Download the app. Refresh the page. Stay up all night or call in sick to work. Whatever it takes to get in line for the latest limited edition release. However, it feels like football footwear is gearing up for a step beyond limited boots or collector's editions. As we see 2016 drawing towards its close, the football market might be looking for something more.
We're talking about how the recent introduction of the adidas Yeezy phenomenon into American Football might have ushered in a new world to sports, and soccer product. Forget limited edition boots, or throwbacks to boots that we wish hadn’t gone up to that great pitch in the sky; this is about boots meant to be a fashion statement.
Football fashion for your feet. Is this where we’re heading?
Brands have been bringing their boots onto the street for the last several years with incredible success. Nike’s lifestyle footwear that’s been derived from their boots has become a must-have piece to showcase style from the pitch to the pavement. However, we haven’t seen the reverse situation ring true. Popular footwear in the world of fashion has done very little, outside of, perhaps, colour choices to change the boots we see on European pitches. Could we see this change?
Football is, as we’ve discussed, growing into one of the biggest influencers of popular music and culture. As we see this play out, it’s impossible to believe that the influence won’t start also occurring in the opposite direction. The future of football kits and boots seems on a precipice of seeing that proximity to popular high-end culture start to weave into our game.
We think that the first step has occurred in the form of the Yeezy 350 and 750 recently hitting the market for use in American football. After doing a bit of research on these products, while they certainly perform their function, it seems that the product emphasises its fashion statement and its status as an iconic brand over its performance. The truth seems that it’s certainly more about the fact that you are wearing something labeled as a Yeezy creation than whether it’s actually the best American Football boot for the price range.
Have we gotten limited edition crazed enough to accept a similar product in our football world? A football boot that might provide some slight traction or even a decent touch on the ball, but its function is truly stunted in order to accommodate a nod to culture or fashion. 
Consider the adidas 99gram adiZero. Is this really a boot that had any true business being on a football pitch? Outside of the fact that it has zero relation to popular fashion, this boot gives us a fairly decent idea of how a boot as we described above would be received. The soleplate was so thin and the insole so poor, that comfort was non-existent. The upper allowed little natural flex or feel on the ball, and substituted a quality feel on the ball for merely being thin enough to supply a barefoot feel. No chance it would be any boot purists first choice on game day, but they sell out as quickly as adidas put them on the shelves.
Nike, adidas, and PUMA have already gotten us to clear our mantles for limited boots that we have no plans of using. If we weren’t going to use it anyway, couldn’t the brands find an even bigger audience if these limited runs also appealed to shoe aficionados? Just look at what’s happened when Nike put Neymar in a Jumpman collaboration. The upper isn’t nearly as soft or comfortable as the current HyperVenom option, yet it has gotten more attention and a bigger fan-base in a much shorter amount of time (and on-pitch support). The two worlds seem destined to cross paths, and the early success bodes well for the first brand to dive in with both feet.
As if the situation wasn’t turning more and more favourable on a daily basis, we also have the most marketable group of footballers currently plying their trade at the major level. Case in point: Paul Pogba. Only the most pessimistic of football fans would think that adidas slipping Pogba into some Yeezy based footwear would result in anything other than a limited edition batch absolutely flying off the shelves. Pogba isn’t the only player that could be quickly embraced by these two worlds.
This blending could also create a new level of price points for limited boots. Nobody is surprised to shell out elite boot prices for limited edition boots, but would the world be prepared to see number creep towards 4, or 500 if the blending of high-end fashion meshes with super limited run boots? Would this bring in a new type of buyer to the football world? Could brands use this to appeal to actually see people that have zero plans of truly watching or playing football start to take interest in buying football boots?
If it has the potential to make money and heat, then it usually isn’t too long before brands start to take advantage. Are you on board?
