adidas F50 Rises from the Ashes

As a lad, I naturally bought into the F50’s undeniable allure — well, actually, my parents did, as I was only 8 when I first laced up my Infrared F50 Adizeros. I was inspired by watching players like David Villa, who wore the cleats and embodied the product’s ethos of speed and precision to a tee — a sentiment that remains present today as I set my uni’s intramural league ablaze like David Villa once did for Barcelona in the early 2010s. In essence, these cleats were my first love. They helped me delusionally compensate for my natural lack of pace, which kept me far from the wing and rather tucked in as a holding/attacking mid for most of my career. But more than that, the cleats made the sport feel so much more real for me as I only continued to fall deeper in love with the beautiful game. Moreover, as many F50-sporting players can attest, the boots' influence reaches far beyond the field. I vividly remember the countless hours playing FIFA Street, where I dressed my players head to toe in F50 tracksuits with retrospectively hideous track capris that left plenty of room for the indoor model of the F50s to be seen. I say this all to illustrate how the line made an irreplicable and long-lasting impression on footballing culture on and off the pitch, and the hype surrounding its reintroduction is an undeniable testament to that.

This new chapter couldn’t have come at a better time for U.S. soccer fans and players alike as we gear up for an exciting era for the sport, highlighted by this summer’s Copa América, and the closely trailing 2026 World Cup, both taking place within the States. The anticipation for the sport and the state of U.S. Soccer as a whole was on another level during the June 10th event hosted at the new adidas Fútbol Society space in Williamsburg. The event featured a collection of their new Copa kits, including Argentina, Mexico, Peru, and Jamaica jerseys on display, along with the highly anticipated F50 cleats, framed against retro adidas memorabilia, adding historical context to the iconic line. To cap off the event, we sat down with Trinity Rodman of the USWNT and Sam Handy, who articulated what everyone felt in the room: Soccer is very much alive and well in the States, and thank god we can put our trusty F50s back in the rotation and wrap up that little decade-long identity crisis adidas put us through.