A Reuters analysis of the starting lineups from each team\u2019s opening World Cup match shows Nike and Adidas almost evenly split the battle for the boots on football\u2019s biggest stage, with Nike boots worn by 232 of the 528 starters and Adidas close behind on 218. Puma boots made up the third largest share with 44 players.<\/p>\n
Within those brands, a small number of models accounted for most of the market. Nike\u2019s Mercurial was the most popular boot overall, worn by 144 starters, ahead of Adidas\u2019 F50 on 109 and Adidas\u2019 Predator on 82. Nike\u2019s Phantom, Tiempo, and Copa lines also featured, while Puma\u2019s Future model was worn by 36 players.<\/p>\n
The clearest trend, however, was not brand but colour. Pink boots dominated the opening round of matches, worn by 365 of the 528 starters, or about 69%. Major manufacturers released vivid pink colourways in time for the tournament, turning what was once a rare flash of colour into the default look. Black boots, long the traditional choice, were seen on only seven players.<\/p>\n
Some teams were almost entirely pink on their feet. Brazil, Colombia and Germany each had all 11 starters wearing pink boots, a detail that jumps out in team photographs where rows of bright pink boots stand out against the green grass.<\/p>\n
Germany players pose for a team group photo before their opening match against Curacao at the Houston Stadium in Texas on June 14, 2026. REUTERS\/Annegret Hilse<\/p>\n
Then 10 other teams followed in the rankings with 10 players wearing pink, underlining how completely the colour has taken over the World Cup stage.<\/p>\n
Brazil\u2019s squad photo taken before their opening group match against Morocco shows all but four of the 25 players wearing pink.<\/p>\n
Brazil players pose for a team group photo before the match against Morocco at the New Jersey Stadium in New York on June 13, 2026. REUTERS\/Jeenah Moon<\/p>\n
Nike and Adidas are both\u00a0investing heavily in the tournament. Adidas, an official World Cup sponsor \u200band a brand long associated with soccer, is sponsoring 14 teams and supplying the coveted match ball. Nike is outfitting 12 national teams, partnering with local \u200bstreet-wear designers and rolling out soccer merchandise at more than 5,000 Nike and wholesale stores globally.<\/p>\n
Brand battles remain close, but on colour there is little contest as pink has taken over the pitch.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Reuters analysis of the starting lineups from each team\u2019s opening World Cup match shows Nike and Adidas…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":42094,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21254],"tags":[21290,36504,36505,4416,36503],"class_list":["post-42093","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-adidas","tag-adidas","tag-graphics","tag-interactives","tag-reuters","tag-reuters-graphics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42093","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42093"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42093\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42094"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42093"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42093"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42093"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}