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What's going on guys , Josh from soccer reviews for you dot com .
The Puma Future 18.1 .
Should you wear them with or without laces ?
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I don't know why I just picked these up , but so you might be wondering why you'd wear the Puma Future without any laces at all given that it is a boot designed specifically around customizing the lacing system through its full on net fit system .
Well , you might have seen the video that I made on Marco Royce and basically ever since his return from injury wearing the brand new Puma Future , he has not yet worn them with laces .
He wears them as a lace boot .
And if you look at any of Puma's marketing , it's all around the lacing system .
The boot is all about laces .
So the fact that one of their biggest name , endorsed athletes is wearing them lace is kind of a controversial topic .
So I decided to try it out myself .
Now , the main reason why you're able to wear these without laces in the first place is because of the one piece upper construction , the entire upper base is made out of their evo knit material , fully elasticated across the top of the foot .
And of course , extending into that collar and then more structured through the rest of the shoe .
There's fuse layers on top the net fit system on top of that .
And then more fuse , especially in the four ft , the high wear zones where not going to be putting any laces .
Of course , there are no lace holes anywhere on the shoe because the lace is attached to the upper by way of the netting where every single position within the open netted area , you can use as a lacing position to just thread the laces through .
And this is my personal lacing set up for the Puma future .
It's kind of something that once you have on your feet , you can play around the lacing system and come up with something that feels really good to you from a comfort as well as lockdown perspective , remove the laces entirely and you're left with a shoe that looks like this , a one piece enclosure for your foot that does have admittedly a very sock like sensation and then across the top of the foot where you would normally have laces , you're left with this elasticated evo knit material that does stretch pretty easily .
I will say that however , from a lockdown perspective with no laces at all , the amount of lockdown that you get from the Puma future honestly isn't too far off from true lace boots like the Adidas Predator 18 plus or even the nemesis 17 plus from A which is very , very interesting and something that I was not expecting at all .
Now , if you watch that original video that I made on Marco Royce wearing the Puma Future without any laces , I had a theory that perhaps he was wearing a custom variation of the Puma future that looked like the normal one but was actually a true lace boot with more structure than what the normal one would have and maybe it was just a camouflage test bed for something coming in the future from Puma .
No pun intended there .
But now that I've actually tried it out , honestly , these are , are actually wearable without any laces .
I wouldn't necessarily say that it's better but they're definitely wearable .
So with laces given that you have them set up properly , the Puma future feels really , really good .
It's got adequate lockdown , it feels relatively responsive .
It's an overall fairly lightweight issue and they're also very comfortable with pretty much no break in time required without laces .
To my surprise , they weren't uncomfortable in any way .
Yes , I did notice that there is a significant loss of lockdown , especially in the mid and heel area and we'll talk about that more in just a second , but my heel was not slipping to the point where I experienced any kind of discomfort , felt like I was going to get blisters or anything like that .
It was kind of just an annoying slight heel slippage that was definitely manageable .
Although something that personally , if I had the option to go without , I would go without it and just wear them with laces and have that extra bit of lockdown .
Really , when you wear the huma future without laces , it's not that your foot feels insecure .
It just doesn't feel as locked in as a boot with laces would provide like the laced version of the Puma future .
So it's kind of the same complaint that I've always had about lace boots is that I personally like my shoes to feel very secure and a little bit more snug and tight on my feet .
You don't get that same sensation when you wear them without laces .
But if that's not something that bothers you , then you're probably going to like the way that these feel as they do feel a lot like other lace boots on the market now as wearable as these are lace during more low intensity movements like jogging , juggling , passing the ball , stuff like that when it came to more high intensity stuff like sprinting planting for a really hard strike , a quick stop , a quick change of direction , those types of movements where you're introducing a lot of speed and a lot more strength where you want the boot to kind of hold its shape and maintain its stability .
That's where I ran into issues with wearing these lace list and honestly wasn't too far off from the same issues that I've had with other lace boots in the past .
Now , for me , the biggest issue when it came to wearing these lace list , an issue that I simply do not have when the laces are in holding my foot in place properly , is discomfort and instability when planting my foot to strike the ball .
Now , when I go to shoot the ball and I've made a video about this in the past , the plant foot is where all of the power comes from .
You run towards the ball generally with a little bit more speed if you're trying to hit it with more power and you plant your foot .
Now , of course , this features an F G A stud pattern .
The grip is absolutely fantastic on artificial grass with this particular boot .
So the studs dig in really , really effectively all of energy now gets transferred into the upper .
And when the laces are there , you have those laces holding the mid foot area in place , preventing your foot from moving up off the base of the sole .
And it's basically driving your heel and it's driving your foot into the base of the soul .
So nothing is moving around when there's no laces , there's no tension pushing your heel down .
So what ends up happening is this fully elasticated bit across the top of the foot ?
That is basically the only thing holding it down ends up stretching because there's a lot of force being applied .
So what ends up happening is your foot is kind of like in a free float inside of the shoe where my foot ends up lifting and it ends up sliding forward and essentially jamming against the front of the shoe .
I had the sizing .
Absolutely fantastic .
I've even played around with different sizes , both a nine and a 9.5 to see if it made any difference with or without laces .
And honestly , when I wear these , without laces , I find it uncomfortable , I find it unstable when I plan to strike the ball .
And I just don't like having my foot move around on me .
Again .
When I go plant for a strike , it doesn't feel right , it feels uncomfortable .
And again , it's just not an issue that I have when I have laces in the boot , holding everything in place properly .
Now , just like shooting when it comes to sprinting , quick changes of direction , even skill moves , you're definitely going to notice that your foot is not secure when you're wearing these lace lists .
Simply because this top piece when any kind of excessive speed or force is applied is going to stretch .
So as long as that is stretching , that means you're losing some kind of lockdown , some kind of stability .
I found when sprinting , especially again , everyone's got a little bit of a different style here .
I could definitely feel the top part of the upper stretching on my feet , which wasn't so unstable to where I felt like I was unsafe , but I found it very , very annoying and I'd rather have the shoe kind of stuck on my feet .
That's something that's always been a very important characteristic for me as well as a lot of people when it comes to a speed boot .
And I think many would consider the puma future to be a speed boot .
So if you want that speed boot to have the most locked in responsive sensation , the stability on your feet , definitely wearing them with the laces is the way to go .
You can get away with wearing them lace less , but I definitely think that they perform better when you have the laces in place , holding everything together .
As far as touching control is concerned .
I really didn't notice any kind of difference between wearing them with laces or without .
There's not really any major added bulk across the top of the foot when you have a lacing system in place .
And if anything when I was making contact with the ball , especially when juggling , I just felt like the shoes were more secure on my feet with the laces in place because they legitimately were .
So , ultimately , it's something that does have a personal preference aspect to it .
But as far as a tangible performance gain or loss from having the laces or having no laces in the upper , I just don't think there is one .
You could also argue that going lace would make the shoes a little bit lighter .
But if you think of a couple of grams , the laces weigh as far as weight savings are concerned , is going to benefit your performance in any way at all , then you're more optimistic than I am .
So in conclusion , should you wear the Puma future with or with laces ?
And I'll say right off the bat that these are better lace list than I was expecting them to be .
But I think if you're legitimately looking for the best performance characteristics out of your $220 Puma futures wearing them with laces and utilizing this net fit system , that really is the main design aspect of the shoe is going to have the biggest benefit for you in regards to performance in regards to lockdown , stability , responsiveness and overall comfort .
Long term .
Because if you are a little bit more to rubbing in the heel area , you're definitely going to get more movement in the heel area wearing them lace list rather than with laces where everything is properly secured inside of the shoe .
So my overall opinion on this is that laced is definitely the way to go for the Puma future .
However , if you purchase the pair and you just want to try it out , go ahead and wear them in a training without any laces just to see what it's like .
But for the most part , if you're looking for pure performance , wearing them laced is in my opinion , the best way to wear these things .
Clearly , Marco Royce disagrees with me .
But again , try this out yourself if you have these things and let me know how it goes for you down below in the comments .
Anyways , guys , that is it for my lace list play test review of the Puma future 18.1 .
I think that these are hugely underrated and legitimately one of the best top end models out there right now .
If you are interested in a pair for yourself , I'll leave a little pop up on screen or you can click the first link down below that will take you to the review page on my website where you'll find buy now , links with exclusive S R for your coupon codes .
You'll be able to pick these up below their normal $220 retail price in all the currently available color ways .
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And if you do have any questions for me at all regarding the Puma futures or even suggestions for future play test videos .
Leave them down below in the comments and I'll do my best to get an answer out to you as soon as I possibly can subscribe .
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Other than that guys hope you enjoyed the video as always .
Thanks for watching .
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