I remember growing up as a kid that your football boots came in black, and if you were really lucky, you might get a couple of white stripes down the sides. Things have changed to the point where they come in all shapes and sizes, and a new pair from Adidas – which are just about to launch to the general public – come with their own on board computer that stores data and helps analyze your personal performance.
As soon as you have finished playing, the boots will transmit the data wirelessly to your computer, phone or tablet. It records your speed, distance traveled and top speeds as well as monitoring everything you do at one second intervals.
This is going to bring a whole new level to tactical analysis, even at an amateur level, and Adidas are hoping that the social element is the part that really drives the uptake. You can imagine people uploading their stats to their Facebook profiles and discussing who on the team had put the most effort in while the people not working for the team will be quickly found out.
Professional players will be able to start using the boots from mid-November onwards and many of the world’s biggest stars will start sharing their stats with the Adidas community. Football is a sport that has not been massively changed by technology – the only real innovation coming at professional level – but it’s great to see a company like Adidas bringing something like this to market.