Letting the cat well and truly out of the bag, PUMA officially launch the Ultra 1.1, the brand’s return to speed, packed with groundbreaking innovation, including PUMA exclusive MATRYXEVO® technology, which provides elite-level stability, durability and traction.
It’s been hinted at to the point of being just outright shown off in recent weeks, but now the veil is officially lifted from PUMA’s latest project, the Ultra. Presented in a "Chasing Adrenaline" colour combination of "Shocking Orange/Black/White", this is the brand’s return to speed; see, for a brand that made shoes for the world's fastest man, speed is forever in their DNA, and since the retirement of the evoSPEED line back in 2017, the brand haven’t had a dedicated speed boot. So you can see why this is kind of a big deal. And for that reason, it's not been taken lightly, arriving after years of testing and feedback from some of the world’s best attacking players, including Antoine Griezmann, Sergio Agüero and Nikita Parris.
So what're we really dealing with here? Well, PUMA have combined a dynamic silhouette that utilises a fully engineered and technologically advanced, lightweight MATRYXEVO® upper with an instinctive running spike outsole. The MATRYXEVO® upper enables PUMA to utilise a single layer of material that is closer to the foot, whilst providing outstanding support at an extraordinary light weight. This signals the first time this material has ever been utilized in a football boot.
“A key feature of the new MATRYXEVO® material is that it is one layer. We wanted to embed all the functionality into one upper material to make it as foot-friendly as possible. This helps to create a superior fit without perforating the material to keep it lightweight, strong and durable. The feedback from our professional players and our consumer testing has been exceptional,” said Roman Girard, Senior Head of Innovation, PUMA.
After years of testing the materials properties, PUMA has worked with its partners to develop a method to coat each individual fiber – an industry first, and constructed the perfect blend of polyester yarns, carbon yarns and aramid fibers. The extremely strong aramid fibers run through the lateral side of the upper. Player feedback identified that players needed more support on the lateral side to keep them locked in, preventing the material stretching over the tooling. The carbon yarns provide superior lightweight benefits and additional foot support to ignite explosive forward motion.
Peter Stappen, Lead Product Line Manager, PUMA said: “Our goal was not to create the lightest boot possible, but to create a speed boot with optimal weight for speed to ensure features such as control, traction and comfort were not compromised. We were not about chasing grams, but about chasing adrenaline. When we put all the components together, the boot had all the essential properties we wanted; comfort, stability and durability but maintained an exceptionally light weight.”
A GripControl Pro skin has been applied to key areas of the upper to provide complete and decisive control of the ball when moving at uncatchable speeds. Bonded to the upper is a lightweight PEBA SpeedUnit outsole, featuring a split sole design inspired by PUMA running spike DNA for dynamic acceleration. The sole plate combines subtle ‘spikes’ in the forefoot and V-shaped blades for added aerodynamics, configured for explosive speed.
The PUMA Ultra is available to pre-order at prodirectsoccer.com with a release date of 24 August.
