Ka-chow on the pitch! Adidas drop Lightning McQueen and Mater boots for Cars' 20th
Twenty years after Lightning McQueen first hit Radiator Springs, the fastest car in animation has made it onto the football field.
Details: Adidas have teamed up with Disney and Pixar for a Cars 20th anniversary cleat collection built around two icons: Lightning McQueen and Mater. The McQueen pair comes in red with the number 95 and flame graphics on the Adizero Electric II, while Mater gets a rust orange Adizero Impact II Mid with teal accents and googly eyes on the tongue. Both pairs, priced at 130 and 110 dollars, sold out almost instantly after the September 6 release.
The drop lands at the perfect cultural intersection: the NFL season just kicked off, and fans are already expecting to see the McQueen pair on wide receivers and defensive backs, with the chunkier Mater design tipped for the trenches. It is also part of a wider anniversary wave, with Crocs rolling out their own Cars collection next week, proof that the 2006 film's grip on a generation now old enough to buy the merch themselves is absolute. For adidas, it continues a run of nostalgia-fueled collabs, from The Waterboy capsule to the Zidane anniversary Predators, and if the instant sellout is anything to go by, a wider restock is only a matter of time.
It's worth noting that the Mater cleats feature his famous googly eyes on the fold-over tongue, arguably the single most chaotic design detail ever put on a football boot.
Reminder: Lionel Messi officially played for the first time in his new adidas boots!
Miguel Solomons
Dailysports's expert
