It’s been at least 2 months since I bought these babies for around $280 AUD and they have been a great investment so far. I posted up this entry when I first got the boots and a reader has asked me how they’ve held up since. I know for a fact that this blog would be the best place to see what effect constant play has had on these football boots, because I don’t know of anyone else documenting their Ronaldinho shoes on the web Again, here is the link to the first post when the shoes looked flawless, and now some background knowledge before we analyse the pictures. Take the following into account:

• These boots were purchased 2 months ago
• I have been playing football 5 times a week, even 6 times
• Some fields I’ve played on have quite a few dust patches
• I have not used any other pair of boots, so far, to play with

Battered And Bruised

Ronaldinho gets a new pair of these boots everytime he plays and probably has 100 more pairs at home, lucky guy. See now I on the other hand, have access to only one pair. They look far different from the first time I put these babies on. I took this picture after I came back from football training, so there is grass everywhere and dust stuck to the shoes. The inside of the shoes still look the same, but that is to be expected. They have really held up well though, even if it’s only been 2 months.

Closer Observations

And observe closely we will. The image above displays the most used areas of the 10R boots. I have numbered key areas that are taking the biggest beating and I’ll talk about how each happened. Lets start with one.

1. In this area we can see the stress caused by doing a large amount of running and I can testify to that. We have been focusing on fitness for a while now. The stress caused by the running I have been doing has shown here, as the marks go right across the 10R logos on both feet. This is expected to happen for any shoe.
2. With the second area, we can see all the stretch marks over the insteps of the 10R shoes, which suggests overuse and change in weather conditions. The reason I have focused on this particular area of the right 10R boot, is because there is a small crack of an opening starting to form, where the big toe is. It is still very small and in the preliminary stages of opening up.
3. Finally, the third area shows the tip of the left boot. What I want to outline here is the very end, where there is a lot of dirt collected into this one place. There is not so much in the right 10R boot, but in the left the sole of the shoe has come loose at the end and has allowed for dirt and grass to get in. If you look at the first picture at the top, you can see the grass caught in the 10R boot. This is also because I like to slide the top of my foot across the ground when I want to stop running.

Conclusions and My Recommendation

If you’re after a great pair of football boots, do yourself a favour, go and get yourself a pair of these.  That is of course if you can afford them. So there are two thumbs way up from me for these great shoes and they will go the extra mile, from my first hand experience. The only thing that needs to be addressed is that they need to be looked after. But word of advice,  please don’t go out and buy them if you can’t afford them, because I know it didn’t do me any favours putting down that kind of money for these babies, only favours on the field