How Adidas tapped into motorcycle culture to create Messi’s retro iridescent World Cup cleats

On June 22, Lionel Messi became the all-time leading goal scorer in World Cup history, 20 years after his tournament debut in 2006. A lot has changed for Messi in those two decades, but his most avid fans might have noticed that one thing stayed more or less the same: his footwear. When Messi (whose birthday is today, June 24) first stepped onto the World Cup pitch at the age of 18, he was wearing a pair of Adidas F50.6 Tunit cleats. And while setting his goal-scoring record, he was wearing a custom pair of cleats—called the Adidas F50 El Ultimo Tango—designed to mimic the silhouette of tha...