What Asics, Nike, Puma and Adidas each do best, according to the census
Four brands, four different jobs. What Asics, Nike, Puma and Adidas are each best at in 2026, and how to pick the one that suits your game.
EvidenceThe Asics Menace 5 is worn by 117 AFLW players, more than any other boot in the women's count, and it carries a rating of 3/5. Both numbers sit in the same row of the spreadsheet, and neither one is a misprint.
A three is not a shrug and not a warning. Several boots in this count sit on a three, including a couple with far louder marketing departments. It says the boot is good rather than exceptional, and nobody wears one for a season because a spreadsheet likes it. They wear it because it fits, holds the ankle when they plant and turn, and was on the shelf in their size when the old pair gave out.
Brands do not win this argument outright. They win columns: volume, touch, the top end of the market, and the rating column itself, where a single boot sits alone on a clean sheet.
The honest answer to a brand question is that you are really asking which column matters to your feet. The census cannot answer that for you. It can tell you who has already answered it, in numbers, and where each brand's case is strongest.
Asics: leather, and a lot of it
The boot that leads the AFL count is the least fashionable thing on the list. The Asics Lethal Testimonial 4 IT turned up on 324 AFL feet and rates 4 out of 5. The word testimonial suggests a farewell match. It has instead become a bulk order.
The spec sheet reads like a list of things that were sensible in 2015 and never stopped being sensible. A premium kangaroo leather upper. Solyte cushioning. HG10mm, which lifts the heel slightly to take load off the lower leg. There is no knit collar, no plate, no pods, no acronym doing the work of a sentence. Asics has spent its marketing budget on the word premium and left it at that.
That mark is higher than the one on the boot that leads the women's count, and kangaroo leather is the reason: it softens and takes the shape of your foot over a pre-season rather than asking your foot to take the shape of it.
The trade is upkeep. Leather wants wiping down and occasional feeding, and it will not stay crisp if you leave it in a hot car.
The Asics case is narrow and strong. If you want a leather boot that a few hundred people at the elite level have already chosen, this is the row where Asics wins. If you want the lightest thing on the shelf, this is not it.
Nike: touch first
Nike's column in the census is the oldest argument in the sport, and the boot making it is the Tiempo Legend 10 Pro Elite. It turned up on 200 AFL feet and rates 4 out of 5.
The feature list points one way. FlyTouch Pro upper, shaved-down foam pods, All Conditions Control. That last one is marketing for it still works when it rains, which is the least glamorous promise on a boot box and the one that matters in July.
The trade is the one that comes with any thinner upper. You feel the ball sooner and you feel the ground sooner. A boot with more give underfoot is the sensible look if your pre-season is long and your arches have opinions, and fit matters more here than on a leather boot.
The Mercurial Vapor 16 Elite is the speed case, and it is the one the brand spends its advertising on. The census just happens to rate the quiet boot higher than the loud one.
Puma: the lock-in
The Puma Future 9 Ultimate FG turned up on 79 AFL feet and rates 4 out of 5, the same mark the two boots above it carry. So Puma has done the difficult part and skipped the easy part, which is being on everybody.
The spec is a knit story. Reengineered FUZIONFIT upper, then PWRTAPE laid over the top of it. That tape is the honest admission. Knit on its own will let your foot slide around the moment you change direction at pace, so Puma put straps on its own upper and called it lock-in. Every brand eventually admits what its material cannot do.
GripControl Pro and the 3D Fuzionpods handle the touch argument. FLEXGILITY is the outsole, tuned for 360 degree agility. Three product names to cover grip, touch and turning, where most brands would have used one and bought a billboard with the change.
Then there is the line printed on the boot: built for bold, brave playmakers who see the game differently. That is a lot of adjectives to sell a fitting exercise. Knit lives or dies on how close your foot sits to the last, so get the fit checked rather than ordering your usual and hoping.
Which makes Puma the narrowest column of the four. One boot in the men's count, none in the women's, and a rating that says the boot is good rather than that the brand is large.
Adidas: the small, rated end
Thirty-eight AFL players wear the Adidas Predator Elite FG, and they rate it 5 out of 5. That is the highest mark in the census, and it belongs to the boot with the fewest people handing it out.
Most boots here sell you the run to the ball. Adidas sold the part where you hit it.
The spec makes that case in four ways. NanoStrike+ is tacky rubber laid across the upper in zones, a texture doing the work of a technology. The lightweight mesh underneath carries those zones without much weight.
PowerSpine is the admission inside the list, a midfoot stiffener that exists because the rest of the boot is light enough to need one. Then the Strikeframe plate looks after the plant, which is the part of a shot nobody films.
For
- Tacky rubber strike zones built into the upper
- PowerSpine steadies the midfoot through a strike
- Strikeframe plate finds traction in any conditions
Against
- A finisher's brief rather than an all-rounder
- Mesh upper with grip zones, so no leather to soften with wear
Everything here is built around one moment, the foot going through the ball. Everything else on the list is support for that second and a half.
The census cannot tell you whether the tacky zones turn a half chance into a goal. It counts feet, not finishes. What it can tell you is that the players who chose the Predator are the least divided group in the data. No one is rating this one a three.
If the strike is the part of the game you care about and you want the boot the census rates highest, this is the one. If you want to look down and see a boot on half the changeroom, Adidas is not going to help you.
What to buy
Most people pick the badge first and argue about the fit on the way home. Do it the other way. Start with the ground you play on, then let the brand be whatever survives.
The Asics Menace 5 Hybrid is the clearest place to watch that work. Thirty AFL players wear it, and the boot it shares a name with is the one the AFLW count reached for hardest. The Hybrid is the version for a season that moves between surfaces.
Plenty of what sits on a shop wall is a different boot wearing a familiar name, and here the name is the same while the soleplate is the difference.
Buy for the ground under your feet and the foot inside the boot.
See you out there, from the What's Worn crew.
Boot details and availability change; check with the retailer before buying.
Start with these
Evidence plates - the boots this entry is about
Asics Lethal Testimonial 4 IT Football BootsWorn by 324 players in the registerView boot 
Nike Tiempo Legend 10 Pro EliteWorn by 200 players in the registerView boot 
Nike Mercurial Vapor 16 EliteWorn by 58 players in the registerView boot 
Puma Future 9 Ultimate FGWorn by 89 players in the registerView boot Recorded by Bryn & Steve
Subject boot: Asics Lethal Testimonial 4 IT Football Boots - 324 mapped players
Counts: the What's Worn census