This summer there are no sneakers, there are heels. What started as a niche subculture on TikTok and among streetwear lovers has officially become a global trend. The confirmation? Rosalía, in the middle of New York, appeared on the eve of the MET Gala wearing football boots. And not just any football boots: Mercurial boots that looked like they were straight out of a warm-up at the Camp Nou. The message was clear: football boots are no longer just for the pitch. Welcome to the summer of #BootsOnlySummer.
Footballcore has been around in fashion for years, but always from an aesthetic distance. Vintage football shirts, technical goalkeeper jackets, training shorts from the 90s… all that has already been assimilated. But now it’s more literal, more provocative: wearing full kit, studs included. Rosalía is not an isolated case. Artists like Central Cee, 070 Shake or the creatives behind platforms like ByBorre and Post Archive Faction have shown a growing fascination with technical garments linked to football.
Martine Rose, Balenciaga and the canonisation of the heel
We must talk about Martine Rose. The British designer has long been exploring the codes of football from an emotional point of view: the father who takes his son to the match, the Sunday rituals, the kids in the park. Her collaboration with Nike in 2023 had already included reinterpretations of classic boots, but what seemed like a catwalk eccentricity is now revealed as a fulfilled prophecy.
Balenciaga, for its part, has been pushing the boundaries of footwear for years: XXL boots, deformed sneakers, shoes that look like museum pieces. His imaginary has paved the way for football boots to be read today not as sportswear, but as urban sculpture.
In this context, it is not surprising that the most recent adidas drops include boots in minimalist colourways or that Nike has started to test models without studs but with the aesthetics of classic silos such as Mercurial or Phantom GX.
A trend born of the algorithm, legitimised by the street
The irony is that this trend, so physical, was born of the digital. The hashtag #BootsOnlySummer was cooked up on TikTok, in a mixture of humour, provocation and nostalgia for the recesses of the 2000s. But what started as a meme ended up being embodied in the fits of the early adopters of global streetwear.
The codes are clear: technical trousers, cargo skirts, oversized T-shirts, wraparound glasses and, instead of limited edition sneakers, real football boots. The uniform of this micro-scene mixes Y2K sensibility, post-pandemic nihilism and a kind of recontextualised masculinity vindication. Because, let’s be honest: nothing screams football like a pair of Total 90s, but now they’re paired with Acne Studios bags and black eyeliner.
What does this tell us about fashion today?
The most interesting thing about all this is what it reveals about the current state of fashion. In an era where everything is curated to the point of exhaustion, where trainers no longer surprise and where authenticity has become a currency, football boots burst forth as a symbol of a new aesthetic rawness.
They are not designed to be liked. They are designed to perform. But that very thing – that lack of stylistic intent – is what makes them powerful. Because at the end of the day, what defines a trend is not the garment, but the context in which it is worn. And today, to walk through the city centre with a pair of heels on is to make a statement without saying a word.
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