Steven Gerrard switches back into adidas Predator

When Steven Gerrard first made his debut for Liverpool in 1998 against Blackburn Rovers, he turned out in a pair of black Nike boots. His infatuation with the Swoosh didn't last long as adidas picked up the promising young midfielder who made the Predator boot his own.

His first Predator boot was the 1998 Accelerator that was also worn by Zinedine Zidane who had led France to the World Cup the previous summer. The accelerator featured off-center laces that provided a larger striking surface while the Predator element on the toe box was given a lower profile to aid players in controlling the ball.

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It wasn't long until Gerrard was handed his England debut against Ukraine in May of 2000. By that point, Gerrard had switched to the Predator Precision, which was introduced by adidas for the Euro 2000 tournament that was co-hosted by Belgium and the Netherlands. The Precision featured interchangeable studs and a new shape for the Predator Element, which would switch to a series of swooping lines on the strike zone.

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Gerrard was the face of the Predator Absolute and Powerswerve series that succeeded the Precision, Mania, and Pulse. When adidas ditched the foldover tongue ahead of the 2010 World Cup in South Africa with the Predator X, it was Gerrard who served as the boot's spokesperson in many of the ad campaigns that preceded the tournament.

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For the better part of 13 years, Gerrard and the adidas Predator were synonymous with each other. That came to a halt at the end of the original Predator Lethal Zones' life cycle when adidas introduced the second LZ boot and the then-new Nitrocharge silo. Gerrard wore the boot that adidas designed for "the Engine" for pretty much the whole of the 2013/14 season as he made a more reserved midfield role for Liverpool his own.

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It now looks like the midfielder, who announced his international retirement earlier in the week, will switch back to the Predator for the upcoming Premier League season. With the Reds training in Boston ahead of an American preseason tour, Gerrard was spotted in the new Infrared / Black / Running White colorway.

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