You’re looking for the Best Football Boots, there are a few ways to think about this, are they the most excellent pairs or the most desirable type or quality or just those that suit you? When it comes to picking the best, it really is about what is best for you… Are you looking for adult or junior sizes is a good start:
Men’s football has always been the focal point of football boots. And so more often than not, Kid’s boots follow that route. But women’s football has grown and becomes more popular as time goes by. And so brands’ have acknowledged this by providing women-specific options or at least fitting profiles that cater the nuances of women’s foot anatomy.
Because boots are made of different materials and last, some tend to favour narrow foot types and some wider ones.
You can think about what type of feet you have, you can learn how to measure them and then look for wide or narrow to suit your foot shape.
Now when it comes to finding the most excellent, outstanding, or desirable pairs, first we can look at those worn most by professionals, or those that are the most sold. No boots are position-based, but we think there are some that might be more at home with certain roles and functions.
Best For…
As well as considering where you play on the pitch, you can also think about the pitch itself, as you will need a different soleplate for different surfaces, shorter studs suit artificial and hard grass pitches, whilst a longer or metal stud will be needed for soft muddy pitches, that wouldn’t be safe or suitable for those harder grounds. You can combine this knowledge with the boot itself, as most boots come with a variety of soles you can choose from.
Nike’s Best Boots
Nike’s best boots are their Elite level, which are available in the Phantom GX, Superfly, Vapor and Tiempo Legend models, each of those could be considered the best depending on what you are looking for. Whilst Nike would market the Superfly as better than the Vapor, in truth they are the same boot at the moment, just the Superfly has the raised dynamic fit collar, in the past there was a material difference with the boots. Nike had the Phantom Luna I for female players, though the Luna II is targeted again for everyone and acts as the collared model to the GX.
Best adidas Pairs
For adidas their best boots are their + and Elite models. You will see some differences between these models like laceless/laced closure, added upper elements and/or extra soleplate technologies.
If you don’t want a laceless boot then a traditional laced setup will be sufficient. In fact Mo Salah and Lionel Messi both prefer the F50 Elite over the + and Elite Ll. So are the plug and play models really the best? Perhaps not.
Puma’s Best Models
Puma have their best Future and Ultra as their Elite level models, these have the latest technologies and are as worn by professionals on pitch. The naming of the Puma boots, sees the Future Ultimate be the top version and worn by the likes of Neymar, whilst the Ultra Ultimate is worn by Antoine Griezmann.
What Are The Best Boots For My Pitch?
Every detail is important to us, and that is why we also take note of the various soleplates and stud configurations to determine which are best for certain types of pitches and a variety of surfaces. Be it Nike’s Aerotrac and Hyperreactive outsole, adidas Controlframe and Speedframe, or Puma’s Rapidagility or Rapidsprint soleplates, they are usually referred to as Firm Ground Football Boots, for natural grass pitches.
They consist of bladed and/or chevron studs that provide that aggressive bite when playing in naturally hardened soil pitch. But when the soil becomes soft, wet, and muddy, your favourite would always have a Soft Ground version, comprised of metallic studs that gets that need traction in the slippy soft ground pitch. You can remove these screw in studs and replace the length of them, depending on the severity of the conditions you face. Nike created their Anti Clog tenchnology and have applied it to many of the softground boot options as the sole, stops mud sticking and clumping to the soleplate, for improved traction on wet pitches.
There’s also the Artificial Ground outsoles that work best with the 4G, 3G, astro turf pitches and artificial grass, brands have developed soleplates that can adjust to the extra demands of the pitches and offer conical studs, to avoid the injuries that can be associated with playing on artificial pitches. Some brands have created duel option soles, like Puma for example, they’ve made many of their soleplates FG/AG, as seen in the specs of the Rapidsprint and Rapidagility.
For other types of dry pitches though, multi grounded/astroturf plates have been produced, primarily featuring numerous short conical studs that significantly reduces stud pressure. If you are a player of indoor football, then we have something in store for you as we also discuss boots that have an indoor outsole which is usually flat and rubbery.
