Having worn the adidas F50 adiZero Prime, I came away with a bit of disappointment. But the disappointment had little to do with the overall architecture of the boot and nothing to really fault regarding the construction and overall design of the boot. It just simply doesn’t have the stretch that I’m desperately in need of in ONE spot, the big toe.  For how ever long, I’ve always went with a size/last that fit my foot and hoped the upper would stretch accordingly. And that approach has largely worked through the majority of the leather boots I’ve worn, namely the whole Predator series. But as of right now, it has been mostly an issue that boots of synthetic nature didn’t stretch enough or in the spots needed.

Constructions & Materials
The superbly minimalist design of the boot is spot on. In regards to the relationship between lightweight and durability and robustness, I would say that the boot feels rather flimsy in your hands. But once you put the boot on, you’re quick to forget any thoughts of fragility with the boot itself. The thin adiLite upper actually does have a decent amount of stretch and mold, however around the edge between the bottom of the upper and the tooling, there is a black strip. I think it offers a degree of stability but it effectively blunts any possibility of stretch.

Fit
You’d think that the tooling would be ultra narrow to maximize the lightweight nature and shave however many ounces as part of the numbers game. With a relatively wider foot, I was pleasantly surprised to find that my foot sits on top of the platform quite neatly, meaning my foot sits atop the outsole with little spill-over. However, when I lace up the boots, I’m not able to lace them up as tightly as I’d like. My first attempts at creating a super lock down fit resulted in numb feet rather quickly but once you loosen up the fit you’re left with less stability through changes of direction.

Traction
Traction was good and I think that the more conical nature of the studs are potentially better off relative to the more bladed studs seen through many of Nike’s offerings. Having seen the recently shown incorporation of a PowerSpine in the Predator’s tooling, I’d like to check how those turned out. The soleplate is really THAT light.

Miscellaneous
You might have assumed that wearing super thin uppers would be detrimental when you get stuck in, but I assure you, getting nicked with studs on an adiLite upper is no different then something thicker. The pain is about the same haha.

The Final Word
The F50 adiZero Prime is a serious piece of engineering in my eyes. If I had a pair of leather adiZeros, I’m confident to say that I would probably find little to no fault with the boots. I have another review with a pair of Mercurial Superfly IIIs but before I sit down to write that one, I’m almost sure that I’ll need to stick to leather boots only from here on out. Fit has become an issue on every single boot I’ve worn of synthetic nature and as much as I’d like to embrace synthetic boots, it just hasn’t worked out. There’s a reason why pros when asking for custom boots almost exclusively request leather uppers. I used to think that I was being too “new school” by complaining about painful feet but as much as I wanted to play past it, it really wasn’t working out for me… as I get old, I get soft haha.