When PUMA created the original ONE silo it was labelled as a boot for every position. Get it right and it’s a boot that falls into every category, get it wrong and it’s a boot that doesn’t fit into any. So what do we want from a boot that delivers light weight, comfort, speed and touch? Well, all of it.
Now the ONE series reaches a fifth generation we’re out to find out whether PUMA are ticking all those boxes with confidence. You can’t deny that it’s worn all over the pitch in the pro game, from the intricate style of David Silva in midfield to Sergio Aguero up top, Diego Godin at the back and Gigi Buffon in goal. So what’s it all about? We’ve laced up to throw some answers your way.
Some serious work has gone into this update instead of just a mere name update. The kangaroo leather has had its placement changed, the collar and evoKnit feels a bit thinner, and the Sprintweb on the lateral side of the boot is a dramatic change. In fact, it looks like the soleplate is the only thing we’re really getting that’s a direct counterpart to the last model.
Getting these laced up shows a great initial squeeze through the midfoot that makes this boot fit much lower and closer than we would have expected from its silhouette. There are many things we had expected from the ONE when we laced them up, but feeling like we were sitting low in a proper speed boot was not one of them...but, here we are. When you are slipping these on, know that the collar doesn’t have as much stretch as we expected from the always soft evoKnit, but we had no issues slipping them on (will brands ever realise how much we all love a heel tab?)
Zipping about the pitch in the ONE 5.1 showcases how a proper build can mask a 200+ gram boot’s weight into feeling much lighter. It’s not just about the comfort, but the way PUMA has made this boot fit makes you feel light on your feet too. It’s always impressive when we find a boot that we enjoyed during testing even when we weren’t on the ball.
Once you do start demanding the ball, the ONE continues to impress. The kangaroo leather that covers nearly every area of the forefoot and instep where you’d receive the ball is surprisingly thin, giving an impressively intimate feel for the ball. The thin lines that show under the leather that make up an inner support cage don’t change the feel for the ball. Any boot that gives us as much leather as possible without excess stitching is going to have us with fairly high hopes.
Striking and passing with the ONE are also a dream as that leather offers that warm punch that every player looks for. Striking higher on the boot where the evoKnit sits absolutely launches off your foot because of how thin he knitted portion is on this boot. Bringing the ball out of the air, hitting that crossfield ping are all satisfyingly met by the leather feel.
The soleplate is labelled as the RAPIDSPRINT outsole, and it finally feels like this name actually works with the build of the ONE. PUMA have made sure that the boot has enough flex to let your foot bend naturally while giving the responsiveness a modern football boot demands, and it doesn’t hurt the comfort level of the ONE. The midfoot portion of the soleplate is ready to handle the demands of a long season while still making sure that you’re going to avoid those nasty hotspots underfoot that we’ve had with some boots.
PUMA’s AG/FG plate is a bonus in that it can be worn on grass and turf when others can’t. The mix of a few blades and mostly conical studs means you're going to get great traction on natural surfaces where you can avoid slipping during a pivotal moment, but also avoid feeling like you just got super glued into the mud when trying to push off quickly. As for AG usage, we always worry about studs being a bit too long, but the ONE seems to handle both surfaces with impressive results.
Typically, a boot that has any type of connection to kangaroo leather is a quick and easy connection to an extreme level of comfort. However, the ONE has always only used had a relatively small section of the overall boot’s build covered by the highly sought after material, meaning the comfort has to come from somewhere else. On the ONE 5.1, PUMA has lined the bulk of the boot (the evoKnit sections are just pure evoKnit) with an extremely soft suede-like synthetic that offers a uniform feel on the inside of the boot and makes sure that there’s top notch comfort throughout.
One of our fears was that the three very different sections of the boot would be a rough combination (evoKnit, kangaroo leather, and Sprintweb), instead, the liner helps make all the sections of the boot feel smooth and ready to go.
PUMA also make sure your heel is locked in with a well-placed bit of cushion in the back-end of the boot and by making sure the collar has that level of squeeze that walks the right side of the line between locked in and suffocated.
Verdict
The simple switch of the kangaroo leather to more high use zones, the impressively executed combination/build of the different upper materials, and the feeling of being a speed boot style with super supple leather means that there’s not much about this boot that we’d ask PUMA to alter. Would it feel out of place in a speed, comfort or touch market? Yeah it probably would, but that’s the whole point. PUMA don’t want you to have one attribute while sacrificing others, and the ONE 5.1 nails that.
Shop the full PUMA ONE 5.1 football boots collection at prodirectsoccer.com
