An Iconic Adidas Football Boot is Making a Comeback

For anyone who followed football since the early 2000s or is an avid fan of David Beckham, there’s a specific football boot silhouette that will immediately evoke that period of the game. This was during the time that Zinedine Zidane was still turning defenders inside out for Real Madrid, Frank Lampard was making late runs into the box at Stamford Bridge, and Beckham was of course bending crosses and free-kicks with his usual precision.

A lot of you would’ve probably guessed it by now, yes – the Adidas Predator is making a return in its latest guise, the limited edition Adidas Predator Precision. The boots were worn by some of the best in the business at one stage, and since remakes are all the rage right now, Adidas are getting in on the retro-cool fad present in almost all retail industries right now.

While the classic aesthetic elements that the Predator is known for all make a comeback, including the fold over tongue and rubberised strike zones, it is 2017– so there are also elements of modern football boots that are incorporated. The sole plate is borrowed from Adidas’s more recent boot line ups (The ACE17+ to be exact) and should make this Predator noticeably lighter than its famously weighty predecessors, but the upper is still thick and padded by today’s ultra-light standards, so it isn’t going to break any records.

The only barrier to everyone with a penchant for nostalgia picking one up is the prohibitive price – it’s hitting shelves in Europe at around €350 – which at the time of writing converts to roughly R5,300. This is a tad more expensive than even the most elite boots available designed for professional play, so the Predator Precisions may be better as a bit of a collector’s item rather than something you throw on for a kick-around on the weekends.

Nevertheless, this is an incredibly cool project for Adidas to have pursued, and considering the fact that their boot line-up has undergone massive changes in recent times, and has been getting mixed reception from fans, this Predator model could serve as a convenient bit of market research and may encourage them to consider bringing the classic back into general production some time in the future.

We can only hope!