Boot spotting: 29th October

It has been another massive week of football, from UEFA Champions League games to the regular Premier League games, it was all topped off with one of the fiercest derbies in English football as Manchester United asserted their dominance over Chelsea at Stamford Bridge. Soccer Reviews is your only source on the net to exclusively bring you this weekend’s hottest boot spots first. Take a look at what caught our eye this week…

Marco Reus (Borussia Dortmund) – Puma PowerCat 1.12 SL

The Puma PowerCat 1.12 certainly does not have a lack of big name endorsers. From strikers (Peter Crouch), hardy midfielders (Michael Carrick) and attacking midfielders (Cesc Fabregas), the PowerCat 1.12 is much more popular than it’s predecessor. However, all of these athletes wear the normal version of the PowerCat 1.12. Macro Reus is one of very few players wearing the SL version of the boot, and it is interesting to see the Puma sponsored athlete has chosen the SL over the normal version worn by the aforementioned footballers.

Aaron Hunt (Werder Bremen) – Nike Mercurial Vapor VIII (Custom)

If you want a bright pair of boots, you can definitely look towards the Nike Mercurial Vapor VIII for a range of sometimes retina burning football boots. Yet blacking out the boot may be the only choice for those searching for the ultimate in understating and classy boots. It seems Aaron Hunt has definitely given his Mercurial Vapor VIIIs the blackout treatment, and judging by the workmanship, it looks like a professional paint job.

Joe Hart (Manchester City) – Umbro Geometra Pro-A

The ‘will he, won’t he’ situation regarding Joe Hart’s boots is still going. We saw Joe Hart wearing Nike Tiempo Legend IV in training a few weeks ago, but Hart is yet to give the boots it’s first outing in a professional game. Considering that Umbro were finally sold by Nike this week, we are not too sure whether we will see the keeper wear his Umbro Geometra Pro-A boots through to the end of the year.

Henrique (Brisbane Roar) – Pele Sports Trinity 3E (Custom)

There is something about Henrique’s boots that we cannot quite put our finger on. While Henrique is wearing the Pele Sports Trinity 3E, the stud configuration is very different to the one used on the regular model that has made the boot famous. The likely solution is that Henrique has had his boots customised with a regular soleplate, similar to that found on the junior model, but it is unlike Pele Sports to customise boots for the purposes of a single player.

Kevin Doyle (Wolverhampton) – Puma EvoSpeed 1

While we doubt any athletes would be brave enough to wear the limited edition Ducati themed Puma EvoSpeed 1 SL that was released last week, it has been surprising to see that the majority of Puma EvoSpeed athletes have been very slow in updating their boots to the new colour ways as they are released. Bar new signing Gael Clichy and Wolves striker Kevin Doyle, very few athletes have been seen in the new Silver/Green/Violet colour way.

Shinji Ono (Western Sydney) – Asics

The arrival of three big name players has suddenly made the Australian A-League an interesting league to watch. While Alesaandro Del Piero and the league’s top goalscorer Emile Heskey (I kid you not) are ripping it up for their respective teams, Japanese legend Shinji Ono has taken a little bit more time to settle in. He is also settling in to a new pair of boots, and it is a pair of Asics boots we have never seen before. Asics does seem to release unique boots into the Japanese market, and it seems this could be a Japanese exclusive Asics boot. Does anyone know much about the boot?

Maynor Figueroa (Wigan) – Nike Total 90 Laser III

You know the times when you want to pull out one of your favourite boots just for the sake of it? We think Maynor Figueroa may have had that feeling this weekend. While he has been wearing the sharp Black/Silver/Yellow adidas miCoach F50 adiZero for much of this season, he made a switch to the White/Crimson/Silver T90 Laser III this weekend. It may be a temporary switch, but it is interesting to see such an old release among a flood of new football boots.

Yuki Otsu (VVV Venlo) – Nike Tiempo Legend IV (Custom)

We speculated above that Shinji Ono may be wearing a pair of Asics boots unique to the Japanese football boot market, and we suspect something similar with Yuki Otsu’s boots. The Legend IV normally comes with a TPU soleplate, Otsu has what appears to be a fully conical (potentially HG) soleplate on his boots. HG boots released just to the Japanese market is something that has been done for years, and we know you cannot get these boots anywhere in Europe, adding to the mystery of Otsu’s boots.

That is it for this week’s boot spotting. What was your favourite spot this week? Share your thoughts in the comments section below.