The AFLW Boot Census: 390 Players, 29 Models, One Clear Winner

We mapped 390 AFLW players to their boots: Asics takes 60 per cent, one model beats Nike's whole line, and eleven boots belong to a single player.

Recorded by The What's Worn Crew16 October 20266-min read

Asics Menace 5 football boot — Pictured: Asics Menace 5 - worn by 117 mapped players

The brand table, as shares of 390 mapped players

Same figures as the table below. Shares under 0.5% print as <1%.

Start with 117. That's how many AFLW players pull on the same boot - the Asics Menace 5 - more than wear Nike's entire eight-model range combined. We've mapped 390 players to the boots they actually wear, across 29 models and seven brands, and the result is the most lopsided census we've ever counted.

This is the full mapped picture. Not a top ten. Every model, every number below, accounted for.

How we count

One player, one boot, one count. Every player below has a boot we could positively identify, which gives 390 mapped players and 29 models. Brand totals are the sum of that brand's models - all of them, nothing folded away. Where the arithmetic is worth checking, we've shown the working.

Asics owns the room

Two hundred and thirty-five of 390 mapped players wear Asics. Sixty per cent of the league, done with three silhouettes:

Asics Menace 5 - 117 players
Asics Lethal Tigreor - 89 players
Asics Lethal Flash IT FF 3 - 29 players

That sums to exactly 235. The top two alone (206 players) dress more than half the competition. Strip it back and the story is concentration: one brand worked out what AFLW feet want, and the league answered by buying it in bulk.

Footballers converging at a stoppage, boots and grass flying — The contest: where boot choices get found out

Nike splits its vote

Nike's 91 players (23 per cent) spread over eight models, and the shape is a mirror image of Asics - breadth instead of concentration:

Nike Mercurial Vapor 16 Pro AG - 27
Nike Tiempo Maestro Academy FG/MG - 27
Nike Mercurial Vapor 16 Elite - 22
Nike Mercurial Superfly 10 - 9
Nike Phantom Luna 2 Elite - 3
Nike Phantom 6 High Elite AG - 1
Nike Tiempo Legend 10 Elite FG - 1
Nike Tiempo Ligera - 1

That adds to 91. Note the tie at the top: an AG-surface Vapor and an academy-tier Tiempo, level on 27 each. This census counts what players actually wear, not what's flagship - and what's worn says surfaces and fit beat price tags. Across the whole league, 70 of the 390 mapped players wear a boot whose name flags artificial-ground or multi-ground tooling.

The chasing pack

Adidas holds 31 players (8 per cent) across eight models - the same model count as Nike for a third of the players:

That sums to 31. The Copa Pure 4 Elite FG is comfortably Adidas's biggest AFLW boot, and this is the census at its most honest: a Copa Mundial from another era lines up next to this season's F50, because players keep what works.

Puma sits one back on 27 players (7 per cent) from six models:

That sums to 27. Future 9 against the older Future 7, a King next to an Ultra - generations side by side in the same rooms.

Football boots lined up on a change-room bench in window light — The selection room: twenty-nine models, one league

The long tail

Fourteen of the 29 models dress two players or fewer - 17 players between them. Eleven models belong to exactly one player each: the Copa Mundial FG, F50, F50 Elite FG and X Crazyfast for Adidas; the Morelia II Elite FG for Mizuno; the Furon Team V8 FG for New Balance; the Phantom 6 High Elite AG, Tiempo Legend 10 Elite FG and Tiempo Ligera for Nike; and the Future 7 Ultimate and King Match for Puma. Three more sit on two: the Concave Halo +Pro v2 FG, the New Balance 442 v2 Pro and the Puma One 5.1 FG/AG.

That leaves the small brands: New Balance with 3 players, Concave with 2, Mizuno with a single mapped player - under one per cent each, and the quirks worth watching. A brand can own 60 per cent of a league and still leave eleven footballers marching to their own drum.

The brand picture, in one table

Brand	Mapped players	Share
Asics	235	60%
Nike	91	23%
Adidas	31	8%
Puma	27	7%
New Balance	3	1%
Concave	2	1%
Mizuno	1	<1%

Seven rows, 390 players. Nike, Adidas and Puma combined (149) still sit 86 short of Asics alone.

Buying from the census

If you're buying boots this season - for yourself, your kid, your partner - the census converts directly into a shortlist. Want what the league wears? The Asics Menace 5 and Asics Lethal Tigreor are the safest starting points in football. Shopping Nike? The Mercurial Vapor 16 Pro AG and Tiempo Maestro Academy FG/MG are the two the league actually chose.

And don't skip the one-player boots. They're usually a specific footballer sticking with what fits rather than a brand's push model - worth a look on the shelf. Check individual player pages, like Aine Tighe, Aisling McCarthy and Aisling Reidy, to see how the census lands on real footballers.

Cone drills laid out on a misty oval at dawn — First session: where the shortlist meets the foot

The What's Worn Crew

Start with these

Evidence plates - the boots this entry is about

Asics Menace 5Worn by 117 players in the registerView boot

Asics Lethal TigreorWorn by 89 players in the registerView boot

Nike Mercurial Vapor 16 Pro AGWorn by 27 players in the registerView boot

Nike Tiempo Maestro Academy FG/MGWorn by 27 players in the registerView boot

Recorded 16 October 2026 by The What's Worn Crew

Subject boot: Asics Menace 5 - 117 mapped players

Counts: the What's Worn census