One of the World Cup 2026 trends has been the players wearing pink boots.
Gio Reyna, Vinicius Junior, Kylian Mbappe and Harry Kane are just some of the players sporting the eye-catching boots across the USA, Canada and Mexico.
The designs from the likes of Nike, Adidas, Puma, Skechers and New Balance are all helping the boots pop on screens with the green grass backdrop;
The design team at major brands have opted for the colourways due to both performance and visibility.
“Athletes associate this color with confidence and standing out, and that resonates,” Nike Director of Global Footwear Odinga Nimako said.
France’s Mbappe and Brazil’s Vinicius sport the Nike swoosh alongside Portugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo and Norway’s Erling Haaland.
While USMNT star Reyna, England’s Jude Bellingham and Declan Rice, Canada’s Jonathan David, Spain’s Lamine Yamal and France’s Ousmane Dembélé all wear Adidas.
While Neymar Jr, who made his Brazil debut at this year’s World Cup against Scotland, had more of an orange tone with his Puma boots.
American Timothy Weah is with New Balance, while Kane and Sweden’s Anthony Elanga have deals with Skechers.
Skechers Director of Technical Performance Alex Bardini detailed out the design emerged from the company’s headquarters in southern California.
“The colorways reflect the breathtaking palette of an L.A. sunset: warm shades of pink and purple melting into white, with subtle tinges of orange,” Bardini said.
But as Adam Clery points out, the trend could have been a pure coincidence, too, even if pink is the opposite side of the colour wheel to green, meaning that it stands out nicely on the pitch.
Of course, it's good marketing for the brands, with product placement precious during the most-watched sports event in the world.
Though the fact that all the brands opted for a similar shade of pink appears to be a coincidence, Adam adds, noting that the brands would not want to align with rivals, given that it is now difficult to decipher which brand each player is using from afar.
There is no evidence to link the colour of the boots to performance, though shoe company executives consider it a mindset.
“That feeling is holistic,” Nimako noted. “It’s the engineering, yes, but it’s also how the entire product comes together.
“When an athlete puts on a Mercurial and it looks fast, feels locked in, and weighs next to nothing, that perception reinforces performance. Everything works together.”
