Looking for the new Nike T90 Laser IV football boots? Find it here: Nike T90 Laser IV
Admittedly, the conditions to test the Nike Total 90 Laser III weren’t exactly ideal. But, when you’ve got a pair of electric green boots, a high-vis yellow ball and a covering of perfect white snow, it should at least mean that the pictures stand out!
Comfort & Fit
Nike have obviously taken some design cues from the CTR360 line for the latest Laser. The same slightly ‘roomy’ fit graces the front end of the boot around the toes, which will frustrate some players, so if at all possible make sure you get to try on a pair before splashing out £130 on them.
Personally, much like Sully & Greeny, I could have squeezed into half a size smaller, and after wearing them in a little I reckon I could have gone down a full size and completely eliminated the roomy feeling on the toes, but then I plan on wearing two pairs of socks during the winter (because I’m a big girl’s blouse!) so the sizing turned out quite well.
The artificial upper provides little-to-no friction between the heel of your sock and the back of the boot – so there’s not going to be any blisters, even on the first wear!
Another feature that Nike have carried over from the successful CTR360 line is the inclusion of Memory Foam in the upper. However, where the Maestri had the foam on the instep; the Laser III lines the top of the foot (underneath the new ‘pods’ that have replaced the shotshield). This placement results in a really firm, true contact with the striking area of the boot (more on this later) and a snug fit throughout the middle shank of the foot and heel.
Durability
The Laser III’s feel like a perfectly solid boot when they’re on your feet. The firm synthetic upper definitely doesn’t feel like it could be compromised easily and the heel counter is wonderfully integrated into the rest of the boot.
The striking area of the boot also adds to the durability factor, with the memory foam acting as a sizable barrier across the top of the boot, to lessen the impact of any stamps on the metatarsal. Also strengthening the boot in this area is the huge rubber swerve zone on the front-instep. This rubber feels like a bike tyre, thus is pretty stubborn and won’t give, even when faced with the nastiest of studs-first challenges.
The sole-plate has been carried across almost identically from the Laser II, with the FG version having all the same blades (which I’m sure many will be thrilled to hear!) and as such is a solid part of the boot, feeling very stable underfoot and unlikely to come away from the upper in the boot’s life. In fact, I’ve tested these boots over 3 weeks and even in the snow there’s been no leakage from the sole at all, my feet got a little wet from snow coming over the top of the boots though, but that’s practically expected.
Feel
As mentioned before, the boot has a very roomy feel at the front, which makes it awesome for long matches. If you love twisting and turning around the pitch, skipping between midfielders and spinning of your marker’s shoulder, you’ll appreciate the comfort and room these will offer you over 90 minutes.
However, this same roomy nature can make the boot feel a touch clumsy round the toes, meaning it takes a little bit of time to find the best sweet spot on the boot, but again this can I reckon this can be remedied by making sure you take the time to try on a couple of pairs if possible.
Speaking of the ‘sweet spot’, the biggest talking point on this model of the Laser is the decision to swap out the target-like ‘rings’ and replace them with a different system.
The first part of which is the modular series of firm pods along the top of the boot; the idea behind these pods it to provide a uniform surface along the striking area, which ensures an even area for ball no matter how bent the foot is.
Does it work? It’s a tough one to call, what I do like about the pods is they’re a great indicator on where on the foot to strike the ball like pro’s do. In recent seasons there’s been a trend of pro’s hitting the ball slightly more towards the instep of the foot and dragging the foot under the ball as contact is made to create wicked spin and dip, rather than slamming the top of the foot through the centre of the ball for an missile-like shot. These new Lasers practically beg you to try this method out, and the plastic pods make it a little easier to do so.
Another feature of the striking zone is the rubber fins that protrude out of the outside. If you’re a little disappointed in the low-profile nature of the last few Predators and are aching for a boot that’s a little more hedgehog-like then you’re going to love these! The rubber fins actually stick out a little bit more than you might expect; so much so if you’re having a quiet kickabout by yourself, you can actually hear them rubbing up the side of the ball when you make contact. Having such a grippy area has been fantastic in such wet conditions lately, with a tangible improvement in areas like first touch and control.
Again, I’m not entirely sold on them effecting spin and swerve as much as they claim, but the increased surface area and friction certainly can’t hurt. If you’re really into technology like this you’ll probably really like the new additions to the Laser range – but once again for you purists, you could tell from the colour that these boots were never going to be for you!
What really does work is the memory foam in the boot’s tongue. As mentioned earlier, it molds to the top of your foot and doesn’t shift – which means that even when you swing your leg through for a strike, clearance or tackle , the boot’s upper stays locked in place giving great contact with the ball.
Conclusion
I realise that I’ve given these boots a pretty glowing review so far – and rightly so – they’re a top pair of boots; comfortable, hard-wearing, great to look at (wait until you see them up close before you judge them too harshly!) with gimmicks out the wa-zoo. However, I would still say exactly the same for the Laser II as well. As such, I don’t feel Nike have made gigantic strides forward for the Laser range, instead, more of a sideways move. It’s almost like they’ve taken adidas’ division of the Predator Powerswerve’s power & swerve specifications to the extreme. With the Laser II being all power and the III dedicated to adding swerve and craft to your shots.
For my money, I do think the Laser III inches it as the better boot. The additional grip on the forefoot, more stable lacing system and awesome use of the memory foam technology in the tongue would be the key points that sell the boot to me. But the Laser II’s have a huge fanbase – from keepers all the way to strikers- so I do think we’ll see many professional players stick with their older models, at least until the World Cup. As for amateur players? Well the most you’ll be paying for a pair of Laser II’s now is around £60, so I’ve got a feeling it might be a while before the Laser II makes it’s final bow.
(article sez) “As such, I donĂ¢â‚¬â„¢t feel Nike have made gigantic strides forward for the Laser range, instead, more of a sideways move.”
so after the touch (tiempo), the power (laser), the agility (vapor), the speed (superfly), and the passing (CTR)… now we also have the swerve!
great! now i could intercept the ball – change my shoes – sprint up the left flank in high speed – change my shoes – perform a clean 1-2 pass with my teammates – and change my shoes again – before i finally blast the damned ball into the net with the killer swerve shot. (maybe i’ll change my shoes once again to something with more flashy colorways for the goal celebration)
i know nike are trying to sell. but there’s too many range it’s getting confusing…
great work man! As always,nice Boot test,very detailled.
“ItĂ¢â‚¬â„¢s almost like theyĂ¢â‚¬â„¢ve taken adidasĂ¢â‚¬â„¢ division of the Predator PowerswerveĂ¢â‚¬â„¢s power & swerve specifications to the extreme. With the Laser II being all power and the III dedicated to adding swerve and craft to your shots.”
This is what I thought when I first saw the laser III and I’m glad to see I was right.
Yes the laser II will be around for a while because hitting the ball with the top of your foot remains very satisfying. I hope they update it a bit and don’t phase it out in favour of the laser III. These laser III’s aren’t too shabby themselves though….interesting boots to say the least.
Great review Kyle, as normal.
And short socks too…in the snow. Very manly!
oh and I forgot to say: “top notch review!”. I like how it focuses on the aspects that are really important like comfort and durability and how it could affect your game. That is exactly the kind of info us amateurs 😉 need. Did the FG studs work OK in that snow?
Channo – best comment ever!
Marco – thanks for dropping the comment, it’s great to get some nice feedback from the readers!
Fenboy – It was more nessecity than anything, my other (longer!) socks were in the wash from testing boots in the slush!
Kuuku – Glad to get such good comments from a regular! The FG studs were pretty good as the ground was frozen beneath it and as it’s the same studs as the Laser II I know for a fact that it’s great on grass too. As I said, the whole boot is waterproof, and with it being Synthetic I knew I wasn’t doing the boot any long-term damage by getting them wet all the time!
i have a question related to kuuku’s comment.
would really appreciate it if Kyle could answer maybe ?
but i have the t90 laser 2 firm ground boots. in the UK at this time as you are aware it is very often quite wet / soggy on the pitches,
i havn’t felt as much grip coming from my boots as in the summer and was wondering if this is just my imagination or are the firm ground not capable of dealing with the wet / soft ground surface at all even tho they look adequete… thanks for any help and im new to this site so apologies if this is in the wrong section 🙁
Channo – Very funny comment! And very true aswell! I’d rather see a boot that is good for everything than a boot that’s very good for one thing and not very good at other things.
nomatter what you say some boots are better in some thing, I think its better to shot in laser II than other boots and I like to resceive in tiempo and all that, as they say about the laser II “put it where you want it”
Howdy Amateur Player! Welcome along to the site.
It all depends on the pitch. Sometimes, even after a bit of rain, pitches with a lot of clay will still be grippy with FG boots. Same goes for frozen-pitches.
However, on pitches that are straight-up boggy you’d probably notice a big improvement if you picked up a pair of SG boots. You’ll probably find a good deal on a pair of SG Laser II’s at the moment, but if you’re willing to look away from the Laser line, you’ll get some really good buys on the small brands like Reebok:
Click for Link
Or Umbro:
Click for Link
If you’re just after something to see you through the winter.
I hope that this is useful AND that I didn’t come off like an advert!!
They seem to look less disgusting to me then when I first saw them. But I still prefer my Laser Is over this model. And considering the Laser II are more simalar, I think I’d probably jump on that option before considering the new ones.
hey channo dont be so dramatical, well for a good player, all the boots should do the job, but every range help to improve power, speed…
well at least, kyle you response my bigger question about confort, thanks dude
I agree with channo Nike are focusing their their efforts for each boot on one area which is taking away from the boots performance, I would much rather an average allround boot.
Nike (and a few other brands) need to concentrate on making one good allround boot. At least the predator ps provide quality in all areas (but the making of swerve, power and control models was over the top) and the old laser 2’s provided the ability to grip the ball and swerve it as well as provide power. What’s the use of having speed to sprint up the wing if your pass is uncontrolled and gets intercepted. And why have the touch to dribble pass four players when you don’t have the speed to accelerate off and those players catch up to you or if you don’t have the power to finish.
Many qualities = Good boot = Good allround = Better sales.
P.S. Not a bad reveiw
P.S.S. In irony to these comments I am a bit of a concave fan.
Great review, these boots were always a little suss to me seeing as how it looks like a total rehaul from power to swerve. Very much like it is trying to compete with the swerve of the preds. Im not sold on these.
I have a question for kyle or anyone else who would like to give me imput.
I’m a midfielder and play on my high-schools varsity team. I am a very good passer and yet have a great shot. Last season I started with the laser II but had problems with crosses and lofted passes. I switched over to the tiempo III and they were pretty good.
For the upcoming season i was wondering wether to get these laser III (k leather) or the ctr360s?
thanks
The CTR 360 is good at everything mate…or at least good for every position.
It’s good for defenders because of the memory foam padding, it’s good for wingers because it is extremely light and has a good stud configuration for quick turns, we all know how good it is for midfielders and it’s good for strikers because of all of the above and the pass-pad for curling shots into the corners. Pretty decent multi-function boot if you ask me.
I would suggest preds but it’s not in your options 😀 between lasers and ctr360 i think ctr360!
mmbbbwww – Good to hear from you mate! Kuuku’s got a good idea with the CTR’s, the offset lacing gives a good area for shooting, and the Pass-pad is obviously good for the distributing area of your game.
It sounds to me like you like K-Leather, so what I might suggest is trying on a pair of the CTR360 Maestri’s little brother, the Trequartista, as they are in K-Leather and you could save yourself a bit of money to get some shinpads or something!
Other than that, I’ve not tried the K-leather version of the Laser III, but judging by the fact you feel you played better with the ‘natural’ feel of the Tiempo’s, you might not like all the rubber fins and plastic pods on these new Lasers.
Preds7 – Also a great shout, low-profile technology, snug fit and leather upper make them a fantastic alternative
thanks kyle for responding !
it didn’t seem like an advert / was very helpful and i was very surprised to get a reply as most sites they would maybe read through the comments but never reply ! great personal touch replying to questions etc !
very grateful and great review 🙂
nice to see your trying to help people even though we aren’t paying you ! 😉
many thanks again
Thanks for the imput guys.
Helped a lot.
Its not that im so big on k leather, but its the fact that the bright green is a little much for me ( i like it tho)
i think ill just have to go to my local store and try both on
ronaldinho always wears FG !!!
thanks kyle, great responses! really. sorry to hear about the absence of your longer socks on those cold winter nights. but that just made the review more meaningful to us 😉
haha, thanks for reading Adri and zc too 😉
a couple of time ago when nike launched superfly, i thought they’re going to ditch the vapors. but they don’t. the superfly ripped and vapor V came out. now everytime i browse any nike’s speed section, i see both of em.
i think about superfly and see that this boots are designed to replace the vapors in every aspect. but nike keep the vapors. for what? its cheaper price? that’s a marketing politics all the way to me…
i mean, there are the steam, talaria, and veloci for people to choose if price is really the factor.
my economy lecturer once said: a store that sells 5 kinds of goods, have better chance of selling than a store that sells only 2 kinds of goods -of course, but this is getting ridiculous.
nike are trying too hard to sell.
in no time, we’ll have a specific shoes for each and every action in this lovely game of football: short pass shoes, long pass shoes, dribble shoes, dribble with outside of the foot shoes, right footer shoes, left footer shoes, swerveshot shoes, knuckleball shoes, chipshot shoes, and the list goes on… (hey, it’s not impossible. we already have laser II precision rings that meant to shot straights & laser III pods that meant to shot swerves)
@martincillo: sorry, just can’t help myself there. i’m a drama king >_<
but what u’re saying is EXACTLY the point my friend! for a good player, ANY shoes would do the trick. we don’t need this many ranges…
any laser II owner out there should already read what’s written on the 3 sections of those rubber rings that says “accuracy”, “power”, “precision”. laser II are all-around powershoes that already made for all three kinds of shots. i don’t see any reason why this next laser should focus on only one (swerve).
whew, such long comment. me and my ramblings…
Rambilngs are good, we all love to read that kind of stuff man, that is why we are reading a boot review and making the effort to comment and even reply to aforementioned comments!
I think ronaldinho always wears FG simply because he doesn’t use blades on his boots, his boots have the studs type of FG so they are applicable to softer (but not too soft) ground as well as firm ground.
I’m sorry we are bothering you so much Kyle, you have already gone way above and beyond the call of duty…..but this ronaldinho comment has prompted me to ask one more question. How good are SG’s for firmer ground? As in, how hard should the ground be before SG’s are rendered unusable? And does it differ between studded SG and bladed SG as well as studded and bladed FG?
Amateur Player – No worries! The way I see it, if we didn’t read the comments we’d never know what people were after, what they liked/didn’t like so we’d never get better!
Channo- You’re absolutely right, but the way I see it Nike are pretty clever as much of their techology spans different footwear.
So if the Superfly doesn’t sell as well as hoped, they can use the materials already bought in to produce other boots e.g. The upper & Carbon Fibre soleplate materials can go on to be part of the Vapor V, the Flywire is used in Nike’s running shoes etc etc.
From this, Nike still get the ‘prestige’ which comes from having such a big stable of boots, whilst keeping the costs of production down.
Kuuku – No bother at all mate, SG’s on firm ground are probably the most dangerous combo for me. Whilst FG’s in the mud will result in you slipping about a bit, big SG studs (like on the Vapor or v1.08 range) will make you sit on top of the surface, and one uneasy bit of turf will probably result in a rolled ankle.
The way I see it, if you can sink in a little bit, then they’re probably safe. But if the ground’s so dry that it’s all cracked then definitley switch to FG’s or even astro’s.
Blades Vs Studs? Let’s see, I’d probably feel more comfortable playing on a hard pitch in something like the Predator’s SG blades than some studs but I still would not recommend it.
On FG models it’s probably about even, FG ‘studs’ like on the Copa Mundial are usually a very hard rubber and would distribute the weight as well as any blade, though many manufacturer’s will probably swear blind that they’re better for turning.
Hope all that helps!
Thank you Kyle!
hey channo that second long comment was world class !!!!
yeah i agree with you
i think that the vapors are my pertsonal favoriteve shoe cuse i have a narrow foot soo it honestly think it depends on your foot not the actual shoe
These are soo nice but i go for light boots and saw a pair of adidas boots weighing only 160g!!! called adidas adizero
yeah, maybe having a big stable of boots could be a prestige in some sort of ways…
thanks for the constructive comments kuuku, Kyle & martincillo 🙂
@dave: i think adizero is a running shoes…
lightest football boots might be the mercurial superfly 😉
@kuuku
For SG studs on “Soft” ground I would reccomend bladed studs however if the ground is realy soft or quite wet long studs such as the ones on v1.08s would be best.
Bladed SG studs are probabably better than conical studs on “firm” ground as they will be similar to bladed FG’s – never use any SG’s on “hard” ground, your feet will tell you why! When it comes to FG studs blades will do better, however if you are going to play on hard ground as well I would recommend conical studs as there will be more surface area of the boot touching the ground especially with copa style stud configuration. On soft ground with FGs just get studs as long as possible.
In conclusion if studs are the main concideration I would recommend getting a set SG Puma v1.08s and FG Adidas Predator Powerswerves this will cover almost all grounds and will cost about the same as one new season pair of boots.
🙂
sorry dave! i accidentally found that F50 adizero that u mention earlier!
i’ve mistaken your F50 adizero for adidas running shoes which exactly called “adizero” too (also the lightest running shoes out there)
What is the cheapest price for the adidas F50i or the adidas Predator X in US dollars
Does anyone know how these boots’ durability are on AG? 🙂
I’m really considering buying laser 3 but I want to make sure they don’t rip up after two weeks 😛
been wearing predators for years now and was wondering whether to switch to these or upgrade to the predator x. any recommendations, kyle?
Would really aprecciate any advice on this.
I play wingback on a semi-pro level, so how would the laser III’s work on a modern wb. Do they work well at crossing and passing, i’ve been playing whit the laser 2’s and they do not work for me, sure you get great shot’s but it not very often that i get in a position to shoot. What boots would you reccomend? Ctr 360, Laser 3 or some others?
Strom- just wondering what u found bad about the laser II’s? I play left wing usually (but also often centre midfield) and last year I had the laser II and they worked pretty well 4 me (I won best and fairest) and so this year got the laser III’s and so far I’ve only used them for practising shots and a practise match but they’ve been pretty good so far and I would recomend them but just wondering what other people recomend for wing/midfield?
Soo…Kyle, what size do you wear and what size were you training with?
I borrowed the boots from someone for a match I had and fell in love with them. They are hideous as all hell but I stopped caring about that once I played in them. I couldn’t wait for a new color and just got the green ones after that match. They are phenomenal IMO, just made for people who like to strike the ball. I am a Beckham style winger and will not look at any other boot until these fall apart.