This Classic Nike Sneaker's Game Days Are Over. Its Fashion Era Has Just Begun
The Nike Total 90 III is a shoe steeped in nostalgia.
Released in 2004, the football boot (or soccer cleat, for American readers) graced the feet of generational talents in iconic moments.
Ronaldinho wore this boot during his prime at Barcelona and Brazil, when he won FIFA World Player of the Year two years on the bounce. Wayne Rooney scored a hat-trick on his Manchester United debut wearing the third generation of T90 boots. Louis Figo played his final Euros tournament in the T90s, losing to Greece in a historic final.
Football boots don’t get much more iconic than the Nike T90. And for a generation of football fans that grew up seeing their favorite players wearing the boot, its return is a big deal.
Sure, the T90 III’s days of bagging goals on the biggest stages of world football are long gone. However, its legacy lives on.
After close to a year of teasing, we’re finally nearing the return of the Nike T90. The iconic model isn’t resurfacing as a football shoe, but as a casual lifestyle sneaker (although, clearly, nobody told Edgar Davids who played in the shoes during Travis Scott's recent football tournament).
The revival of the Total 90 begins on March 1 when the shoe arrives via Nike SNKRS.
Naturally, this has gotten chins wagging amongst football fans. And combined with the news that Nike’s last-ever premier league ball is an ode to the 2004 T90 ball, I’m in nostalgia overdrive.
My childhood attachment to this era of football makes me biased, but the early naughts was the golden era of football boots. And the fact many of the boots from that era stand up as great-looking casual shoes is evidence.
Now, finally, after Nike's persistent teasing, one of the most iconic football boots of that generation is about to hit shop shelves.
