TOP 5 ALL-TIME COOLEST FOOTBALL BOOT TECHNOLOGIES THAT WERE USELESS!

The best football boot technologies are equal parts cool and effective .

They have that wow factor .

But at the same time , they actually make a difference when it comes to overall performance .

However , the boot technologies that I'm about to show you definitely get the cool part right .

However , when it comes to effectiveness , they're just not that effective at all .

Mainly because they don't do anything .

What's going on guys , Josh from soccer reviews for you dot com , bringing the top five coolest football boot technologies that don't actually do anything .

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So you get notified when the next new video goes live with all that said in no particular order , here are some very cool but also very useless boot technologies , the Nike Mercurial Vapor Superfly one because it was vapor super fly before they just changed it to Straight up Superfly introduced a lot of brand new football boot tech .

Not only was it the first Superfly model for the Mercurial series .

It was the first one to feature fly wire cable , something that would become a staple of Nike's top end model like the vapor four sl it continued on with the carbon fiber soul plate , but most importantly and certainly the most useless element of this particular boot that I thought was the coolest thing ever as a child , the hollowed out studs .

Now , I know what you're thinking , Jeff , you're wrong .

The holes in the studs actually allow Nike to shave as much weight as possible from the boots and you'd be correct given the fact that the Mercurial Super Fly one was the lightest mercurial to date at that point , not including the limited edition carbon SL model , but here's the thing as soon as he took five steps on to the pitch , those holes in the studs , they just got filled in with dirt and , or mud .

Now , this is just a guess because Nike never published any official numbers on how much weight was actually saved by hallowing out the studs .

But just using simple logic here , let's say that maybe there is five g less weight because of the hollowed out studs .

Do you not think that the little bit of mud that's going to get clogged in these very small holes weighs that exact same five g that would have been there in the first place now .

Don't get me wrong .

I'm not hating on the hollowed out studs at all .

I thought it was the coolest thing as a kid .

And honestly , I still think it's very cool .

I wish they did something like this on the current Mercurial .

The Super Fly one was the first boot to feature the hollowed out studs , but it's something that they would include on future Super Fly models and future vapor models for a number of years up until the vapor 10 or vapor nine , vapor 10 and they cut out the holes completely .

Um So we just don't have it anymore , but if this is something that they brought back , I wouldn't be unhappy about it .

It's not that it impacts the performance of the boot negatively in any way at all .

It's just more or less kind of useless .

Very cool , but ultimately useless .

So just as a side note because I know somebody's going to point it out technically because there's a hole in the stud , there is less life to the length of the studs .

Meaning that when they start to wear down , once you get to that hole , the boots are basically broken .

I don't really view that as a significant issue , but I guess if that's a worry or a concern , you probably wouldn't want boots with holes in the studs , lace covers , they cover the laces , that's it .

So the function of a lace cover is pretty self explanatory whether or not they improve performance , however , is a matter of opinion .

And when it comes to touch , I would argue that more material is always worse than less material .

Yes , the laces are covered .

But if you're adding more material on top of the laces to make for a cleaner touch , is it really a cleaner touch when you're adding more material between your foot and the ball lace cover design has also changed a lot over the years , you might not realize it .

But the fold over flat tongue on an old school pair of copas exist to cover the laces , the knot across the top of your foot to make for a cleaner striking surface .

Is that actually the case ?

No , it's just a giant chunk of leather added to the top of your foot that most people would rather not have there in the first place .

But that at one point was considered boot technology because it's a lace cover .

It evolved a lot over the years on the Predator series with these big fold over flap tongues that are held down by elasticated straps .

Again , it just added bulk on top of the foot .

It looks great , but is it really improving performance ?

Definitely not .

Then we had kind of a first take on a more modernized cover in 2004 with the O G F 50 model that had a very interesting design .

This is almost part of the boot rather than a lace cover .

But again , is it really improving performance because of this design ?

Probably not .

And then we had this very weird kind of loose lace cover on the Vapor Four that some people love .

Some people hated .

Most people actually hated it not necessary .

One brand even went as far as to add a zipper to their lace cover when I was a kid , the Nike Mercurial Vapor Four S L got me very , very excited .

And for one reason only the carbon fiber Soul plate , not only does it look incredible .

Not only does carbon fiber scream lightweight , strong and expensive .

It just has that wow factor .

I don't think there's anybody on planet Earth that thinks that this is uncool .

Here's the thing though as cool as it is , it doesn't actually make for any kind of performance benefit .

Now , I recently made a video where I told the story of how I had my heart broken by a pair of Mercurial Vapor four S L s and the carbon fiber Soul plate .

If you missed that video , I'll leave a little pop up on screen .

But basically long story short , there was some major durability issues with this first generation carbon fiber soul plate on the vapor four S L where it would crack in the middle , almost guaranteed within the first couple weeks of use .

Either way it is something that Nike would improve over future generations .

The Super Fly 12 and three , all featured carbon fiber soul plates .

They rolled out the Elite Series where they incorporated carbon fiber soul plates on the T M O T 90 N C T R 360 line .

It was all very cool and because nobody else was doing carbon fiber , it allowed Nike to charge some ridiculously high prices for anything that had this very cool , highly sought after soul plate and it form is great .

It feels great .

But then in 2010 , Adidas put out the F 50 A zero that was entirely made out of plastic .

And granted does feel very plastic but it was way lighter than the super light , super premium , super expensive carbon fiber soul plates that Nike was pushing for the last couple of years .

And it basically made this an obsolete technology as cool and premium as Nike's carbon fiber soul plate was with really the whole angle find it was to make for the lightest possible boots .

Adidas proved that plastic technology had gotten to a point where they could make boots out of plastic that were way lighter than the Nike carbon fiber ones way cheaper than the Nike carbon fiber ones .

And ultimately better overall if we're being realistic because while this looks incredible , it kind of just feels like a regular soul plate or at least the difference isn't as significant as you'd expect .

And to be the carbon fiber technology , there's no doubt that they can make carbon fiber much lighter and much stronger than plastic .

But in the form of a football boot , in order to achieve that level of quality and that level of craftsmanship , you'd probably be paying 800 to $200 for a single pair of football boots made out of ultra premium carbon fiber , which I don't think anybody really wants to do .

Therefore , plastic boots are probably the way to go .

What's more comfortable than a pair of socks .

Answer nothing , which is why we now have sock boots because they're more comfortable .

Apparently , even though the first ones definitely gave you blisters almost 100% guaranteed and ankle support .

There's , there's lots of that .

This is pure ankle support .

In 2014 , Adidas unveiled the prime knit F S A knee high , extremely goofy pair of football boots that would never see the light of day while Nike on the other hand , put out the Maja Oprah one and the Mercurial Super Fly for the return of the Super Fly and the introduction of mid cut knitted football boots A K A sock boots .

Aside from the fact that these were the first boots to feature a knitted upper , something that would become very popular in the football boot industry .

When this boot first launched , all the attention was on the fact that it had a mid cut design , this extra bit of elasticated material , wrapping your ankle that some people viewed as an ankle support element .

Some people viewed it as a comfort element .

But the marketing pitch from Nike is that the logic behind this was if they were going to make a sock , like upper made out of knitted material , didn't it just make sense to extend it into your ankle area and up your leg as a pair of would fit ?

And that's really the logic behind it .

It was supposed to create this seamless transition from your leg to your foot .

No real performance benefit .

Just a difference when it came to fit and feel .

And that's really all mid callers ever set out to be to create this seamless transition from your leg to your foot and to give the boots a unique look or at least something that we had never really seen before .

Some people love the look .

Some people hate it , but there was never any intention of restricting movement of the ankle or adding ankle support .

That's something that people just straight up made up .

So if you want to believe that your mid cup boots give you ankle support by all means , go and do so .

But the reality of the situation is that this is just sock like material socks never gave you ankle support .

So this doesn't either .

It's a very cool football boot technology that ultimately doesn't do anything except if you're playing on turf .

It doesn't let the little rubber pellets get inside , which I guess is kind of convenient that was however an unintended benefit .

The Super Fly one introduced so much new tech to the football boot industry that it would be a very difficult boot to follow up .

But Nike did with the Super Fly two , it maintained the fly wire , it maintained the Tagen synthetic , it maintained the carbon fiber soul plate , even the hollowed out studs , but they added one new technology that would prove to be completely useless .

And that is the Nike Sense studs positioned on the medial side of the four ft , as well as at the tip of the toe .

You're going to find two little bladed studs with a circular stud pushing through the middle .

It has an orange tip and a little bit of a translucent middle part that translucent middle part is to show the sense studd mechanism that is apparently in there .

It's pretty much impossible to see .

And if you saw any of the advertising for the Super Fly too , it shows lots on Ibrahimovic .

It showed Cristiano Ronaldo basically running with this side view of the field where you can see these studs sticking out through the middle and clawing into the ground .

The idea with the sense stud is that the central conical piece through the middle would actually extend when the ground was softer and retract when the ground was harder , basically allowing the stud pattern to adapt to the plane surface .

Therefore allowing for ultimate traction .

Here's the thing though .

They , they don't move like at all , I'm not sure if this comes down to misleading marketing .

But all the material for the scent studs really made it seem like this central conical stud sticking through the middle of this kind of doughnut shaped opening would actually extend and retract pretty significantly .

But if you look closely , it's all one single unit , it's not actually a stand alone stud through the middle that has the ability to extend or retract .

Basically , I don't think that this central stud moves any more than maybe a quarter of a millimeter and any movement just seems to be from the flex of the plastic due to the weight of your entire body standing on top of the boots .

So realistically , the stud shape is unique , but the actual movement of the stud doesn't seem to happen at all .

The concept of the cent studs is very cool but the execution is more or less a fail and a fail from the perspective that the studs don't actually move .

You can't see it , you can't feel it , but the actual performance of the stud pattern is very good .

So I don't want to knock it in that way .

These should have been called the Nike nonsense studs .

OK .

I'll stop .

And I guess an honorable mention goes out to Nike AC C .

All conditions control technology .

I'm of the opinion that it doesn't do anything at all .

Some people swear by this technology , but at the end of the day , it's completely invisible .

And if Nike doesn't physically write AC C on the upper of your football boots , there is absolutely no way to know that your boots do in fact have or don't have AC C and for those that will ask why it didn't include lace boots as a cool technology that's completely useless .

Well , it's not exactly useless because if you buy a lace boot , it is , in fact lace , which makes it different from other football boots that do have laces , the way it impacts performance will be positive or negative depending on the actual boot itself as well as your personal preferences .

So while I'm not a huge fan of boots , I don't think that the technology as a whole is useless .

I kind of think it's a little dumb but not useless anyways guys , that's it for this one .

If you enjoyed this video , please support it with a like and let me know if I missed anything because there are plenty of very cool but very useless technologies that I didn't discuss in today's video .

These are just the five that I thought were the most cool and also the most useless at the same time .

Other than that , if you have any questions regarding anything I talked about today , leave it down below in the comments and I'll do my best to get an answer out to you as soon as I possibly can .

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But other than that guys , thank you so much for watching and we'll see you in the next one .