Why adidas relaunched the F50

2012 was a symbolic year for football especially from an iconographic and aesthetic point of view. David Beckham retired from professional football, Manchester City won their historic Premier League title thanks to Kun Agüero's last-minute goal, Chelsea, led by Didier Drogba, won their first Champions League, and Mario Balotelli celebrated by flexing his muscles at EURO 2012. In short, this mix of events, which still makes us smile today, visually captured what some of the most important footballers of the era wore on their feet that fateful year, which effectively consecrated the adidas model known as the F50 adiZero. After the Predator, F50 is one of the most recognizable franchises of adidas; one of those that allows you to immediately associate a footballer with the boots they wore. Just consider the fact that Lionel Messi wore them when he scored an incredible 91 goals in 69 matches in 2012.

About a week ago, adidas announced the model's comeback through their social channels and those of the footballers. During the last matchday of the major European leagues (excluding Serie A, which will conclude between Thursday 23 and Sunday 27), it was worn by players of the caliber of Luis Díaz. The return of the Predator, which happened just a few months ago and was excellently sponsored by Trent Alexander Arnold and Jude Bellingham, and also reimagined in a special edition with the signature of Y-3 by Yohji Yamamoto, was successful, and it is clear that adidas wants to continue riding the wave of nostalgia, which today is the only strategy brands have to capture the interest of customers in their products.

The F50 history

When we talk about the F50, it's good to remember that this is a model that was launched 20 years ago, in 2004. The OG model has little in common with today's version, which has been reworked by adidas and made with new materials. Among the most famous versions of the first, genuine F50 is the spider web version, a silver and blue colour scheme decorated with a kind of spider web on the back and heel of the upper. However, the most famous and popular colour scheme of all came in 2010 with the launch of the F50 adiZero. It was given the name Chameleon and is exactly the first that adidas is bringing back to the market today. Lionel Messi (for the version with laces) and Heung-Min Son (for the version without laces) served as ambassadors. The Chameleon was joined in 2012 by the gold colourway, which was launched to celebrate Lionel Messi's Ballon D'Or win in 2012, and later by the Battle Pack, which was released in 2014 for the World Cup. However, one of the most fascinating colour variants in shades of red and yellow was the so-called miCoach model. It was characterised by the fact that you could insert the miCoach chip into the sole of the shoe, which recorded data such as average speed, maximum speed, number of sprints, distance and more. After the game, you could take it out and connect it to your computer via a USB port to download all the data.

The Most Beautiful F50 Colorways

There couldn't have been a more appropriate time with more hype to relaunch the F50 adipure. Now that the national championships and club competitions are winding down and the focus is on national team tournaments such as the Copa América and EURO24, two sporting events that are a great showcase for both the athletes taking part and the sportswear brands. If we close our eyes for even a second, we will feel transported back in time to 12 years ago and imagine that today's footballers are following in the footsteps of the legends who caused a sensation with their games in the early 2000s. In creating a Jude Bellingham who perfectly resembles Zinedine Zidane in terms of class and charisma, the adidas Predators played a rather prominent role, and therefore it would have been unthinkable for adidas not to do the same with other athletes who best represent the philosophy of the Three Stripes. A simple football shoe is capable of giving footballers an important aura precisely because it brings with it an endless array of memories and sensations, and football fans need little time to be caught up in the appeal of the footballer-shoe combination.