Rooted in the Copa Mundial, the adidas Copa Pure III projects a football boot that optimises ball touch using the finest of leather, as well as integrating technologies to give it a modern fit and feel. Does it live up to such expectations, and has it addressed some of the concerns that hounded the previous generations?
What You’ll Find On This Page:
- Copa Pure III Elite Review
- What is the Copa Pure III Pro?
- Cheap Copa Pure League Review
- Previous Copa Generations
adidas silos do have distinct identities that make them viable in their own right. The F50 is all about speed. The Predator is all about grip and accuracy. The present Copa concerns itself with making leather boots still relevant in today’s football.
FAQs about the Copa Pure:
- Are Copas good for wide feet?
Width-wise the Copa go in between the Predator and the F50, but does fall on the wider side of the spectrum and so should be worth trying for wide feet.
- Who wears adidas Copa?
Paulo Dybala and Pedri usually headline the laceless model, with popular goalkeepers like David de Gea, Manuel Neuer and Gianluigi Donnarumma all going for the laced .1.
- Which is better Predator or Copa?
Being distinct to each other, the Predator and the Copa are better than the other in identifiable aspect. Ball grip and accuracy are points for the Predator while ball touch, comfort and fit go to the leathered Copa.
| ELITE ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ | |||
|---|---|---|---|
 Copa Pure 3 Elite Laced | Fusionskin Upper Comfort Frame Outsole  |  | |
 Copa Pure 3 Elite Laceless |  | ||
Fusionskin Upper
The star of the show here is the Fusionskin upper, which is comprised by a calfskin leather forefoot and a mesh midfoot and heel. Despite the difference in material, I feel like the sensation on foot is streamlined. With a bit of a break-in time, the calfskin becomes supple as expected. I do think adidas has decided to double down on the richness and paddedness with the way the calfskin moulds around the foot. This can be especially felt on the ball touch that is relatively cushioned than most boots out there.
Comfort Frame
To double down on the comfort concept, Copa Pure 3’s Comfort Frame plate has decent, non-obstructive forefoot flex supported by a stable, stiffer midfoot. I don’t think it’s one of the most responsive, but it’s definitely easy on the foot. The tooling is mostly conicals and should present some neutrality on AG surfaces, but do watch out for those blades in circular formation towards the midfoot as those might induce some cling.
Fit and Feel
Thanks to the Primeknit tongue and the u-throat construction, the Copa Pure 3 is able to stretch out to accommodate additional width. One thing to take note of is the shape itself, where the boot is at its widest on the forefoot and then tapes off towards the midfoot and heel. A downside to this is that the boot runs may be even half-a-size long, so that could present you some challenge in getting the right size length-wise.
Lockdown and Responsiveness
At least among leather boots, this is above-average in responsiveness, most definitely boosted by the support of the more-structured meshed midfoot. Lockdown is greatly assisted with the heel structure, and if I may say, I believe it is a better heel lock than that of the Predator 2025. Still though, lockdown and responsiveness are not the main reasons to go for a pair of Copa Pure 3s. I must also say that the extra space on the toes might affect how nimble the boots feel for you.
✔️ Pros
- It’s good that adidas is leaning on making the leather experience rich and padded
- Nice heel lockdown
- Has sideways stretch to accommodate more width
- One of the most comfortable boots out there
- Presents a mainstream leather option vs the synthetic Nike Tiempo and Puma King
❌ Cons
- Runs half-a-size long, which can make sizing difficult
- Heavy competition though from the New Balance 44v2 and Mizuno boots, especially when factoring price
- Lockdown and responsiveness are just ok, average
adidas Copa Pure IIIs and How We Tested Them Out
The guide for our boot testing methodology is available here. I made sure to try out both the Elite options as the difference in the closure system was surely going to bring a different fit and feel experience. But in general, as a leather boot, I set out to see how the Copa Pure’s Fusionskin rank up against the quality of other leather football boots. Again, going back to the need of trying out both the one-piece upper model and the one with the u-throat construction, each variant has a different midfoot material to support the leather forefoot. In essence, I wanted to see where the two Copa Pures converge and what are the points that they diverge.
The Copa Pure puts back the modern Copa at its best-no nonsense leather with just the right amount of tech added to complement and not overshadow it.
Boot Rankings, Best For…
| PRO ⭐⭐⭐⭐ | |||
|---|---|---|---|
 Copa Pure 3 Pro | Fusionskin Upper Primeknit Tongue Comfortplate  |  | |
The good thing about the Copa Pure III Pro is that it almost replicates the Fusionskin technology at a significantly lesser price. There’s a bit of a more substantial feel to the midfoot though because of the additional padding to the synthetic leather part. Considering how boots weigh nowadays, this leads to Copa Pure 3 Pro weighing more than other boots in the market. Calfskin on the forefoot still feels premium though and the shortened tongue might actually appeal to more people.
Unfortunately, there’s some shallowness on the heel that might lead to issues with fit, lockdown and soleplate pressure. Volume and width seem to also be lessened that the Elite model. This puts the Copa Pure 3 Pro a bit of a disadvantage when considering its price, as you can get more quality in fit and materials with the likes of the New Balance 442 v2.
| LEAGUE ⭐⭐⭐ | |||
|---|---|---|---|
 Copa Pure 3 League | Fusionfeel Textured Synthetic Upper Perforated, Padded Tongue Comfortplate  |  | |
The first thing that’s immediately noticeable is the perforated-like texturing on both the lateral and the medial side of the boot. This is presumably to add some ball grip especially when dragging the ball. Especially on the lateral side, the indention pattern is also changed to perhaps accommodate the inclusion of the aforementioned texturing. Next is that the u-throat construction has been slightly deepened thereby slightly increasing the lockdown from the laces as well.
Previous Copa Generations
The Copa Mundial is still up and running, but that does not stop adidas from their Copa modernisation program, which they have started in 2017. Time to look back and get a sense how we reached this point in the Copa’s history.
Copa 17 (2017)
The most innovative part when the Copa 17.1 arrived was the compression tongue that wrapped closely around the feet, not to mention the conical-heavy Sprintframe that very much look like a future-looking tooling.
Copa 18 (End of 2017)
Just before the year ended, adidas pushed things up for the Copa, with the tongue now forming a one-piece construction with the K-leather upper.
Copa 19 (2018)
Copa 19 gave us the first laceless ‘+’ Copa, while retaining an option for a laced ‘.1’ model that had a burrito-styled tongue. But most importantly, Copa 19 introduced the Fusionskin technology that became a mainstay in succeeding Copa lines. It also had its own tooling-the Exoframe.
Copa 20 (2019)
Not much to say about the Copa 20 except that it was simply a name change, with a few releases adding some curved line texturing that was barely noticeable.
Copa Sense (2021)
The Sense significantly reengineered Fusionskin to its detriment, as the amount of leather got decreased and additional tech like memory foam inserts and heel Sensepods were introduced. Great step from a fit and tech perspective but a step back for a leather football boot.
Copa Pure and Copa Pure II (2023)
Copa Pure entered the scene where it did not directly faced competition from the Nike Tiempo and Puma King anymore, as those two had gone on full synthetic. Pure used calfskin on its Fusionskin upper and offered a choice of laced and laceless variant. With the Pure 2, both elite options were laced, which were differentiated by their tongue construction. Pure 2 also simply updated heel construction and introduced Haptic print texturing.
