How to select a soccer cleat; what shoe tier is right for you?

Buying soccer cleats can be confusing.  There are a lot of options, but at the same time it seems like you don’t have many choices.  You may notice that once you have a brand selected, there are different names, numbers and tiers of cleats. Deciphering what it all means is like cracking a code, once you have it, it is simple, but initially seemingly impossible to understand. Today, the name of the shoe is not enough information to make a purchase.   

You have to look at the brand of the shoe, the model of the shoe, and then the tier of the shoe.  The big two soccer cleat brands, Adidas and Nike have various models of shoes and they put those models into different tiers.  Adidas uses numbers and Nike uses names.  The tiers are laid out below by brand.

Typically, each shoe will also have a version for grass, turf, and indoor play. So make sure you look at the bottom of the shoe before you purchase!

Adidas 

Adidas shoes have three components that factor into the evaluation of the shoe, a model name like predator, a model year like 19 or 20, and a quality tier from + to .4.  When you see a shoe for sale it will likely be named something like Predator 19.2.  This name tells you that the shoe is a predator, it is the 2019 model year of the shoe and the middle tier the .2.

Adidas shoes are generally wider than Nike cleats and tend to be favored by many of the upper tier club players.

Nike

Nike does not use the model year or decimal points to differentiate its tier of shoe, instead using names for the tiers. It is a little counter intuitive, but the Academy level is the lowest level, Pro is in the middle, and Elite is the top tier for Nike.

Price

As you can likely guess, the higher the tier of the shoe, the greater the cost.  The bottom tier for both Nike and Adidas come in around $50-$80 per pair, the next tier up is generally around $110-$130, and the upper tiers are $200 plus.  

Which Cleat is for you?

I have found that the middle tier has served my needs and those of my kids quite well, but they are not for everyone.  If you are just getting started in the game or have young kids, then I would advise going with the .3s or lower end cleats to get started, but monitor them closely as often your player will need the better cleat early on. The lower end often come with issues of their own, but little players typically don’t spend that much time in the cleats. When kids get older they spend a lot of time on the field and the higher end cleat should help injury prevention and ball control.

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