What’s the most iconic football boot of all time?
That really depends on who you ask and how old that person is, but the ADIDAS Predator
is certainly in the conversation.
Almost three decades after its initial release and after many redesigns, the Predator retains
its iconic status in football and will forever be associated with some of the greatest players
of any generation.
But where did it come from?
Its story begins in an unlikely place, with Australian midfielder Craig Johnston.
Johnston was a member of the great Liverpool teams of the 1980s, winning five league titles,
an FA Cup and a European Cup under Bob Paisley, Joe Fagan and Kenny Dalglish.
But when his sister was involved in a life-changing accident, he would retire from the game at
just 27 and return to his native Australia.
Johnston was an unusual 80s footballer with an inquisitive mind and a restless entrepreneurial
spirit and those virtues would be the basis for his life’s next act.
One day, back in Australia, a group of local children knocked on his door and asked if
he wouldn’t mind taking one of their coaching sessions.
Johnston agreed and during one of the sessions, he was teaching the young players how to curve
the ball.
“I said ‘look, when you swerve a ball you’ve got to bite the ball on the outside
– a little bit like a table-tennis bat.
And they said ‘well, that’s fine Mr Johnston, but our football boots are made of leather,
it’s raining and it’s slippery.
And we don’t have table-tennis bats on our feet.”
They were right.
But Johnston knew how to help.
He ran home, ripped the rubber off a table-tennis racket, and taped it to the outside of one
of his boots with a rubber band.
When he kicked a ball with his improvised, proto-predator, the grip – or bite – was
so pronounced that it actually made a squeaking noise.
So, it worked.
Johnston would patent the design, but he had a long and expensive road ahead.
From 1990 onwards, he spent an estimated £250,000 on prototypes and patents and had approached,
but been rejected by ADIDAS, NIKE and Puma.
Then, a stroke of luck.
By his own recollection, Johnston turned up unannounced at Bayern Munich.
ADIDAS were the true football manufacturer of the time and they were also originally
a German company; who better than legends of German football to help make the case for
his latest prototype?
In that form, Johnston conceded that the boot was “horrible”.
That it was more like a “windsurfing boot made of rubber”, but – somehow – he
convinced former Bayern greats Paul Breitner, Franz Beckenbauer and Karl-Heinz Rummenigge
to model it for him, and to take part in an impromptu kickabout in the Bavarian snow.
Armed with a cheap camcorder, Johnson was able to capture their approval and, with the
testimony of some immortals of German football in his pocket, headed for ADIDAS’s headquarters
in Nuremberg.
Part of the resistance that Johnson had faced arose because what he was proposing was different.
Even as recently as the 1990s, football boot design took few risks and the only distinguishing
features brand to brand were the quality of leather, the type of studs, and the colour
of the finish.
For instance, the boots Diego Maradona wore at the 1990 World Cup were simple black and
white Pumas.
In the final of that tournament, Argentina faced a German side mainly decked out in ADIDAS
Mundials which, while a sleek boot and an enduring, classy design, were stitched together
in exactly the same way and from the same material.
With his design, Johnston was really proposing a revolution.
Nevertheless, he begged his way back in front of the ADIDAS’s executives who had rejected
him less than year before, showed them the tape of Beckenbauer, Breitner and Rummenigge
playing in, and making approving noises about his boot, and – this time – the boardroom
stood up in applause.
ADIDAS would buy Johnston out.
They did a deal that day for what, ultimately, after ADIDAS had produced their own design,
would become the biggest selling football boot of all time.
While Johnston’s prototype had suffered from being so unusual, the first official
version – which was released in 1994 – profited for exactly the same reason.
It was unique and immediately identifiable by its trademark rubber ridges and red piping.
The promise that the boot could provide better touch and feel for the ball helped power an
impactful marketing campaign built on the slogan “100% legal, 0% Fair”.
And that wasn’t an outlandish claim, either.
Given how innovative the boot was, it was credible to believe that wearing ADIDAS Predators
did create an advantage and could make anyone a better player, whether they were a Superstar
or a Sunday League hacker.
There was good fortune too.
ADIDAS’ client list would grow to feature some of the very best and most recognizable
players in the world and that helped to give the Predator its momentum in the early years.
Paul Gascoigne wore them at Euro’96.
Zinedine Zidane wore them for the 1998 World Cup with which he’s forever associated.
And when David Beckham scored his famous 60-yard goal against Wimbledon and started his rise
to the top of the sport, he did so while wearing ADIDAS Predators.
Alessandro Del Piero wore them, so did Michael Ballack.
The endorsements weren’t even confined to football: England Rugby star Jonny Wilkinson
was an ADIDAS client too and the images which capture his famous drop-goal to win the 2003
World Cup clearly show him wearing - yes - Predators.
So, it was really the boot of its era.
Its creation was also a pivotal moment in ADIDAS’s history.
In 1992, the company had actually been close to bankruptcy.
By 2001, however, the manufacturer recorded just under €6bn in annual sales.
Fast-forward twenty years, to 2021, and that figure was just over €21bn, the bulk of
which was generated by apparel and footwear.
Of course, the Predator was by no means solely responsible for that recovery and expansion,
but it was a big part of it and – both on and off the pitch – even today, across its
many variations and updates, remains a symbol of innovation, quality and footballing style.