From black to white to bubble gum pink: how the football shoe changed color

In 1995, Ajax talent Martijn Reuser walks to the training field. For the first time he is wearing his new football boots: white Asics Tigers. They were delivered to your home a day earlier. To be on the safe side, he also takes his black shoes with him to the field. The white ‘kicks’ were received with derision in the dressing room, he says by telephone NRC. The rest of the Ajax players, who would win the Champions League that season, also speculated about coach Louis van Gaal’s reaction.

After a few laps around the field to warm up, Van Gaal enters the field. “There it is,” the players say to Reuser, grinning. “Fwuut!” Van Gaal blows his whistle and waves the selection towards him. “Reuser, g*********! What are you wearing? I’m not going to train you with those shoes!” Van Gaal’s tirade lasts about a minute, after which Reuser lies that the shoes were meant as a joke. “My black shoes are there, next to the plates,” he says, but in vain. Van Gaal is not happy about it: Reuser has to train with the promises and is excluded from the first team for a week.

By email, Van Gaal calls the anecdote “probably a truth in the context of (Reuser)”. According to the former Ajax coach, Reuser’s choice of white shoes “went against the team spirit.” “At that time the shoes were black and not in one color,” writes Van Gaal.

That’s different now. In 2026, during the World Cup in Mexico, Canada and the US, it is noticeable that most football players are playing in shoes in all shades of pink, from bright bubble gum pink to light pink, a color traditionally associated with femininity and now with the LGBTQ+ community. How did the football world end up in pink?

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‘Twinkle toes’

In 1970, Englishman Alan Ball wore the first white football boots ever in professional football, made by the Danish brand Hummel. Plot twist: in reality the shoes were not from Hummel, but from Adidas. Because Ball did not like the quality of the real Hummel shoes, Hummel painted black Adidas shoes white especially for Ball. The signature three streaks were replaced by two arrows, the Hummel logo. The commentator on duty during the debut match of Ball’s revolutionary shoes was not impressed; he called Everton’s star player ‘twinkle toes (‘sparkle toe’ or loosely translated: light-footed diva). Ball, World Cup winner in 1966, was ridiculed, but the real white Hummels became a hit. The next day 12,000 pairs sold over the counter.

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Italian innovation

In the 1970s and 1980s, colored football boots remained one no go. Brands experimented – especially during the World Cup – with accents, but did not dare to try fully colored shoes. In 1982, goalkeeper Dino Zoff won the World Cup with Italy, wearing black Lottos with yellow accents. Eight years later, during the 1990 World Cup in Italy, the Italian brand released the black and green “Lotto Stadio” – a next step in the discoloration of the football boot.

In the 1990s, Italian sports brands in particular increasingly introduced colored shoes. The 1994 World Cup in the US was a turning point. Italy star Roberto Baggio wore blue Diadoras during the tournament, although not in the final. At the same tournament, the Belgian Enzo Scifo wore the same Diadoras in red, which earned him the media attention during the qualifying “showman” and worse came to pass.

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Orange

Four years later, in the run-up to and at the 1998 World Cup in France, Clarence Seedorf played for the Dutch team wearing orange Diadora shoes. This also led to raised eyebrows. According to Fidelity Seedorf put on another pair of orange shoes “to please his sponsor.” “Especially before half time, Seedorf only stood out because of those shoes,” the newspaper wrote in February that year.

However, from a marketing point of view, the 1998 World Cup was not Diadora’s tournament, but Nike’s. In 1994, Nike was an insignificant player at the World Cup in their own country. Now it sponsored two major countries: the Netherlands and title holder Brazil. In addition, Brazilian Ronaldo – then the best player in the world together with the French Zinedine Zidane – was under contract with Nike. For the World Cup, Nike designed a special shoe for Ronaldo: the Mercurial. Although the Brazilian’s team lost the World Cup final to Zidane’s France, the image of a sad Ronaldo with a silver medal and his Mercurials around his neck became the picture of the tournament.

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Ten years later: colored football boots are ubiquitous in 2008, and Nike decides to go one step further. In November they will launch the first pink shoe: the ‘Nike Mercurial Vapor Pink Berry’. In the accompanying advertisement French winger Franck Ribéry shines with music from Pink Panther in the background. The shoes are worn for the first time in England by the Danish cult hero Niklas Bendtner. In his first match at the ‘Berries’, Bendtner scores the winning goal. The next day all the tabloids write about the now infamous Nikes.

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‘Age of average‘

And then 2026. During this World Cup, almost all players under contract with Adidas, Nike, Puma, New Balance or Skechers – the lion’s share – wear pink football boots. “No coincidence of course,” says brand strategist and podcaster Perre van den Brink. He explains how (sports) brands usually make choices in the same way. “This is done through research agencies that ‘predict’ which colors will be ‘trending’ in the coming years,” Van den Brink explains. The bright pink ‘Electric Fuchsia’ was tipped for 2026. On the field, the color quickly catches the eye due to the contrast with the uniforms and the grass.

Van den Brink regrets this homogeneity. According to him, this is an example of the so-called “age of average“, in which algorithms determine what will be successful. “Often these algorithms are right, so everyone starts using them to achieve maximum profit,” he says. “But in this way we are slowly but surely losing diversity – not just in football.”

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