The first time I saw a pair of Adidas Predators was in 1994, when a team-mate in my Saturday league side rushed towards me in a panic moments before kick-off, whispering: “Look, their striker’s wearing those new boots.” The implication was that anyone wearing a pair would be able to bend the ball in the top corner from pretty much anywhere. This was down to the boots being covered in rubber fins, which were supposed to provide better grip and control of the ball as well as more swerve and power when shooting. Some of my team-mates were dismissive of the boots because the player wearing them wasn’t able to channel his inner Romário and score a hatful of outrageous goals.

Of course, that expectation was totally unrealistic. Footwear alone couldn’t transform a player’s performance, although the original Predator advert did its best to convince otherwise. The target audience was probably unconcerned that the famously lugubrious Geoffrey Palmer did the voiceover. In the film the ball is booted in the air before a player wearing Predators brings it down and glides past a series of challenges. The most powerful part of the advert was saved until the end, where the boots were described as “100% legal, 0% fair”.

Adidas Predator football boot from 1994. Photograph: Handout Photograph: Adidas

The boot’s concept wasn’t purely marketing spiel – there seemed to be some credence in the idea that a sticky rubber material would be better at manipulating a ball than traditional leather. Adidas put a high price on the Predator, with the boots retailing at over £100.

Former Liverpool midfielder Craig Johnston came up with the idea when trying to help the children he was coaching with ball control. His initial prototype consisted of the rubber from table tennis bats attached to his boots with an elastic band. Three years and about 100 designs later he was ready to find a backer for his new product. Having been turned down by pretty much every manufacturer, including Adidas, Johnston approached Bayern Munich, supposedly gatecrashing a board meeting involving Franz Beckenbauer and Karl-Heinz Rummenigge. When they agreed to try the boots, he filmed them on the training ground passing to one another and nodding their heads in approval. Johnston used this footage to convince Adidas to do a deal.

The Predator now has quite a history. David Beckham was wearing a pair when he scored against Wimbledon from the halfway line at Selhurst Park in 1996; Zinedine Zidane, too, when he scored twice, albeit with his head, in the 1998 World Cup final.

What the boots no longer have are the rubber fins that made their name. Adidas continually reduced the amount of rubber on each new Predator boot and by 2002 it had disappeared, so either the fins were a failed gimmick, or the rubber was seen as an unnecessary cost once the boot had established itself. Since the Predator, boot innovation has tended to focus on weight. This has gone a step further with Nike and Adidas launching their all-in-one knitted hybrid sock Magista and Primeknit boots which provide a second skin, ideal for the playmaker. Andrés Iniesta did his bit for public relations by describing Nike’s version as “comfortable”. While this may be the case, it remains to be seen how a two-inch sock-lining stitched into a knitted shoe will stand up to boggy municipal pitches up and down the country. Cristiano Ronaldo does his best to address this in the advert, which features a group of young men with vivid imaginations having a kickabout. One decides he is Ronaldo and is then transformed into him through CGI. He outmuscles the entire opposition as though they were small children and smashes an unstoppable curler in off the underside of the crossbar.



The problem is that anyone watching the ad will have quickly forgotten about the amateur playing like a pro because he’s got fancy footwear; the message about the boots is lost as it becomes more about someone who can transform into a famous footballer.

At first glance there’s something distinctly ludicrous about knitted boots but that hasn’t prevented a huge amount of excitement being generated about them online. Innovation comes in handy if you want to sell a football boot but what is really needed these days is a video featuring a star cameo and a hashtag – the public will do the rest.

• This article first appeared on When Saturday Comes

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