Puma Football XX

was designed for 2023 Lacelessdesign.com #lacelesschallenge, held on their Instagram profile.

Following the contest theme, this concept shoe revolves around women's feet and to fulfill women's demands for football shoes in terms of comfort, traction and ball touch.
Starting from the bottom, studs shape (conic) and geometric placement are designed for best compromise of traction and disengagement, to avoid potential injuries; the sole plate is made of dual density pebax portions to allow flexibility and optimal studs punctual load sharing.
A thin midsole layer (5 mm forefoot and 10 mm heel stack height) has been added for increased comfort, especially on hard grounds. Nitro foam core allows maximum efficiency and lightweight, while external EVA carrier is designed to keep good stability, especially at the heel and under the arch, where raised shape acts as a cradle, working together with sole plate geometry.
Upper is designed around women's specific last and is made of elastic 3D knit for perfect adaptability to players' own foot geometry, considering women's foot shape tends to differ more than men's one. In order to properly retain the foot, two different TPU layers have been applied, both using the same design pattern, specifically created to be elastic and adapatable but strong. First layer, directly applied to the 3D knit sock, is flat and wide, while the second one is thicker but slimmer. These TPU patterns, named "NANOTAPE", being an evolution of standars Puma "PWRTAPE", are designed to create a unique texture which wraps the foot providing containment and flexibility where needed, but also thought to provide additional ball touch.
Upper is also available in both laceless and laced options to be suitable for different players fits and personal taste.
Sockliner will also be availble in normal and high arch options, plus, similar TPU pattern will be applied over the sockliner surface to enhance sock/sockliner grip, in order to increase foot/footwear contact feel.
The whole Puma Football XX shoe concept revolves around a "gentle shoe" concept, to improve player's ground and ball perception and to avoid any kind of discomfort.
XX name refers to specific women's chromosomes couple, representing the pure women's DNA of this design.