Adidas: a laceless revolution

The very first months of 2016 were marked by a certain mystery around the image of Paul Pogba. No, it didn’t happen because of a transfer to Barcelona, ​​not even for his eccentric hairstyles: his boots were the ones to be talked about.

Until last month, Paul Pogba, despite being one of the most exposed player in Europe (certainly in Italy), had not signed a sponsorship agreement yet. He went on the field once with adidas shoes, once with Nike ones - that in an occasion drews a custom shoe in the French flag colors. The secret was unveiled last March, when on his social media, adidas announced ITS contract (10 years and many millions of euro, probably 5) with the French player. To emphasize this deal, even rapper Pusha T welcomed him "in the adidas family" on Twitter, with a video soon become viral.

But not only. Adidas wanted to link the name of the new star of French football to one of its most revolutionary creations: the Ace Purecontrol. The first  Pogba signature, which a month later is not yet clear whether it's called Pogbance (Pogba + Dance) or Pogboom (Pogbaboom), is part of the limited Laceless family: black, with gold inserts, heel goldenrod and, precisely without laces.

With a curvature of the three strips that recalls the legendary predator, negligible weight, Ace + 16 Purecontrol have been a real step into the future by adidas. The idea is, of course, and as mentioned by name, to want to provide a "pure" control of the ball to the player, by taking as a benchmark the bare foot. In the modern era of super adherent football boots, carbon fiber and super-light, the only reason of concern remained the laces. The idea to eliminate them seems to come directly from a player, according to some the only number 10 remained in circulation (number associated with the playmaker and then to the more technical player of the team) Mesut Ozil. At the launch of the first version (almost fluorescent green) in fact, the Arsenal player had stated "Throughout my career I have tried to minimize the impact of the laces on my shots and my ball control. In 2014 told adidas that, in the locker room, I tied the laces several times and then insert them into the ends, so it does not interfere with my touch", a problem shared by everyone who has ever played football.

A version also shared by those who those shoes has drawn: the vice president of design department adidas Sam Handy. In an interview with hypebeast, Handy said he thought the Purecontrol first of all to satisfy the needs of gamers. He recalled how the principle that inspired the realization was what has always led the division of adidas Originals in the manufacture of his biggest hits, "A lot of the shoes in the Originals range were high end performance items when they were first released — the Superstar was a high performance basketball shoe, Stan Smith was the first leather tennis shoe — they were all built with a clear purpose in mind and were designed for the highest performing athlete of that time. This boot is the same." 

But what's so revolutionary that boots, to afford to eliminate the hassle of laces? First of all an old trick, modernized for eventualities: the three stripes on the side in fact take the role originally intended for them by Adi Dassler, namely to wrap around the foot. The rest is done by the TPU and Primeknit technologies. Adidas has invested all about communication of Laceless, one of its three prominent lines, in particular with the campaign "Boss Everyone" that a few months ago in this part began to monopolize the attention of users, especially now that European Championship is approaching.

For the huge event adidas has, of course, prepared a special release of Purecontrol, with a very particular color which will add to those Shock Blue, Total Black (the first with which Pogba was seen), in addition to the aforementioned green and a version inverted colors black and green. The site Footy Headlines managed to have leaked images of Purecontrol Euro 2016, which will follow the general adidas line and will be silver with inserts of a green even more acid on the part of the instep.

 With the approaching end of some leagues and the Champions League semi-finals in the race, the race for the European Championships, to be played in France, has just begun. Directions from adidas face and on his shoulders the weight of a whole nation must not be bad for Pogba. In the meantime, including a step of dab and the other, he enjoys his Pogbance (with the ball) and its new, revolutionary, shoes.