If you snooze, you lose on these limited edition beauties from Adidas and Topps. The sneakers sold-out in one day and the cleats are flying off the shelves. Not only will you see more of your Nats speed guys in Adidas like Trea Turner and Michael A. Taylor but also Anthony Rendon was a convert in this off-season to Adidas.
“Adidas is the brand for Creators and the only brand that truly fuses sports and culture,” an Adidas spokesperson told us. “We look to inspire through our products, our style, our athletes and partners and in communities. We are always looking for authentic baseball stories to tell and we spend a lot of time talking to fans and pinpointing parts of baseball culture where athletes and fans have deep connections. One authentic baseball experience that kept popping up in conversations, both internally and in focus groups, was the experience of opening a pack of Topps cards and searching for rare cards so we wanted to bring that feeling to life through this concept.
“We are thrilled that Topps shared this vision and wanted to collaborate with us. Ultimately, when two iconic brands get together to celebrate America’s pastime, the result is the Adidas Baseball x Topps pack, featuring the Adizero Afterburner, Icon cleat and Icon Trainer.”
The top two base stealers in the Major Leagues are Trea Turner and Michael A. Taylor and they both are wearing the lightweight Adidas cleats that seem to have made a difference in their running game. Part of what the players like is the creativity of the cleats and you can expect some special All-Star cleats we were told by Adidas. For Trea Turner, he now has two signature cleats.
Topps and Adidas created 40 box sets for their players and social media influencers where the cleats, a cap and socks were inside of baseball card pack foil. Trea Turner got his box last week and wore the cleats in Toronto.
“Topps and Adidas are two companies with a longstanding tradition,” Susan Lulgjuraj from Topps told us. “Their design team [at Adidas] really did a great job taking elements from Topps’ lineup such as the popular Topps Chrome [baseball cards] and turning that into a compelling trainer and cleat.”
A heel pull tab features a graphic of blurred fans in the ballpark with a Topps certified autograph space for players to sign their cleats just like they would sign their rookie cards. That is certainly a unique item for a collection!
While the cleats look great, they have to perform on the field, and these cleats are built for speed and designed to make a statement. The Topps Adizero Afterburner cleats feature a one-piece hologram graphic that changes colors with movement. The cleat is emblazoned with statistics and the iconic 3-Stripes were inspired by rare Topps baseball cards.
The Adizero Afterburner cleat is said to be the lightest in the game so they are made for performance and certainly stealing more bases which has been part of Trea Turner’s game and Michael Taylor swiped 4-bases on Sunday to put him in the MLB lead with 21 steal to surpass Trea Turner who has 20 stolen bags.
At the forefront of innovation, design and craftsmanship, the Adizero Afterburner is engineered with a lightweight, seamless SPRINTSKIN upper with zoned support and a reinforced abrasion toecap to help provide structure for lateral movements and sprints between the bases. Additionally, a textured, stripped down heel panel is designed to keep the weight of the cleat towards the ball of the foot for maximum acceleration.
Who knew that there was so much engineering to build cleats for speed using computer driven technology. Now we know the reason so many speedsters are wearing the cleats. Style, speed, and comfort combined.
Fast lane livin'.@treavturner hittin' that extra gear in the #adizero. #teamadidas pic.twitter.com/PSnOwRlGLu
— adidas Dugout (@adidasDugout) April 27, 2018
