The quality of this year’s World Cup made many an ‘old timer’ very nostalgic about the good old days, when the game was simpler and footballers were hard-working guys who’d never dream of diving - to ‘get’ a penalty. However, there’s one thing that really bemused them about the current state of the game - the multi-coloured range of shoes at play on the green pitches of Brazil. It wasn’t too long ago when you could choose any colour you wanted as long as it was black. Now, there was every colour in the rainbow - and many that aren’t. Given the huge amounts of money at stake for football footwear, it’s not surprising that the shoe companies will do almost anything to attract people’s attention to their products. It’s undeniable that a pair of shoes in fluorescent pink stands out a lot more than a staid black pair. The contest was helped in its intensity by a FIFA rule that stated that footwear was the only piece of major equipment that did not have to be ‘produced consistently by the same manufacturer’. So, while the shorts and shirts of teams were contracted to a specific company, individual players were free to wear the shoes they wanted - even if they were made by the rival of their shirt company. Puma, which cannot match the advertising budgets of its larger competitors, went for broke with its Tricks shoes, which are worn by the likes of Balotelli, Cesc Fabregas and Yaya Toure and feature mismatched colours - blue for the left foot and pink for the right! Puma says that the oddly coloured boots represent ‘the unshakable confidence of players who wear them, and evoke their potential to do the unbelievable’. But even the famously quirky Balotelli needed convincing that this was the right approach. “I have to be honest, the first time I saw the boots, I thought the Puma guy was mad. But when I realised he wasn’t, I was excited. At the end, it is exactly the reason why I chose to be with Puma, They dare to be different, and everyone knows that I do as well.” Nike has a different tack, paying huge amounts to heavily promote its shoes worn by stars such as Cristiano Ronaldo, Neymar and Wayne Rooney. The US company, which reported about 2 billion dollars in football sales last year, focused on the ‘revolutionary’ technological advantages offered by its newest line, the Magista. This shoe is composed of a flyknit fabric, upper welded to the sole and studs, and also includes a woven insert that is supposed to offer greater ankle stability. Coming in pink, orange, bright green and purple, amongst other colours, Nike’s offerings underscored how much the game has become as much about image as substance. That aspect was not lost on Nike’s great rival Adidas, which racked up 2.8 billion dollars in football-related sales last year, and was an official partner of FIFA for the World Cup. The Company’s newest shoe style featured a kind of psychedelic lizard-skin mesh, composed of black, white and splashes of bright colours. “It was a fashion show at the World Cup,” said Antonio Zea, Director of Soccer Innovation at Adidas recently. “A kid wants to be Messi…or Beckham. We understand that. We know what it means for them to see the stars wearing something.” Not all the players were as excited about the rainbow footwear. “I love seeing the pictures of me as a kid wearing black,” said Italy midfielder Daniele De Rossi. “It is almost too much now; you wonder where the designers will ever end.” Sweden striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic had a more practical reason for his objection, reasoning that the bright coloured shoes would make it easier for referees to see when he stepped offside. “With a black shoe you can ‘push it’ a little more,” he said.υ
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