Pink cleats have been one of the most visible footwear choices at the World Cup, and the numbers behind the opening matches explain why. In the starting lineups alone, Nike boots were worn by 232 of the 528 starters, while Adidas had 218, a gap of just 14 across football’s biggest stage.
That is why searches around why some players wear pink cleats at the World Cup keep circling back to the same answer: the color is part of a broader boot battle, and the battle is close. The brand split shows a tournament where the two giants are almost level, with Puma a distant third at 44 players, far behind the top two but still present in the mix.
Within that fight, the most popular single model was Nike’s Mercurial, worn by 144 starters. Adidas’ F50 followed with 109, while Adidas’ Predator was worn by 82. Nike’s Phantom and Tiempo lines also appeared among the boots on show, and Puma’s Future model was worn by 36 players, underscoring that a small number of models accounted for most of what starters put on their feet.
The visibility of pink cleats makes sense in that context. When the leading brands are separated by such a narrow margin, the most eye-catching colorways from their flagship lines can stand out quickly on television and in still images. The cleats are not a separate trend from the boot race; they are part of it, a design choice that becomes more noticeable when so many starters are wearing the same core models.
What the opening-match counts do not settle is whether this balance will hold as the World Cup moves deeper into the tournament. For now, the early snapshot shows Nike slightly ahead of Adidas, but only just, and the race for visibility on the pitch is as tight as the numbers suggest.
