Mizuno Alpha 3

Mizuno Alpha 3 is the Japanese brand’s attempt to enter the mainstream speed boot market,  a deviation from the usual K-leather offerings of the boot maker. Mizuno Alpha directly competes with the more popular speed boots like the Nike Mercurial, adidas F50 and Puma Ultra.

What You’ll Find On This Page:

Five Things You’ll Want to Know:

1. Only boot in the current lineup without K-leather
2. Focused on speed
3. Costs around £300
4. Knit-based
5. The replacement silo for the Rebula

Mizuno Alpha 3 Tiers

Just like any other brand, Mizuno provides top-tier and budget executions for their silos. Here is how it looks like for the Alpha speed boots:

Emphasising the uniqueness of Japanese quality, Mizuno labels it’s most premium tier Made in Japan and their second takedown model Elite (implying that the top-level boots of other brands are simply second best to what Mizuno provides). But, at least for the Alpha silo, the only difference between the MIJ and Elite is that the microfibre lining has more volume in the latter. Select is where you can see a significant change in Mizuno’s attempt to cut corners.

Our Mizuno Alpha 3 Expert Review

Alpha 3 is Mizuno’s first knitted football boot, and that represents the biggest change coming from the previous generations. I only needed a session at least to break it in and experience the inherent pliability of a knitted upper. But what I really like about the upper though is that it is able to strike a balance between pliability and structure, thanks to that skin overlay. Touch on the ball is direct and sharp, with just enough material between your foot and the ball to take away the worst sting. The natural knit texturing and the tacky finish gives just a slight hint of ball grip to assist your control.

For me, the Alpha has the best lockdown for a variety of reasons that work hand-in-hand, actually. Because of the Engineered Fit Last NEO, the boot has enough space to accommodate more width. But whether you have narrow or wide feet, the pliability of the upper and its ZEROGLIDE α Mesh internal liner will help to have that knit material stick to your feet, not to mention that the skin overlay also aids the boot in having a decent amount of structure. Then there’s the anatomical heel shape with a suede liner that really locks that part of your feet in place. All of these are held together by the integrated knitted tongue. Size-wise, it’s better to round it up to the next size once you’re able to get your actual length in cm to take advantage of that extra toe height for comfort.

Alpha 3 has one, if not, the most responsive soleplate because of its KaRVO RS™ carbon fibre insert that gives its otherwise flexible plate a great amount of snap back. The triangular studs are aggressive and are perfect for pushing off in different directions. Because of that aggressive bite on the ground, the Alpha 3 helps me a lot in transferring all my power and weight to the ground before exploding and cutting in or out diagonally. I would say that because of the stud configuration, the boot is safer to play in natural pitch only than playing it in artificial grounds too.

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Going out of your comfort zone is always a risk. And judging by its build and performance, the Mizuno Alpha 3 is a risk well taken!

From K-Leather to Knit: How the Mizuno Alpha Came to Be

Being that Mizuno is a brand specialising in K-leather football boots, the surprise is not so much that the Alpha succeeded a K-leather silo, but what specific K-leather silo it replaces. It might be easy to think that the Alpha could have supplanted the Morelia Neo, but the synthetic Mizuno boot actually succeeded a model that was built on control.

Rebula V1 (2017)

The story began in 2017 when the Mizuno thought of creating an advanced form of K-leather boot. With that, they decided to move on from the Wave Ignitus (see the 2022 remake here). As you can see, the frame is fused in the Alpha has its roots with the very first Rebula, which incorporated a CT Frame that enhanced ball touch and spin on the forefoot, stability around the midfoot and heel lockdown on the rear. CT Frame enabled the Rebula to avoid the need for the stitching and perforations, which were the traditional source of K-leather upper structure and stability but susceptible to water intake.

Rebula 2 (2018)

A year later, Mizuno updated the Rebula to double down on the touch and stability component of the CT Frame by reengineering its design and shape. The most obvious difference between the 2 and the V1 was the difference on the heel makeup, where the former used a different material instead of extending the main upper and CT Frame to that part of the boot like the V1 did.

Rebula 3 (2019)

While the core DNA was still there, the Rebula 3 did introduce some major changes that made it standout versus the previous Rebulas. The K-leather had been limited from the midfoot to the forefoot, and a synthetic mesh comprised the quarter that was also covered with non-stretch strips/webbing. The lacing was more central, and the leather became relatively thinner. Whereas the V1 and 2 were more narrow-fitting, the Rebula 3 became more forgiving and allowed flat-footed/wide-footed players to somehow fit in.

Rebula Cup (2020)

At this point the only thing that remained constant with the Rebula was the D-Flex groove soleplate, where much of the flex was coming from the medial side with the torsion stiffener bar flowing through the lateral side. This resulted to a flex point that felt more anatomical than those from other mainstream boots. The upper told a different story though as the CT Frame was totally dropped in favour of memory foam pods as the new touch and control elements. Those fused elements made the Wave Cup influence on the Rebula Cup quite clear. The boot wrapped it up with the FT Grip Coating to give the upper some sticky ball grip attribute.

Alpha (2020) and Alpha 2 (2025)

The biggest change between the Alpha 1 and the Alpha 2 was the addition of a PU sheet in the latter, between the frame and suede liner. The aim was that once the sheet is broken down and heated up, it will help expand the upper a bit more, thus making it more adaptable to wider foot shapes. Karvo RS was made thinner on the Alpha 2 as well to cater those who find the outsole very stiff on the first generation.