The Champions League Final is one of the most important dates on the football calendar year in and year out. It is a showpiece occasion for the players with the opportunity to win one of the sport’s biggest trophies. It is also a major opportunity for the manufacturers to show off their new products with much of the world watching the match.
adidas Battle Pack and Nike Magista make Champions League Final debuts
Laurence Griffiths
On the pitch at Estádio da Luz in Lisbon, adidas and Nike both took hold of the opportunity to show off their new gear. Just about every player on both Atletico Madrid and Real Madrid had either the Three Stripes or the Swoosh on their feet, save for Atleti's Gabi and Diego Godin with both in the Puma evoPOWER Tricks.
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adidas, officially debuting the Battle Pack on the pitch, had the players out in full force. In the Atletico Madrid camp, there were three players wearing the F50 boot with David Villa, Diego Costa, Filipe Luis, and Juanfran in the speed boot. Miranda was the sole Predator Instinct wearer in the Atleti starting lineup while Tiago was the only man in red and white wearing the 11Pro boot. Finally, there was Koke, who wore the Nitrocharge. As for the Real Madrid camp, Iker Casillas and Angel Di Maria wore the Predator Instinct boots while Karim Benzema, Fábio Coentrão, and Gareth Bale were all in the F50.
Nike, on the other hand (or foot) had more than their fair share of players on the pitch. Of the eight men wearing the Swoosh on both teams, four (Sergio Ramos, Raphael Varane, and Daniel Carvajal) wore the Tiempo V. Luka Modric and Cristiano Ronaldo both wore the Mercurial Vapor boot but with the Superfly IV scheduled for a World Cup debut, the pair stayed in their respective Vapor IX colorways.
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The major talking point for Nike though was the launch of the Magista boot in an impossible-to-miss Volt / Hyper Punch colorway. Both teams had representatives in the new boot with Raul Garcia and Thibaut Courtois lacing up the boot for Atletico Madrid and Sami Khedira doing the same for Real.
Khedira and Garcia both wore the top-of-the-line Magista Obra boot that features a FlyKnit upper and Dynamic Fit Collar around the ankle. Goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois did something different, instead opting for the next level down, the Magista Opus. Courtois’ boot differentiates itself from the Obra for two main reasons. First, it ditches the collar with a more traditional opening in its stead and second, it features the Kanga Lite upper found on the CTR boot that came before it.
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Both sets of boots look great on the field and it will be fun to see both lineups from Nike and adidas in action this summer during the World Cup in Brazil.
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