Bend it like Beckham

During a soccer enthusiast’s lifetime there always are memories with a special place in our heart. Great wins, bad defeats, wonderful goals and beloved players. Between all these emotions, there’s also space for football boots. In we go back to our memories, we would surely find some of them tied to a particular pair oh shoes, maybe worn by our favourite player. One of these particular pairs is without any doubt the 2002 adidas Predator Mania.

Created by the three stripes for the World Cup in Japan and Corea, these shoes has become a real… Mania within the football fans all around the world. It’s hard to say what caused this kind of hype and maybe it’s a combination of events. First of all, the looked gorgeous. Elegant, with a perfect combination of black, red and white, and also stylish, they were able to conquer million of hearts. They also had this particular string that would go around the sole of the shoe to keep the tongue positioned over the laces. Pure magic.

Besides the unbelievable good look, adidas Predator Mania had an unprecedented media coverage. The beginning of the new millennium - and the definitive rise of the internet - started the commercial communication (almost) as we know it. In this context, the Predator had one of the most iconic football player of all time, David Beckham.

We’re talking about a player capable of increasing Real Madrid commercial incomes, making the adidas Predator Mania one of the most beloved pair of shoes of all time. “Bend it like Beckham” was way more than a movie, but a real mania which took over the football world in those years.

Maybe this kind of exposure costed Beckham lot of his credibility, as for year he’s been referred as a hollywood rockstar with marginal interest in football. But actually it made him an icon of this sport, also for the fans which weren’t in love with his free kicks in the first place. People will always say: “I loved those Predator, they were Beckham’s shoes”. And those very people will maybe have goosebumps because, within a couple of months, the Mania will be back!