BY BEN STOCKTON
Carlos Gomez took to Instagram recently to give us all a sneak peak of a new adidas baseball model. Reminiscent of the Springblade Pros Upper and what looks to be a brand new plate. The other shoe in the post is the adidas Originals Tubular X and is available now, however I recommend the Primeknit versions to the regular mesh versions, albeit they retail at a higher price.
The massive ankle strap dominates the design of this cleat and likely will be a focus of adidas’ marketing campaign with this cleat, as a supportive alternative to the Afterburner and Energy Boost Icon. The strap will do it’s job and lock the wearer in and probably be essential to the fit of the cleat.
The upper’s “strap-like” triangular overlay reminds me of the Dynamic fit system of Nike and the cage of the Ultraboost. This should also lock the foot over the footbed. There appears to be a techfit based tongue which should enhance comfort and a textured toebox made of some sort of mystery material.
Mystery Cleats
The plate, on first glance, reminded me of the Under Armour Spine. Ultimately, it probably is an evolution of the PowerAlley plate and a refinement of it’s bulkiness.
Aesthetically, I think these cleats are one of the most striking and most appealing I’ve seen in a long time, since the original Spine Highlight. The panels and apparently the prints on the panels allow for a great deal of creativity and diversity in colorways and in themes. Likely these will be the prominent Special Edition cleats and will be featured in the playoffs.
Typically adidas sends out cleats to pros a month prior to a general release, so we can look for these to drop around Wild Card/Division Series time.
We contacted adidas for more details but have not heard back. If we get an update we’ll let you know.
