Hey sports fans, after a few weeks of needing some downtime and struggling to balance writing with working on some interesting sports marketing projects, I’m back into a writing groove.
Today I’ve got something on signature football boots as I wonder why footballers don’t have their own truly signature boots in the way American sports stars do. It’s been a topic on my mind and in the drafts in various forms over the last year and now feels the most relevant time to publish as in the last week we’ve had rumours of Kylian Mbappé leaving Nike for a unique partnership with On.
Can On disrupt the football boot category?
Kylian Mbappé has been at Nike since he was 8 years old which is incredible, yet the 19 year stint has been heavily rumoured to come to an end with the Real Madrid and France striker not keen on renewing his deal, which was reported to end after the World Cup. Reports by Le Parisien and Sportsverse state that any new deal would not be with a traditional rival like an adidas or Puma, but more like On, who are keen to move into football. The shape of the deal would be similar to what the running brand did when they moved into tennis by enticing Roger Federer from Nike with a deal that gave the tennis great equity and greater influence on the partnership.
Since the news broke we’ve seen images of Mbappé back in pre-season wearing Nike still and unveiling the latest Mercurial Kylian Mbappé Player Edition. So all this could be just a negotiating tactic with Nike.
What was intriguing to me about these rumours, was while the reporting mostly centred on the shock of potentially leaving Nike, On’s entrance into football and the equity deal, I was wondering if this did happen, could we see a genuine Kylian Mbappé signature boot?
At Nike, Mbappé wears the Mercurial franchise with his own player editions that vary in look with subtle tweaks to suit his needs, but it’s very much a Nike Mercurial boot. This is the convention in football boots where existing franchises like the adidas Predators, Nike Phantoms or New Balance Furons get a ‘signature’ version for star players where the existing franchise is tweaked and designed with the players needs and preferences.
In a sport like basketball, the brands are creating genuine unique signature franchises from scratch, where the sneaker’s design is created with an NBA or WNBA star and named after them. Signature sneakers for Lebron James, Kevin Durant, Sabrina Ionescu, Kobe Bryant, A’ja Wilson and of course Michael Jordan have become revered silos and brands.
I’m not sure if Mbappé is going to move from Nike, but let’s say he did and you worked at On and were able to secure this landmark deal with him, then you surely have to go further than just an On boot that he’s given input into? You’ve got to go the full way and call it the Mbappé or something with his name in?
In a category that loves bringing out multiple pack releases and colourways during a season, where there’s only so much marginal improvement in speed and weight that is made from one season to the next, could the next innovation in football boots be a new franchise created from scratch with a player that is named after them? Is there a brand willing to build something around one player?
The unbundling of Nike and adidas
In the last decade the traditional chasing pack behind the top two of Nike and adidas as well as the new sports brands entering the market have found success offering athletes more care and attention to build something around them than if they were just one of many at the top two.
Under Armour had this success with Steph Curry in basketball and it’s telling that when he split from them and needed a new home for his Curry brand, the arguably greatest basketball shooter of all time chose Chinese brand Li-Ning to continue having the control rather than return to Nike. In tennis, On enticed Ben Shelton from Nike. Puma have built a world around Tyrese Haliburton and Lamelo Ball along with signature sneakers. New Balance has had success by building a fewer and better approach across sports which has shown athletes like Shohei Ohtani, and Tyrese Maxey that they will be front and centre for the brand instead of in a crowded space.
In football this move from the top players to brands who could give them more attention happened as well. Skechers entered the boot market to surprise and signed one of the top marksmen in the game Harry Kane away from Nike. While the affordable everything retailer Decathlon secured Antoine Griezmann for their increased focus on football. Instead of these landmark moments being launched with a true signature boot, they both support existing franchises with input and player editions for the Skechers SKX and Kipsta.
Was this a missed opportunity for brands making new moves into a category or did Skechers and Decathlon simply see the convention and stick to it?
It’s maybe more understandable that Nike, adidas and Puma, who have decades of legacy in football with revered boot franchises see it’s more effective to build on these with player editions that have bespoke colourways and player needs featured, instead of building something from scratch.
The short lived signature football boots
Both Nike and adidas have actually previously created signature boots for Ronaldinho and Lionel Messi in the past but they were very short-lived. Ronaldinho’s Nike 10R was released in 2006 and can lay claim to being the first truly signature football boot. The silo was engineered with a unique five-eye lacing system, fold over tongue and stud details for futsal-style sole control.
The adidas Messi15 was released in 2015, with a subsequent Messi16 follow up a year later as the boot sat alongside the X and ACE at release with its own Messi labelled boot architecture. In 2017 we didn’t get a Messi17 but a new silo called the Nemeziz, a short lived boot with a taped design effect being used by Messi, but also other players in the adidas family. Post Nemeziz saw Messi return to the F50 franchise which he has been in ever since.
I’ve never been able to find news, quotes or reasons why these two signature boots were so short lived so please let us know in the comments if anyone can shed any light. I can only assume either the players preferred the models they were previously in as player familiarity with a boot is so crucial, there are just too many footballers compared to basketball or baseball players to accommodate, or the brands decided they wanted to build around franchises people already knew. F50 and Predator have been retired before, now they are the core franchises for the three stripes. The Mercurial has been one of Nike’s longest serving boots. If it ain’t broke…
Despite the game’s evolving influence across culture and the increasing modernisation and commercialisation of the sport, football can still be stuck in its old ways and I feel the reason we don’t see truly signature boots like the US sports is simply because, it’s the way things have always been done.
The opportunity is there
As footballers’ status grows into one person brand worlds and they have more influence than ever before, all while a younger generation are increasingly building fandom around individual players I’d love to see how true signature football boots could come to life. Nike and adidas have the marketing power and budget to create something from scratch and add it to their catalogue of boots, without having a negative impact on their other silos.
I think just because the Ronaldinho and Messi examples were short lived, doesn’t mean they were failures. The market and culture is in a different place now. Custom logos and apparel lines are being built around players like Jude Bellingham now, so what could a signature Jude boot look like? In baseball, you can buy the ‘cleats’ version of the Ohtani, but also a lifestyle one. We can avoid the truly weird football boots being worn as fashion statements moment happening again and leaning in on a silo that can be created specifically for the pitch and pavement.
When adidas created the Predator, it was down to the perseverance of Craig Johnston who didn’t give up on developing a truly innovative football boot and convincing the powers that be at adidas to make it. When Puma wanted Walt ‘Clyde’ Frazier to wear their basketball sneakers, it was Frazier who saw things differently and asked for his own shoe that changed the game for athlete signature shoes. Maybe one of the current generation of stars will lead the way and dictate their new boot deal will only be signed if they get their own unique signature football boot? Could that then usher in a new era of football boots innovation and marketing?