Improve your game this spring
With Euro 2016 hurtling towards us, now’s the time to get into the spirit of the game and up your performance with some hightech football boots designed to increase your ball control
Do you long for the skill and speed (not to mention the bank balance) of players like Mesut Özil and Ivan Rakitic? Yeah, us too! While that level of talent will remain a distant daydream for the majority of people, Adidas has developed a pair of high-tech, knitted, laceless football boots to help us mere mortals improve our ball control and speed.
Set to become an iconic Adidas release, the Ace 16+ PureControl boots aren’t afraid to stand out. “We’ve taken away something that’s been present in every pair of football boots Adidas has released – the laces,” says Sam Handy, Adidas Football Vice President of Design. “The result is a pure silhouette and a beautiful shape. That shape not only makes them visually stunning but, most importantly, gives our players an unparalleled strike surface.”
Instead of laces, three key points of stability will lock your feet into the boots. Utilising a durable TPU cage, a Primeknit upper and an internal knitted TechFit locking system, the boots will instantly mould to your feet, meaning no chaffing or blistering of the skin.
“My whole career, I’ve tried to minimise the impact of laces on my strike and ball control,” says Arsenal ace Özil, one of the pro footballers selected to wear the boots. “When [Adidas] came to me last year with the laceless boots, it was like they’d created my dream product.”
Barcelona midfielder Ivan Rakitic agrees: “I’m really excited about the Ace 16+ PureControl because I’ve always wanted a laceless boot,” he says. “I’ve already tested them in training and it was a fantastic experience. The ball felt like it was stuck to my feet.”
Start your adve nture today
Begin by snapping up a pair of the Adidas Ace 16+ PureControl boots, made with a PureCut laceless sock forefoot and zero edges to get between you and the ball. The boots are retailing at £230 in a limited number of Adidas’s flagship stores around the world.
There’s no need to wear-in these boots – they’re made with a Primeknit upper that moulds to your feet the moment you slip them on.
Finally, you can ignore the weather when wearing these boots – the Ace 16+ PureControl use something called Non Stop Grip technology, a thin layer of raised dots applied to the upper to keep the ball glued to your feet.
“When [Adidas] came to me with the boots, it was like they’d created my dream product” – Mezut Özil