6 Football Boots That Have Banished "Boring" to the History Books

Zinedine Zidane will always be remembered for an astounding act of individualistic bravado during the 2006 World Cup final.

Oh, wait, what were you thinking about?

I was talking about his choice of football boots during the not-soon-to-be-forgotten match.

The infamous headbutting of Marco Materazzi aside, Zidane's decision to wear gold Adidas Predators sent shockwaves throughout television screens worldwide.

This was the ultimate in bravado. Football boot design had undergone a decided transformation in the years preceding 2006, with companies toeing the line of revolution with white, and even (gasp!) silver designs.

Brazil's Ronaldo, who had long sported alternatives to the customary black-boot design, was one of the first to embrace this new direction. But the silver Nike Vapors he wore during the penultimate match of the 2002 World Cup paled in audacious comparison to Zidane.

After hundreds of years of leading footwear suppliers churning out black models, the past five years have seen these companies throw caution to the winds. We laugh now when thinking of the shock silver boots must once have induced in traditionalists.

What would they say now...

The new kaleidoscopic color range was on full display at last year's World Cup, where Nike's marketing campaign championed it's belief that players should distinguish themselves on the pitch via their footwear.

We express ourselves through the clothes we wear each day, after all. Why should footwear be any different?

The color combos have only become more daring since South Africa 2010. Here's a list of the cream of the colorific-crop from the past couple years, and some of the best of the new bunch.

The Nike Mercurial Vapor Rosa

The unbearably cheesy Nike ad aside, these boots smashed through the conservative barrier that football cleats had been brushing up against for a decade.

When these pink dandies first surfaced in the fall of 2008, the response was swift and predictable.

Pink boots? Mon dieu, comme c'est choquant!

Wearing pink has never exactly been celebrated for the dudes of this world. It takes a lot of guts to sport that color, so if a player was going to risk all and lace these puppies up, it was an absolute necessity that he be among the best in the game.

In 2008, Ribery certainly could make a case for inclusion among the game's greats. One season removed from his transfer from Olympique de Marseille to Bayern Munich, the French winger had taken Germany by storm, winning over pundits and fans alike with his breathtaking pace and clinical finishing.

Nicklas Bendtner, then a fledgling Arsenal youth, was more of a long shot. Never short on confidence, Bendtner unabashedly wore the pink Vapors, even during the coldest English winter months.

The ensuing ire he drew came not only from opposing fans but from match commentators, who, if you've ever watched an English broadcast, are quite subtle in their digs toward certain players.

The Rosas certainly sparked debate. But Nike has never been one to abide by age-old dogmas. 

Those baggy shorts and black socks—never seen before in college basketball—sported by Michigan's Fab 5. Nike.

The gazillion uniform combinations enjoyed by University of Oregon football? Nike.

Heck, the Eugene-based company even sparked controversy with the release of Michael Jordan's first signature shoe. Suffice to say, they know their stuff when it comes to trying new things.

While these boots never quite broke through, most brilliant ideas take years before they're truly appreciated. If nothing else, the Rosas will always be remembered as the forefathers for the current selection of neon-colored shoe displays worldwide.

Adidas AdiPower Predator TRX Sharp Blue

Foregoing the iconic red-and-black Predators that had littered football pitches for 15 years, Adidas decided to go for the gusto with their newest edition of the boot.

While David Beckham had long enjoyed his own signature model of the boots, he'd never had anything this...maritime-inspired.

The shock blue was even more daring than the bright-yellow-and-red combination Adidas had introduced with the Predator X in early 2011.

The red-and-black version is not even available in the U.S., so adamant is Adidas in implementing their new color of preference, which can be found seeped into clothing, bags, you name it.

The boot has caught on like wildfire, gracing the feet of countless players during this past summer's numerous youth championships. The popularity has yet to cease, as hosts of professionals have made it their boot of choice during the start to the domestic seasons.

You'd hazard a guess as to what they might think of next, but chances are good, you'd be way off. I know I never saw this color combo coming.

Samuel Eto'o and the Puma V 1.11

Puma's go-to guy for ad campaigns since he was netting golazos with the Blaugrana, if you're looking for the hottest new color combination in world football boots, you need not look any further than Samuel Eto'o.

The man has worn every different color combination known to man. And for Puma, who for so long seemed happy to remain with the classic, but rather bland, King model, they found in Eto'o the kind of dazzling frontman who could carry an audacious foray into a new color combination.

Whether their supply lines will now get stretched with the long commute to Eto'o's new Russian club remains to be seen.

Cristiano Ronaldo's Fashion Statement: "Safari" Nike Vapor Superfly II

I chalk up this—er, choice—to Ronaldo trying to cope with a crushing end to a relationship—Paris Hilton, perhaps? Or was that longer ago? You know, it's just so hard to keep up with these tabloid rumors.

Either way, you gotta hand it to Sir Alex Ferguson. He has a knack for knowing just when to offload a player at the right time. (At no point has this been more in evidence than Owen Hargreaves' deadline-day move to Manchester City. An overjoyed Sir Alex was evidently seen cackling amid smacks of chewing his bubble gum.)

Now, I'm not saying that Cristiano Ronaldo's form or talent has dipped since he left the comfortable confines of Old Trafford.

I'm saying his sanity bumped two notches closer to madness on the flight from Manchester to Madrid. How one could possibly justify ever wearing these cleats on a football pitch is beyond me.

But then, I'm no fashion critic. And I'm not Ronaldo. I didn't see what he saw in Paris Hilton, either. So I'll leave him to his personal choices.

In Ronaldo, Nike found the perfect player to market their Vapor line. The Portuguese winger has been wearing the lightweight synthetic-leather contraptions since bursting into prominence with Manchester United in 2003.

The Vapors are Ronaldo were made for each other. Both evoke visions of swashbuckling forays past helpless defenders. Both embody the new age of world football.

Ronaldo has inspired a wave of youngsters looking to imitate his stylistic hairdos, skill-sets predicated on extravagant dribbling, and running motion that calls to mind images of a penguin waddling across ice. Er, it's more like a quick-paced waddle. But it's effective, nonetheless.

So the best possible message I can leave these boots with is: if you're good enough, you can wear pretty much whatever you want.

Whether you get made fun of is just a chance you gotta take.

Adidas Goes for Hallucinogenic Broke with the Adizero F50

When researching the AdiPower Predators and Adizero f50s, company designers for the iconic Three Stripes must have put the two prototypes under categories of "Daring", and "Bat-s*** crazy-daring let's-go-where-no-one-has-gone-before crazy."

These boots have firmly placed Adidas in the driver's seat of cutting-edge color combinations.

Most of the models look as if they got a sugar-rushed toddler to spray paint a couple pairs of cleats as inspiration, and proceeded from there.

Aside from those orange editions shown in the video, the Adizero's have since morphed into versions of neon yellow, funfetti cake, and my personal favorite, the Halloween-from-Goosebumps-circa-'94 edition.

They're easily the most popular boots in the world at present. Wingers, strikers and side backs have largely made them their (light-weight) weapon of choice.

In Conclusion

Nike got the ball rolling with their campaign of individualizing players through footwear, but Adidas has taken the idea and Usain Bolt-ed with it.

Color coordination be damned—is there a better example of that than this picture?—players are taking matters into their own hands.

In an age where Wayne Rooney can force through a contract raise mid-season, or Samir Nasri can shove his way out of North London, players seem to be in a sort of "Awakening."

That's not to say they haven't always been a difficult bunch, but they've come to see that football is now about much more than winning. It's about how you do it that counts, too.

Isn't that last part what Arsene Wenger's playing philosophy is all about, anyways?