Shoe companies show red card to black soccer cleats

Shoe companies show a red card to black soccer cleats

Over the years, soccer has gone through a number of memorable, if often regrettable, fashion trends. There was the alarming popularity of short shorts; the odd fixation onpuffy, bloused jerseys; the bumblebee sock phase (not to be confused with the leg-warmer sock craze); and, in what was surely the sport's couture low point, a brief dabble with the unitard.

Through it all, however, one immutable truth endured: Soccer cleats were black.

Yes, maybe there was the odd white stripe. Even a logo or two. But starting on Thursday, even casual fans will notice something different during the World Cup in Brazil as they watch the feet of the players fight over control of the ball. These days, the only ones still wearing black cleats are the referees. Everyone else looks as though he got into a fight with a rainbow.

"I don't even get surprised by any of the colors anymore," said Luis Suárez, the star striker for Liverpool, who will lead Uruguay's team in Brazil. "I've seen pink, green, everything. When I was a boy, there was no question, the boots were black."

He laughed. "I think everyone now knows those days are over."

After the 2010 World Cup, when most players stuck to the basics, the European Championships in 2012 offered a hint of the game's palette expansion. But the major shoe companies have planned a veritable parade of pigment for Brazil. The names sound like smoothie flavors: Metallic Mach Purple, Prism Violet, Earth Green, Solar Slime (it looks sort of like lemonade). Nike's new shoes, which will be worn by stars like Portugal's Cristiano Ronaldo, have bold pinks and yellows, as well as a sock-type insert in some models that reputedly provides more ankle support.

Adidas's freshest models, which will be on the feet of Argentina's Lionel Messi, among others, are a sort of mottled, fluorescent-lizard-style shoe that blares loud blues and oranges. Puma appears to be going for an odd, gender-neutral sort of statement. Its new line features a design in which one shoe in each pair is pink while the other is blue.

"Personally, I always liked the all-black — I thought they were sleek," said Jozy Altidore, a United States forward who endorses Adidas. "But we all know the importance of marketing, and so, to be honest, I just wear whatever they send me."

This is a common refrain. As wonderful as the players may feel about the opportunity to better express their inner chameleon, fashion anywhere is a business, and there has been a tangible trickle-down effect in soccer. General sales for colored shoes have skyrocketed among amateur and youth players in recent years, and the shoe companies are adapting to the changing tastes. According to an Adidas spokesman, more than 80 percent of the cleats offered by the company during the spring/summer period this year were "color-based or accented by bright pop colors."

"It's a fashion show at the World Cup," said Antonio Zea, director of soccer innovation at Adidas. "A kid wants to be Messi. A kid wants to be Beckham. We understand that. We know what it means for them to see the stars wearing something."

Denis Dekovic, the soccer design director at Nike, said that while relationships with professional players are important, "our focus is on the younger players. We want the future."

It is difficult to pinpoint when colored cleats broke through. Mr. Zea said that Adidas often points to 1996, when Bolivia's Marco Etcheverry routinely wore a red version of the seminal Predator cleat.

Mr. Dekovic noted that up until the late 1990s, shoe designers were restricted with regard to colors because of the materials available to them. Kangaroo leather, which was preferred for cleats, was difficult to dye without compromising its integrity, so "it was pretty much black or white or maybe a little red," he said.

In 1998, when Brazil's Ronaldo wore Nike's new Mercurial cleat, it was a breakthrough for the company on multiple levels: The colors were silver and blue, and the material was synthetic. "There has always been a desire to break the rules," Mr. Dekovic said. "It is even more now. Players today have strong personalities, and the only way to show their personality is through the boots because everything else they wear has to be a uniform."

That notion of individuality has become the preferred, less-cynical narrative for the new array of colors. ("Money, money, money" also makes for poor commercials.) And to some degree, it is true: The panoply of new shades allows players to make some choices. Stout defenders have often preferred a more solid, traditional tone, while playmakers and splashy strikers typically go for the bolder hues.

"I quite like the reds," England midfielder Jack Wilshere said. Mr. Suárez, the Uruguayan, said the daring colors make him "feel more lively."

Alexi Lalas, the former defender for the United States whose goatee and red hair made him a standout in a more staid era, recalled that in 1994, he approached the United States coach, Bora Milutinovic, the day before a game to ask about wearing white shoes during the match.

"We were playing in Seattle and it was an artificial turf field, so I had these white racquetball shoes I wanted to wear instead of cleats," Mr. Lalas said. "He looked at them and frowned and said, 'You better play well in those things.' "

Mr. Lalas scored a goal that day, he noted, but still heard some comments from other players. These days, he said: "It would be hipster, an all-white shoe. It's like bell-bottoms, it all comes back around."

Not all players are so enamored with the new colors. Zlatan Ibrahimovic, the Swedish star whose team missed out on qualifying for Brazil, said he believes the bright colors hurt attacking players because assistant referees are more likely to notice if they are marginally offside. "With a black shoe, you can push it a little more," he said.

And Daniele De Rossi, the longtime Italian midfielder, said he prefers to think back to the days when life, and soccer shoes, were simpler. "I love seeing the pictures of me as a kid wearing black," he said. "It is almost too much now; you wonder where the designers will ever end."

He sighed. "Every time a new box comes I think, 'What's next, maybe a boot with wings?' "