Recently one of Singapore's local newspaper team got invited by Nike to visit the Nike factory and a article was put on the papers. It caught my attention and thought i would share it with you all, its rather interesting. The article is rather wordy so i have cut-short certain parts which is irrelevant. Read on the article below and enjoy... I Quote, "An invitation by Nike for The New Paper to visit its shoe factory last month in Montebelluna, Treviso, was too good to pass up. At the factory, the employees were hard at work putting together the boots which some of the biggest names in world football were about to wear. Stacked neatly in one corner were a stack of boxes with words scribbled on them. I walked over and saw some familiar names: 'Smith', 'Scholes', 'Rooney' and 'Ronaldo'. I opened the box with the name 'Ronaldo'(Real Madrid) and saw a shining white pair of boots with had six silver studs. (fast forward) Mauro Bianchin, 42, who works in the athlete services department, told me that the boots in the boxes had just been made and were ready to be sent to the players. He does not know the players personally, but his job scope requires him to know their preferences. And Bianchin was only too willing to talk about them. Its official. Among the Nike-sponsored footballers, Hidetoshi Nakata changes the most pairs of boots a season. Bianchin said: "Nakata changes about 25 pairs a season." "Ronaldinho comes close too. He always tries to get a new pair of boots for every game." "In fact, he even asked for the opposing teams' names to be sewn on his boots for every game but it's not possible." "Sometimes, players give the boots to friends, family or even fans. We often see them throw the boots to the spectators after a game." "It's hard to say how many pairs of boots a player needs a season, it really depends on each individual player." "Some players like them seasoned while some, like Ronaldinho, like to wear new boots each time they play." Having worked with Nike for the past five years and being in the industry for close to 2 decades, Bianchin also can recall the sizes of players' feet off hand. For example, do you know that Roberto Carlos, one of the best left-backs the world has ever seen, has probably the smallest feet i the business? Said Bianchin: "Jan Koller has the biggest feet of US15, which is equivalent of UK14). He is a big man but he has a deceptively good first touch." "Zlatan Ibrahimovic's feet size is US13, Nakata's is US8.5, Roberto Carlos's is 6.5, Ronaldinho's is 9.5 and Ronaldo is 10.5." Also, one problem Bianchin always faces is when the boots are launched in a new color. He added: "the problem is the colour. We change the colours of out football boots very often, every time we do that, we need to give the players the boots with the new colour." (cut short, remaining paragraphs are nothing much). End
pires has 9.5 mate i rem seeing it in pumafootball.or u can chk out mypumas.there was a wallpaper with his shoesize
I went on a tour around Stamford Bridge and the guide took us everywhere. Last but not least (my favourite part of the ground) THE BOOT ROOM. having looked at arjen robbens weird f50+ boots (ya know, the ones that are actually f50 but made to look like f50+) i came across a pair of Claude makalele boots. Size 4.5!!!!!!!. Absoloutly astonishing!
Excellent Zhiyi, very interesting, and much appreciated! So I wear the same size as Ronaldinho LOL, thats the only similarity perhaps!
Don't forget Eidur Gudjohnsen wears a 7.5UK. I posted a link to a pair of his being auctioned for charity. Quite a small boot for a big bloke.
I think a lot of pros wear cleats that are too small for them. I heard there was a a guy on DC United a while ago who wore children's shoes even though they were way too small. I ususally wear 11 or 11.5 in all my shoes, but once I forgot my cleats so I wore a pair of F50s that were 10. The touch was fantastic and it was so easy to shoot. I only wore them for a short time though, 90 minutes of that would probably kill my feet.
Thanks guys. But i'm still wondering about the Adidas-sponsored players, i'm pretty sure Beckham changes his boots more than Nakata!
i knew ronaldinho uses a new pair every game! he's one flashy bastard ain't he? lol that would be great
It would be nice to have your opposition's name sewed on your boots but it would cost Nike too big a bomb!
i wouldn't switch boots every game, even if they were perfectly molded to my foot. they still wouldn't be broken in in my opinion.
LOL, I don't see why Nakata needs so many boots, seeing as he hardly ever plays! I actually wouldn't want new boots all the time either. I have been wearing my pulses for the last month, and have almost grown accustomed and used to them.
Yah i was thinking bout that too, he is hardly in the starting 11, wonder why he needs so many cleats, maybe he gives alot of cleats away