All posts with the 'Air Zoom 5-Tool' tag appear below.
First-Half Recap: Chicago Cubs
There was a lot to cover when it came to the Cubs’ cleats, it took me a little while to put this one together…
The cleats above belong to Derrek Lee, Mark DeRosa, Ryan Theriot, Ronny Cedeno, Daryle Ward, Aramis Ramirez, Carlos Zambrano, and Alfonso Soriano. As you can see, there’s a growing trend of bold red accents in the Cubbies’ footwear, and that’s something that I really like — the blue and red together mesh really well with Chicago’s classic uniforms. More details on these cleats (as well as a few mysterious cases of cleat-sharing) after the jump, and as always, larger views of all of these are available in the Player Exclusive Gallery.
Schneider Max MVP, Other Recent MLB PE’s
It’s time to check in with some new stuff from around baseball…
(AP Photo/Kathy Willens)
Brian Schneider recently started wearing a new Max MVP PE. It looks like these have white patent accents on the upper (and grey patent on the away PE at upper right), orange MCS outsoles, and blue Air units. I’ll work on finding some views of these without all of the catchers gear in the way, but these look impressive so far.
First-Half Recap: Boston Red Sox
Up until this point, these recaps have been dominated by Nike… I’m happy to bring some attention to the other brands, and the Sox are one of the most diverse teams in the league in terms of footwear branding. The cleats below are the models that have been worn by Manny Ramirez, Jason Varitek, Julio Lugo, Dustin Pedroia, and Jonathan Papelbon:
As always, larger versions of the above renderings can be seen in the PE Gallery… more info on all of these models (and a couple others) after the jump.
First-Half Recap: Atlanta Braves
Some technical issues on the site pushed my player exclusive recap schedule back a day, but here are the PE cleats worn by the Atlanta Braves (all of which are can be seen in the PE Gallery):
Unless I missed any (and please let me know if I did), it seems that the only PE’s being worn this year in Atlanta are Nike models. With a couple prominent Mizuno players (Chipper Jones, Brian McCann) and a few Under Armour guys (Jeff Francoeur, Tim Hudson, Rafael Soriano) on the roster, it’s surprising that the other brands aren’t hooking their guys up. The PE renderings above are the models worn by Mark Teixeira (now in Anaheim but still included), Yunel Escobar, Mark Kotsay, and Casey Kotchman.
Ramirez Makes Dodger Debut in Martin’s Cleats
One can only assume that Manny Ramirez has the same shoe size as new teammate Russell Martin. He played his first game in white and blue last night, and this is what he had on…
(Photo by Stephen Dunn/Getty Images)
That’s the same player exclusive 5-Tool model that Martin has been wearing all season long. It’ll be interesting to see how long it will be before he gets his own blue PE’s (and how long it takes for the dreadlocks to go).
Elsewhere in the league, Ken Griffey Jr. rocked his grey Swingman Remix PE’s and Jason Bay stuck with his black/grey Easton Mojo cleats in Boston.
First-Half Recap: Arizona Diamondbacks
For the next thirty days, I’ll be doing first-half recaps of the PE cleats (and some footwear oddities) worn by all thirty Major League teams. These recaps will go in alphabetical order by team, so the Arizona Diamondbacks are the team of the day…
The renderings above are the models that have been worn by Orlando Hudson (Nike 5-Tools), Mark Reynolds (Nike Fuse), Justin Upton (adidas Diamond King), and Brandon Webb (Reebok Vero FL II). Larger views can be seen in the brand new Player Exclusive Gallery… I’ll be adding cleats from the other 29 teams throughout the month (and basketball and football galleries will follow). More info on these Diamondbacks models after the jump…
MLB Trade Deadline: PE Aftermath
The MLB trade deadline is always a great time for baseball… teams gear up to make playoff runs, superstars swap uniforms, and new cleats are customized with new colors. Here’s the breakdown of how this year’s deadline affects the a handful of MLB cleats…
(PlayerExclusive.com Photo Illustration; Original Photos by Jim Rogash/Getty Images and Al Behrman/AP Photo)
Manny Ramirez to the Dodgers: This was the most shocking trade of the bunch, and I’m really looking forward to what Nike customizes for Manny. My Photoshopped image above shows him in a Dodger-ized PE of the Fuse cleats he’s recently been wearing in Boston, and while it’d be great to see something like that in LA, here’s my guess about what will happen: he’ll start off by wearing a blue GR of the 5-Tool or Fuse, and he’ll break out a new Fuse PE or maybe even a Max MVP PE in a couple of weeks. I also wouldn’t be surprised if he just went with the white / blue Max MVP… Russell Martin has already worn these for a couple of games this month, so the Dodgers are apparently one of the few teams getting these.
Ken Griffey Jr. to the White Sox: This one is confusing for the White Sox, great for Griffey, and awful for footwear. With white, black, red, and grey, Griffey was able to lace up a ton of different colorways of his Swingman Remix signature cleat in Cincinnati. Now that he’s with the Sox, we’ll probably only be seeing black / black, black / white, and black / grey… hopefully Nike will mix it up and start doing new colorblocking on the different upper elements.
MLB All-Star Workout / Home Run Derby Photos
A ton of PE’s and new releases should be seen later tonight at the All-Star Game, but yesterday’s home run derby and afternoon batting practice brought us a few decent photos. The best are highlighted below.
Chase Utley in an All-Star PE version of a new adidas model… these feature some custom embroidery on a tongue, but I can’t make out what it is. Anybody get a closer look or know the name of these? Please post in the comments section below.
(Photo by Nick Laham / Getty Images)
Adidas
Nike
Easton
Reebok
Jordan
Under Armour
