Adidas Thread [15] - all questions, pictures, boots here.

So I got around to trying on the Messi, X, and Ace today....the latter two being the synthetic, as the adidas store didn't stock leather models.

What a bust....they are awful out of the box, I can't even fathom playing in them. The best of the bunch was the Ace, but the inside was too slick and the upper too stiff. I didn't like the insole material, they should have stuck with the suede material. All and all it was a major let down.

The X could be ok if it wasn't for the life jacket they have stuffed into the heel counter because the fit was decent. It is just the heel...WTF? The F50 was great with the suede material, why they needlessly altered this is anyone's guess, but why adidas does a lot of things is anyone's guess. The collar is pretty stupid and does nothing but give a visual look of 1994's Diadora Matchwinner. As I said before, it only covers the top of the foot, the lacing system is totally open which leads to the cage not sitting flush when tightened.

Lastly the Messi boot....what a load of suck. The outsole is a rip off from the awful minimal plate trend of the mid to late 2000's, think Vapor 3 (which sucked, nostalgia be damned). The midsole is thick and doesn't flex well, the "Messicage" is bumped out thick plastic that isn't even fully attached to the mesh which will create gapping issues, and the fit is awful...the other two boots were snug length wise in an 11 and the 11 here was about 3/4 of a size long, but the boot is so narrow and pointed you couldn't size down reasonably. It is like adidas took the worst features of all the Vapor over the years (sans a lace cover) and then added a few of their own god awful touches to it. To be fair the upper was the best of the synthetics out of the three.

It just speaks volumes of far adidas has fallen...they jumped the shark with the Tunit and it has never come back for them. They have somehow managed to muck up what did work (Pred and F50 adiZero) and become a joke, all while having arguably the greatest player in history on their books.

Nike managed to become today's Nike because of Jordan, marketing, and making cool stuff...adidas has a comparable player in both talent and marketability and they keep doing this shit all while the bottom falls out.

 

I think I will like that one, honestly. My complaints about the Ace were limited and I think the feel would be drastically improved with leather.

I had my F50 leather on yesterday and it just reminded me that I should scour eBay for what is left of them.

 

I think I just need the leather Ace...not sure on the X...if it has the same stupid heel then it's going to be crap. That is a blister waiting to burst and stress your achilles doesn't need.

 

Most recently I have been wearing the whiteout of the Gen 5/2014 model, but all the leather models before the three stud stupidity have been great for me personally in terms of fit/performance. Durability was an issue for all of them up to the ones I am using now, but then again my play has been sporadic at best since my saga of knee injuries. For what it is worth I am lightly striking a ball now and probably won't be clear to play for real until the spring if I avoid a tissue graft. Future follow up appointment for that is in 8 weeks.

A lot of people slagged off the leather model of the gen I am wearing but I find it to be excellent...I think some of that comes from the model that was leather/Speedfoil vs. the model that was leather/faux leather and functioned better on foot.

I think the 1.5 leather (2nd gen) in orange with black was my absolute favorite performing model...that might also be a tad of nostalgia creeping in because when I was wearing that boot I was in rich form and scoring at will, but it was one of the only boots that I had zero performance grips about in match play. Nothing about the boot felt like it hindered me in anyway. Perfect amount of supple feel, flex, fit, and general confidence in how when I put them on, I knew what I was getting. The best way to sum them up was that I never worried about the boots when they were on my feet, I was just able to focus on kicking ass while I wore them.

 

Yeah, the heel looks to be suede or faux suede anyway...I will probably snag a pair of the black or blue ones. I really hope they drop the white/silver in leather. I am getting pretty partial to white on silver and whiteout boots these days given how hot 3G/4G pitches get.

 

10,000 x rep if I could.