up until the new Deja Vu pack is released.
Gear up for greatness with a trio engineered to elevate your speed, precision, and touch. Meet the next-gen Mercurial, plus the new Phantom and Tiempo—the stars of the 𝑴𝒂𝒅 𝑨𝒎𝒃𝒊𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏 𝑷𝒂𝒄𝒌, available July 18th. #NikeFootball pic.twitter.com/IFdBpLX2rk
— Nike Football (@nikefootball) July 18, 2024
Currently, if Nike athletes don’t want to wear the Safari pack, they have the option to wear the “Mad Ambition” pack, which features the newest Mercurial, the Phantom Luna and GX 2, along with the always consistent Tiempo in various hues of blue.
Nike will also release special editions throughout the year of the Mercurial for Kylian Mbappe, while Erling Haaland is rumored to be receiving his first-ever limited edition Nike boot as well.
adidas
adidas is another brand that has chosen to rely on nostalgia for its first boot pack for the 2024-25 season. The “Reemergence” pack features a pattern that is inspired by the “Battle” pack that was released for the 2014 World Cup, and is a nod to the 10-year anniversary of the momentous tournament in Brazil.
Interestingly, both the Predator and the F50 franchises have died and come back for adidas in those 10 years, as the Ace and X lines temporarily replaced the fan favorite silos. For the more traditional footballer, the Three Stripes has the Copa range, which mixes classic styling with modern tech and is always a solid option.
New Balance
Last but not least, we have New Balance, a brand that has taken a different approach to sponsoring athletes, choosing to go with a select few instead of signing countless players. New Balance currently has two big names that have received player edition colorways: Bukayo Saka and Endrick, both young stars in their own right.
Saka has had multiple colorways from New Balance in recent years, including a beautiful pair of green, gold, and cream Furon boots made in collaboration with Aimé Leon Dore. Currently, there are no hints as to what the brand will do for him next, but you can expect Saka to receive a new colorway as the season plays out.
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Endrick, on the other hand, will wear New Balance’s other premium boot, the Tekela. The Brazilian wunderkind received a white and gold boot to mark his arrival at Real Madrid, and based on everything we have seen, you can expect to see him wear these on the pitch alongside Jude Bellingham, who has also received custom white and gold cleats (although Bellingham’s are adidas Predators).
