We open up our SoccerBible boot vault for the final time in 2010 with these limited edition David Beckham adidas Predator Pulse football boots from 2004. We’re ending the year on a high and bringing you exclusive images of the signature David Beckham Predator Pulse boots in there unique showcase...
With Beckham making headlines recently by being one of the main campaigners for England’s failed 2018 World Cup bid and also receiving the BBC Sports Personality life time achievement award, we thought it was a great time to take a look at one of his most famous pairs of boots…
With only 723 pairs ever being made by adidas, getting your hands on a pair of these was a tough ask. 723 pairs might seem like an odd number for adidas to produce worldwide but for those of you haven’t realised, 7 was Beckham’s number for Manchester United and 23 was his squad number for Real Madrid.
Adidas developed the boots solely around David Beckham. The unique footwear design was created exclusively for the England footballer who was directly involved in the development of the boot design. Adidas even went to the extent of only producing pairs that were the exact size specifications of Beckham’s feet! Only boots in size US 9 ½ and UK size 9 were made.
The boots were released just before the 2004 Euro Championships. Beckham wore them throughout the tournament and during part of the 2004/05 La Liga season for Real Madrid where he made up part of the original Madrid Galactico team.
The boots are inspired by the yin-yang philosophy. The adidas Predator Pulse football boots represented a revolutionary design concept in soccer footwear that combined power with elegance.
To represent the concept of Yin being passive and Yang being powerful, adidas designed the boot in two different colours. The left boot was made silver while the right was red. This was done to signify strength and smoothness on the left along with power and passion on the right.
Beckham鈥檚 own logo features on the heels of the boots. The famous Beckham logo was based on the pose he makes when running to take a free kick and was introduced to Beckham鈥檚 signature boots and products in 2004.
The adidas Predator Pulse football boots were the 7th edition in the adidas Predator story and benefited from a series of new technologies that placed the boot in a class of its own. Adidas objective when designing this boots was to give the player more kicking power, combined with the ability to swerve the ball with more accuracy.
One of the main and innovative characteristics of the adidas Predator Pulse football boots was the added momentum at the point of contact with the ball. The Predator Pulse football boots were the first to feature the new PowerPulse technology. The PowerPulse unit relocated 40 grams of the boots weight towards the front of the boot, therefore moving the centre of gravity closer to the point of impact. This increased the power of the kick, by enhancing the power transfer by 3% for every kick.
When you have a boot as exclusive as this, it wouldn’t seem right just to package it in a standard boot box. Adidas obviously thought the same when making the luxury presentation case which features a short biography book of Beckham’s football career.
As you’d expect, a boot like this didn’t come cheap. When they were first released, you would have to part with $900 to get a pair for yourself! It’s safe to say that you’d probably be looking at double that price for a pair now...
