The Puma Future 9 Ultimate is the boot 89 players wear
Puma's most-worn boot has 89 wearers, its next has 17. What the AFL and AFLW counts say about each model in the range, and which one to buy.
EvidenceEighty-nine players wear the Puma Future 9 Ultimate, the most of any Puma boot in the census.
The next Puma model down, the King 20 Ultimate, has 17 wearers, so this is not a photo finish.
If you are buying Puma and want the boot that has already been stress-tested by people whose contracts depend on it, the Future 9 Ultimate FG is where the weight of numbers sits. It carries a 4/5 rating. So does the King 20 Ultimate, which means the ratings do not separate them and the changerooms did.
Ten AFLW players in a single model is a lot for a league with a smaller census. Puma turns up there at this volume, which is either a very good fitting boot or a very good kit deal. The census counts feet, not reasons, so we can only tell you which one it is not.
The AFLW half of the count
Puma has 27 players in the AFLW census. Below the top boot, the women's list is a row of 3/5 ratings.
- Ultra 6 Ultimate AG, 8 AFLW players, 3/5
- Future 9 Match FG/AG, 5 AFLW players, 3/5
- One 5.1 FG/AG, 2 AFLW players, 3/5
- King Match, 1 AFLW player, 3/5
The Ultra 6 is an artificial-ground sole, the only AG boot on the Puma women's list. The census has no column for the surface, so 8 pairs is where that fact stops.
The King 20, and why it lasts
The King 20 Ultimate is second on the Puma list and first in one quieter category: all 17 of its wearers play AFL. The King 20 Ultimate FG/AG is an AFL boot by usage, whatever the shelf says.
Puma's copy calls the upper TOTALTOUCH+ and promises "precision touch to get one up on the opposition", a sentence that would fit on most boxes in the shop. The useful detail sits further down the spec sheet: an engineered knit slip-on collar, OrthoLite CustomFit padding in the heel, and a hybrid outsole.
That outsole is the practical case for the boot. If your week splits between grass on Saturday and synthetic at training, one pair covers both, which is one fewer pair to buy and one fewer pair to break in.
We cannot tell you it outlasts anything. The census counts what is on feet on match day, not how many winters a boot survived.
The King is the Puma for a player who wants the top rating without joining the crowd, and who spends part of the week on turf. Try it beside the Future 9 and take the fit that suits your foot.
The speed boot is an AG boot
Puma builds the Ultra to sound fast, and the version that reaches Australian shelves is an artificial-ground sole.
The spec sheet Puma supplies for the Ultra 6 Ultimate AG is more concrete than the name. There is a SPEEDSYSTEM outsole with a springy plate and a FastTrax stud layout shaped for multidirectional traction. A PWRTAPE frame runs through the upper to settle the foot, and the sockliner lifts out, with Ortholite padding in the heel underneath it.
Its wearers are all in the AFLW census, the biggest Puma group with no AFL players in it at all. That is an odd thing to win with a boot sold on acceleration.
It is rated a step below the two models above it. This is a buy for a surface, not the boot most players end up in.
On synthetic the stud layout is designed for a surface that does not give underfoot the way grass does. On grass it is the wrong tool. Puma's other models in this list name firm ground or both surfaces in the model name. The Ultra names neither.
What the cheaper Future buys you
Five players wear the Future 9 Match, all of them in AFLW. That makes it the least-worn boot in the Future line.
Rebel Sport lists the Future 9 Match FG/AG with a lightweight mesh upper, embossed 3D texture zones over the striking area, a stretchy knit collar in a mid-cut, and a stud pattern shaped around the pivot zone. The Ultimate's copy talks about FUZIONFIT and PWRTAPE. This one talks about mesh and a collar.
That is the trade. You get the Future silhouette and a mid-cut sock without the upper tech the top model is named for, and the census rates it a step below the Ultimate. Puma's copywriters had noticeably less to say about this one, which is usually the more honest bit of the spec sheet.
Where Puma sits overall
Third place across both leagues: Asics 591, Nike 361, Puma 123.
Puma wearers divide into 96 AFL players and 27 AFLW players, which is 12 per cent of the 811 mapped AFL players and 7 per cent of the 390 mapped AFLW players.
For a buyer the figure does two jobs. It tells you Puma is a minority pick, so the person lacing up beside you at training is probably in something else, and it tells you the sample is big enough to trust. Fourth in that table is Adidas on 106, the brand Puma shares this stretch of the ladder with.
The census has no field for why a boot catches on in one league before the other, and none for the pairs that arrive at a club without anybody choosing them. If you know why the split reads this way, we would like to hear it.
See you out there, from the What's Worn crew.
Illustrations are AI-generated and representational. Boot details and availability change; check with the retailer before buying.
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Evidence plates - the boots this entry is about
Recorded by Bryn & Steve
Subject boot: Puma Future 9 Ultimate FG - 89 mapped players
Counts: the What's Worn census