Predator

The original. Craig Johnston, a former Liverpool forward, glued rubber strips to a boot's upper after noticing how a table-tennis bat gripped a ball, so that the same grip could put swerve and power on a football. adidas rejected the idea before a prototype demonstration won them over. Every Predator since has carried some descendant of those rubber elements.

Before it, a boot's upper was there to protect the foot. This was the first mass-market boot that tried to change what the foot could DO to the ball.

Worn by: John Collins scored the first competitive goal in Predator boots — a free kick for Celtic away to Rangers at Ibrox in April 1994. The archive's photographed pair is his own player-issue Predator.

Sources: [1][2]

The Rapier was the first adidas football boot you could buy in a colour other than black. Until then every adidas boot was black leather, full stop; the Rapier arrived as a limited series in white and red as well, breaking a rule the company had kept for decades. Under the colour it stayed close to the 1994 original, keeping the same fold-over tongue and forefoot rubber.

It sounds small, but a white-and-red boot in 1995 was a genuine shock — it planted the idea that a boot could be a bright, personal thing rather than just black kit.

Sources: [1][2]

adidas broke the forefoot rubber into separate angled panels instead of one big slab, each panel aimed to grip the ball better, and stretched the fold-over tongue into the long red flap that became the Predator's signature look. Concentrating the rubber freed up room for more kangaroo leather, so the boot felt softer on the foot. The firm-ground sole also gained adidas's Traxion studs, re-shaped to drag less when you sprint but bite when you turn.

The first Predator you would recognise at a glance — the long tongue and the panelled fins are the look the whole line kept coming back to.

Worn by: David Beckham wore the Predator Touch — the archive's photographed pair is his.

Sources: [1][2]

Made for the 1998 World Cup in France, the Accelerator moved the laces off-centre to the side of the boot — the first Predator with asymmetric lacing — so a bigger, cleaner leather surface sat across the top of the foot to strike through. The rubber ribs were flattened compared with the Touch so more of the boot actually met the ball, and the sole was re-shaped to hold the foot more firmly.

Moving the laces out of the way was a small change that gave you a much larger clean striking area — an idea nearly every Predator after it kept.

Worn by: Zinedine Zidane wore them scoring two headers in the 1998 World Cup final; David Beckham, Alessandro Del Piero and Steven Gerrard also wore the Accelerator.

Sources: [1][2]

The Precision let you unscrew and change the studs yourself for the first time on a Predator, so one boot could handle a soft or a firm pitch — though early pairs became known for studs working loose. The rubber ribs were made thinner and more numerous for topspin and swerve, and the fold-over Velcro tongue that David Beckham made famous was tidied up for a cleaner dead-ball striking face.

Sources: [1][2]

Built for the 2002 World Cup, the Mania kept a premium kangaroo-leather upper and slimmed the rubber elements down from the Accelerator's slabs into finer strips — enough swerve, far less bulk. Its trick was the fold-over tongue held flat by an elastic strap that looped under the sole, keeping the striking surface smooth. It became the most-loved Predator ever: adidas re-released it in 2017 and it sold out almost instantly.

Players and collectors still call it the best Predator ever made, which is why adidas keeps bringing it back.

Worn by: David Beckham (the champagne colourway is tied to him), Alessandro Del Piero and Raúl wore the Mania. The archive's photographed pair is Zinedine Zidane's.

Sources: [1][2]

The Pulse introduced the Power Pulse system: a weighted insert — about 40 grams of dense tungsten-alloy material — sat under the forefoot to shift the boot's balance toward where you hit the ball, which adidas said added power to a shot, the same idea as weighting a golf club. On the Pulse this insert was built in and could not be swapped out; that choice came later. It kept the kangaroo leather and elastic-strap tongue from the Mania.

Worn by: Zinedine Zidane wore the Pulse — the archive's photographed pair is his, from the 2004–05 season.

Sources: [1][2]

For the 2006 World Cup the Absolute took the Pulse's weighted insert and finally made it removable — you could play with the 40-gram Power Pulse insert for extra shot weight, or swap to a plain one. The forefoot rubber was re-done as smoother "liquid rubber" elements sitting in a marked-out Power Zone for grip on the ball. adidas made a gold-and-white Absolute for Zinedine Zidane's last international tournament, and a separate limited box set of 723 pairs tied to David Beckham.

Worn by: David Beckham (the 723-pair box set) and Zinedine Zidane (the gold-and-white pair for his final tournament) wore the Absolute; the archive's photographed pair is Kaká's.

Sources: [1][2]

The PowerSwerve injected a springy foam adidas called SmartFoam into the forefoot rubber, meant to rebound off the ball and add swerve with a little extra power. It kept a weighted pod in the sole, a descendant of the Pulse's tungsten insert, to throw mass toward the point of contact. Unusually, Zinedine Zidane helped adidas develop this boot after he had retired — so he shaped it rather than wore it in matches.

Worn by: Zinedine Zidane helped develop the PowerSwerve after retiring from playing. No specific match-day wearer is documented for this generation.

Sources: [1][2]

The Predator X was a bold reset. It added a rigid PowerSpine through the sole to stop energy leaking away when you strike, swapped the classic kangaroo leather for a tougher, tear-resistant calf leather called Taurus, and — most shocking to fans — removed the fold-over tongue for the first time since 1994, using a low wrap-around collar for a closer ball feel.

Dropping the tongue split opinion completely, which is why the next big Predators kept circling back to whether the tongue should stay or go.

Worn by: David Beckham had a custom white-and-red Predator X, and Raúl was spotted in Predator X prototypes during pre-season — the two players the boot's own launch coverage names as wearing the X specifically.

Sources: [1][2]

The adiPower was the Predator that went on a diet. For the first time the line borrowed the lightweight Sprint Frame sole from adidas's speed boot, the F50 adiZero, making it around 25% lighter than the previous Predator X — roughly 220 grams. The old weighted insert was dropped; instead a stiff Power Spine in the sole helped push energy into a shot, and the rubber was split into two jobs: fins on the instep for power, a grippier patch on the strike area for swerve. It reached shops in 2011 and ran through the 2011–12 season.

Fast, minimal speed boots were taking over, so adidas had to prove a Predator could be light without losing its punch.

Worn by: Robin van Persie, Kaká and Nani wore the adiPower.

Sources: [1][2]

The Lethal Zones threw out the single rubber patch and split the whole upper into five named areas, each tuned for one job: First Touch at the front, Dribble on the inside instep, Drive on the classic strike zone, Pass on the inner foot, and Sweet Spot by the big toe for spin and chips. It was also the first Predator with a fully synthetic upper instead of leather, and the first that could hold adidas's miCoach performance chip.

Worn by: Edin Džeko wore the Lethal Zones — the archive's photographed pair is his.

Sources: [1][2]

The Lethal Zones II sharpened the five-zone idea from the first LZ: the rubber areas were raised higher to bite the ball harder in each zone, the upper switched to a wet-and-dry HybridTouch synthetic, and the studs were updated to Traxion 2.0 — all while shaving a little weight off the original.

Worn by: Pepe Reina, Fernando Torres, Oscar, Petr Čech, Aaron Ramsey, Mesut Özil, Per Mertesacker, Ángel Di María, Xabi Alonso and Juan Mata wore the Lethal Zones II.

Sources: [1][2]

Released to mark 20 years of the Predator, the Instinct brought back a softer, leather-like feel and fitted a new Control Frame sole built for flexibility and quick, responsive traction rather than out-and-out speed. It turned out to be the last classic Predator: adidas retired the name in 2015 and replaced it with the ACE line.

It was a control boot for midfielders — and, without anyone planning it that way, a send-off before adidas paused the Predator name for two years.

Sources: [1][2]

This was not a new performance boot but a faithful retro re-release of the beloved 2002 Mania in its champagne colourway. adidas kept the look — fold-over tongue, side lacing, the forefoot fins — but used synthetic leather instead of kangaroo and slipped a modern Sprint Frame sole underneath. It sold out so fast that pairs were flipped online for large sums, which is exactly why adidas kept re-running it.

Fans had begged for the Mania for years; selling it out in minutes proved the demand was real and set up the Predator's full comeback later the same year.

Worn by: A collector's re-release rather than a match boot; the original Mania stars — Beckham, Del Piero and Raúl — were referenced in the marketing.

Sources: [1][2]

The Predator 18+ tore up the rulebook: no laces, no leather, no separate tongue. Instead it used a one-piece knitted Primeknit upper with a built-in sock collar you pull on like a boot-shaped sock, all coated in a grippy textured layer adidas called Controlskin so the whole upper — not just a rubber patch — could grab the ball. It launched for the 2017–18 season and brought the Predator name back after adidas had retired it.

It answered the Predator X argument in the boldest way possible: not just no tongue, but no laces at all.

Worn by: Paul Pogba, Mesut Özil, Dele Alli and Ivan Rakitić wore the Predator 18+.

Sources: [1][2]

The Predator 19 tuned the laceless 18 rather than reinventing it: the Controlskin grip layer over the Primeknit was reworked to feel softer, and the top versions added adidas's springy Boost foam in the sole for comfort and a little energy return, with a reshaped heel for a tighter lock-in.

Sources: [1][2]

This is the boot that introduced Demonskin: 406 small rubber spikes, arranged by a computer algorithm and moulded onto the upper, to grip the ball for spin and swerve — a modern, high-tech descendant of Craig Johnston's original 1994 rubber strips. The spikes clustered around the instep and strike zones over a knit-and-mesh upper.

After years of smoother uppers, adidas wanted the Predator's ball-grabbing identity back — and made it the loudest feature on the boot.

Worn by: Paul Pogba wore the Predator Mutator 20+, including his own gold-on-black "Season 7" signature edition, which he debuted for Manchester United in September 2020.

Sources: [1][2][3]

The Freak pushed Demonskin almost all the way around the boot — often called Demonskin 2.0 — wrapping roughly 360 degrees of rubber spikes over the upper so there was grip almost anywhere the ball landed. It paired that with a split mid-cut Primeknit collar: a taller, sock-like ankle wrap with a gap that made the laceless boot easier to pull on.

Sources: [1][2]

The Edge dialled the spikes back. In place of Demonskin's aggressive points it used Zone Skin — broader rubber ribs grouped into four control zones, a nod to the old Lethal Zones. Underneath sat a new Facet Frame sole with a weighted Power Facet in the forefoot to push mass toward the strike point, and a two-piece laceless Primeknit collar.

Sources: [1][2]

The Accuracy swapped broad ribs for Strikeskin — smaller, sharper rubber grips placed only in the main kicking zones, adidas's "high-definition grip", so the boot could grab the ball where it mattered without stiffening all over. The upper was a soft microfibre HybridTouch that moulds to the foot, over the carried-over Facet Frame sole.

Worn by: Jude Bellingham wore the Predator Accuracy, including a bespoke pair adidas made for his first competitive Real Madrid appearance in August 2023.

Sources: [1][2][3]

Released for the Predator's 30th birthday, the 24 brought back the fold-over tongue for the first time on a current Predator since the Mania era, and offered three fits at once — laced, laceless, and the tongue version. It used a cushioned HybridTouch 2.0 upper with Mania-style Strikeskin fins and a new ControlFrame 2.0 sole; the laceless Elite was adidas's lightest Predator yet at around 195 grams.

A 30-year anniversary boot that deliberately reached back to the line's most-loved era, tongue and all.

Worn by: Jude Bellingham, Pedri, Alessia Russo, Kadidiatou Diani and Gabriel Jesus were named as Predator 24 wearers at its launch; Bellingham later got a gold signature edition.

Sources: [1][2][3]

The Predator 25 kept the 24's three fits but grew the Strikeskin: longer rubber fins across the strike zone for more grip and spin. The HybridTouch 2.0 upper was simplified into fewer layers so it broke in faster and lasted longer, an external heel counter was added for lock-in, and the wave detailing nodded back to the 1998 Accelerator.

Worn by: Alessia Russo and Jurrien Timber were named as Predator 25 wearers at its launch.

Sources: [1][2]