Fair enough, but the playmaking aspect was there in the marketing as well. And actually with the Magista "playmaking" has replaced "control" as the main buzz word.
Some of the new adidas ones are pretty close to the 90's shorts: These have a 7" inseam :http://www.adidas.com/us/tastigo-15-shorts/AC2934.
haha yea they did, I was young and impressionable then, and had yet to try on the Morelia 2's. Also, red/White colourway plus being a huge Fabregas fanboy all played a part. The design of the boot was awesome too. Yea, point taken about Magista, but I think with Magista its really down to it being hugely popular CTR's successor + Flyknit. I've not been really convinced by Opus tbh. I've tried on a friend's pair and tbh honest it just felt like the kanga-lite version of the Tiempo's - solid, comfortable, nothing spectacular but gets the job done, but why would you pick that over the Tiempo's? anyway forgot this was an Adidas topic. I remember getting a sample pair of the Nitrocharges like 6 months before it came out, so I had the opportunity to really feel the effects of it without being swayed by any marketing. I remember speculating and thinking the 'energy pulse' on the soleplate was to have a similar effect as the Adipowers. Definitely didn't feel the 'energy return', but I really enjoyed the extra padding.
I put customers in them if they needed something indestructible. I never had anybody come back with any problems with the Nitrocharges.
I never saw a pair go bad on my players. They are a pretty nice boot, they just lacked the right "story" from adidas. Personally I thought they were more honest to the legacy of the Predator than the LZ and Instinct lines.
Maybe it was the energysling, but it took me forever to break my nitrocharges in, but once I did, I loved them. I also give them huge credit for saving me pain when I got my foot stepped on, and also for giving me a very protected feeling when I started playing again after my foot was broken (while wearing instincts!)
It's not like I have fully plotted this out but I would've pointed out the durability factor more. Maybe call an endurance shoe rather than an energy shoe. Especially given the huge dive in the product quality in this market over the past 5 years. Maybe market it as a "Tough shoe for Tough players" Something like that, a shoe for when you are in the wars so to speak. The issue would be to make sure that customers are told it's a shoe for any position as there are farrrrrrrrrrrrrr too many customers coming in saying things like "Well I'm a winger so I need to wear a speed shoe" and so on. I dunno maybe something along those lines.
I have to say I never really fancied trying the Nitrocharge - When I tried them the upper just seemed way too thick for my liking. They just kind of reminded me of a Predator and at that point the Predator was still very much alive. appleCORR
I dunno... I feel like the lack of durability on boots now compared to 10 years ago or more, is the 'elephant in the room' for companies. Marketing a boot like that would only add more scrutiny to their other boots/would bring these questions more to light. It's funny though, how you mention customers and a specific boot for position. That really is all marketing. I still remember I want to say on mythbusters them testing the Predators (accelerators) to see if the 'panels' on the boots really did anything. Even as a dumb teenager I knew better, and mythbusters only proved it.
Funny how gimmicks come and go. No one really talks about "swerve" anymore. For a while lace covers were the latest necessity, and now that's gone. Will be funny to look back on the collars ten years from now.
Soon to come, headbands to allow you head the ball with more power and goalie glove to allow you maximum saves and extra reach...(-: I'm always for innovation and new technologies but I hate the marketing behind it.
remember those power balance bands you could wear on your wrist they tried (and somehow successfully did) to sell making ridiculous claims about strength, balance and power? pretty sure there was a lawsuit following that...
The headband was done already, as an April Fools gag in 1995 by adidas and Neil "Razor" Ruddock. It was the first full year of Predator hype and it was in full swing. On April 1st 1995 there was a story in the papers about how Razor was going to wear the new "Headator" head band to ensure powerful and swerving headers in a match the next day. The original adidas Predator was released for the 1994 World Cup in the USA. The shoe was a huge hype machine, it claimed added power, swerve, and control of the ball due to the rubber on the upper. One of the tag lines was "100% legal, 0% fair"; this helped fuel the urban legend that Preds were not FIFA approved and would be banned because of the unfair competitive advantage they gave you...these were the days before mass access to the Internet, so this stuff was not as easy to debunk when some nitwit on your team started making up stories. It also shows how at one point adidas not only could laugh at themselves a bit, but knew how to generate a bit of marketing buzz on their own without (poorly) copying Nike.
On the point about copying Nike......................Anyone looked at the studs of the boots that Ronaldo was wearing, the blackout ones? Looks soooooooooooooo similar to the old adizero studs, originality my a**. I think they both copy each other all of the time.
i wrote the same thing just as I saw them. and second thing is the "system" i Legend VI that looks like a idea similar to what we had in adiPure 11Pro III. Let's hope, that with a better result. Despite that I see far less things that Nike takes from adidas, and maaany that are the other way around. For example the Primemesh. You can think just one thing about them.
Can anyone comment on the durability of the Ace Primeknits on 3/4G surfaces. Looking to get the upcoming black/white/pink version but worried about the astro destroying the boot as I train twice a week on it. Or would I be better goin just for the Ace 15.1's.
Hey, I am commenting purely on the primeknit 2.0, but I have had no durability issues with the boots on the astro surfaces and I have worn them exclusively on those surfaces. From all I have read, the durability on primeknit is pretty spot on
I agree with you for the most part. If we are being really honest they both copied Puma..... The Puma V1.06 Comes to mind as does the Puma Icana boot. They were both somewhat knitted. Especially the V1.06s. The big three copy each other. It's happened for years
Oh I agree 100% on design aspects. Nike takes concepts other companies developed before them, "perfects" (according to them) the concepts and implements. On the same side, they do things that are original too. I was referring more to marketing and the 10,000 foot view of brand direction. At the moment adidas have better footwear in terms of performance, but their marketing of said products is poor and they have lost too much ground trying to be like Nike in the past few years. It's getting better, but the hole is deep and muddy.
Shudoah (sp) too...we can even go back to the Kevlar Puma boots from the 90's being woven. Diadora had the collars (low and mid) back then too.