Concave PT-1

It seems these days that all the soccer brands are attempting to develop new and revolutionary cleats, and Concave did just that with their first model, the PT-1. Concave created a cleat that ‘cupped’ the ball, henceforth the name, Concave. The company stated that this concave surface would add 15% power to the wearer’s shots, due to the cleat’s enlarged sweet spot. Previously on Soccer Equipment Reviews, we wrote a post heralding the coming of new soccer brand, Concave, and their new model, the PT-1 football boot. SER had previously heard about the company and their cleats, and we were eager to test out the cleats. Dave Frederick, VP Business Development, was kind enough to ship us out a pair of their cleats, and we would like to thank both him and Concave for allowing this review to happen. After all our testing and wearing of the cleats, here are our thoughts on the Concave PT-1 soccer cleat-

Power- With all of Concave’s talk of their surface, we knew the first thing we’d need to test out in the cleats would be the amount of power they added on while kicking a soccer ball. It was plainly evident that when you hit with your foot’s ‘sweet spot’, the contact feels great and power is definitely added to the kicker’s shot. However, when you don’t hit the ball just right, there is nothing really that remarkable about the shot, for it is about the same as any other cleat. Remember though what I stated earlier, that when hitting it pretty perfectly, you can feel the boost in power of your shots, and there is even a slight increase of accuracy there too. Concave certainly did well on the element of power with this cleat model.

Protection- Besides the concave element, the PT-1 probably sports the most protected cleat in the world. The hard plastic surface at the top of the soccer cleat, has two purposes, to add power to the shot, and secondly to protect its wearer metatarsal area. For years, soccer players have been plagued by the dreaded metatarsal injury, which have been caused by opponents’ studs landing on top of the cleat. The Concave team set out to ‘cure’ the problem, and they did that by reinforcing the whole top side of the boot, and when the Soccer Equipment Reviews team tested out the protection’s limits, we found that the MetaGuard does protect the player’s feet more than most other brands’ cleats. Not only did Concave place the MetaGuard into the PT-1, they also added the Shank Balance Stabilizer (SBS), which is an arch at the bottom of the cleat, meant to add support to the foot. With the SBS, we could only slightly feel the difference with it than without. If you’re a player looking for protection, the PT-1 should be at the top of your lists.

Comfort- While Concave were working ever so hard on the protection and power elements of their cleat, the comfort side of the PT-1 did not make me say ‘WOW’, as it was pretty mediocre in that sense. It did not give me blisters on my heels as many cleats do, however it did give me blisters on both feet on my fourth toes. It was the MetaGuard and upper concave surface that wore into those toes, however after a few uses, the blisters will stop coming as like it happens with most soccer cleats.

Look- When first starting out, Concave only sold one color of PT-1, the original black/red, but now they are expanding out, and produce a number of colors, including complete black, and white soccer cleats. When wearing them during a soccer game, I received many comments from my teammates, including, “Wow. You bought like the Iron Man cleats of soccer!” Although they are not the flashiest pair of soccer cleats out on the market, they definitely draw attention to the wearer.

Concave developed a cleat that may go on to revolutionize the world of soccer as we know it, and I congratulate them for that. As a final note, it would be best to slowly slide into consistent wearing of the PT-1, as it is very different from any other soccer cleat right now, so have another pair of cleats for use, at first when trying out the Concave PT-1.