My Shoe Bag: Fall 1993

The Fall of 1993 saw me rocking three different boots. I had a pair of Bellotti Mostros, Lanzera Top Techs and the trusty, reliable Adidas Copa Mundial.

Why I needed three seperate boots? Well…I used to obsess over professionals…anything they did, I wanted to do. If Lothar Matthaeus changes his boots at halftime then I change my boots at halftime.

Copa Mundial

I think it’s safe to say that a good majority of players have owned a pair or two of Copas. To this day they’re still one of my favorite boots. I’ve tried a handful of other boots…nothing have been able to match the comfort and touch that the Copa provides.

I bought my first pair of Copas from Meek’s Sporting Goods at the Upper Valley Mall in Springfield, Ohio. I wore the shit out of them. The kangaroo leather was waterproof…I thought that meant they were impervious to snow as well. During the winter months I would go outside and take target practice with little snow mounds that I would create. My feet always stayed dry…as did my shoes…permanently. I should have done a better job drying my boots.

Lanzera Top Tech

My siblings and I all attended the same high school. I remember asking my sister “is the field soft?” after one of her high school games. I was used to playing on hard, dry, midwestern fields. Her reply “yeah, it is” meant one thing…I needed to have a pair of boots with replaceable studs.

I got a pair of the Lanzera Top Techs…Lanzera’s top of the line boot at the time. They were expensive…and, of course, I hardly wore them. Unless I was playing in three inches of water…the shoe was uncomfortable. I could feel pressure from each of the six replaceable studs.

My bad habit of not properly drying my boots would once again bite me in the proverbial ass. Because the shoe was so uncomfortable for me…I only wore it on the wettest of fields. After the game I would stick the shoes back in my bag…not to take them out again until the next soggy contest. It wasn’t long until the shoes fell ill to dry rot. I’m sure I would have had a totally different impression of the shoe had I a) had a different set of studs…perhaps a set designed for hard ground and b) taken better care of them.

Bellotti Mostro

…and then there were my Bellottis.

I first saw a pair of Bellottis in an ad in Soccer America. I was always intrigued by uncommon shoes…I remember calling various soccer shops asking if they sold Asic soccer boots. I had seen professionals wearing Asics in Europe…I wanted to be the first to wear a pair. The conversations always went comething like this:

Me: “…umm…hi…do you have…uh…any Asics soccer shoes?”
Jon Q Sporting Goods: “No. Asics primarily makes running shoes.”
Me: “…I know, but…”
Jon Q. Sporting Goods: Click

I ordered a pair of the Mostros. They were fun for a while. They were unlike any boot I had seen in the sense that they didn’t have a lot of branding on them. The manufacturer’s name was only visible in two places on the boot: the outer side and the tongue. The tongue…I don’t know what was going on with this guy…the tongue on the boot was huge. It was awkwardly sized. You had either two options…you could either force the tongue to lie flat…like the copa tongue did…or you could get crazy and allow the tongue to flap against your ankle for 90 minutes. I opted to fold the tongue flat. The tongue was padded which provided an awkward striking zone when you’re trying to nail a Mark Hughes-esque thundervolley.

So the tongue was awkard…equally akward was the lack of an insole. The shoe had a flimsly, almost felt like insole. Needless to say the insole didn’t last and neither did my socks. I ruined a number of socks from tiny tacks that were attaching the outsole to the boot.

It’s amazing how much easier buying boots is now. When I was growing up the nearest soccer shop was 50 minutes away…now I have 3 within 15 minutes of me. I probably never would have purchased either the Lanzeras or the Bellottis if I had the ability to try the shoes on in a shop…all I had to go on with my beloved soccer catalogs.

What boots did you grow up playing in? Leave a comment and let me know.

15 Responses to “My Shoe Bag: Fall 1993”


You also have the good old Puma Kings, used by Maradona, Bruce Groobelar, Ian Rush etc. I loved the Copas, but the Kings are even cooler. The first shoe with a plastic flip tounge!


I had a pair of the Kings for about a week in a half. I bought them solely based on the fact that Pele and Maradona used to wear them…they tore on me not long after I bought them so I had to come back to the Copas.

I remember there was a Puma Kings ad that featured Maradona. Diego used to tie his Kings so the knot was at the back of his heel…I used to do the same thing…for a while.


We were wondering how many pairs of boots you had. I had one pair until I wore a whole in it. Then a few months later I’d get a new pair. Were you sponsored at the time?


My freshman year of high school I had three boots…each year since I’ve worn about one pair of shoes until I put a hole in them.

Seriously, I wanted to emulate my heroes…anything they would do I would try to do. I remember I had an Italia 90 video highlighting West Germany. The commentator talked about how Lothar Matthaeus was supposed to take the pk in the final against Argentina but had changed his boots at halftime and didn’t feel comfortable striking the ball in new boots. I remember sitting there thinking…I need a couple of boots…in case I’m ever in that situation. Except instead of Rome’s Olympic stadium I would be playing on some fields at Beaver Valley. Seriously…we used to play games there.


i had the top techs and put this footie from some adidas shoe in it. I dont remember the adi shoe it had this removeable footie with a rubber sole that helped the impact from those 6 lanzera studs…ughh Now as a coach i only wear all blacks my puma kings are divine.


I had a pair (more than one, now that I think of it) of Bellotti’s during highschool. I loved them. If I remember correctly, they were made of kangaroo leather, so there was almost no break in needed, and the stitching around the toe area was well-done, and very comfortable for ball-handling. I remember the soles to be relatively soft (gummy almost), which I liked because they had more give than the plastic molded soles. I’m guessing they went out of business, as I haven’t been able to locate a site on Google. Does anyone know if they’re still around?


woww!! I used to have a pair of six stud belotti’s as well!! I remember that they had an all leather sole and I loved them for there flexibility!! Cool to see the Lanzera shoes as well! I completely forgot about that brand! Does anyone know some more of these forgotten brands?? Feel free to contact me at joris_mertens@yahoo.de !!!


well….i did a little bit of research and the closest boot to the bellotti i can find is Pantofola d’ Oro on prodirectsoccer.com….i still have my bellotti sg boots and would love to have another pair, i don’t think they are made anymore.


Sweeeeeeet post man. LOVE seeing these old cleats, was wondering what happened to Bellotti, don’t see the ads anymore, who else loved reading “Soccer America” AWESOME! 🙂


I still have my Mostros–also from ’93…got them from Eurosport. I love ’em! I actually, perversely, like the hard feel of the “insole”. I go tongue-up.
I think it was the all black-ness of them…I wanted to be like the guys in “Victory”–couldn’t find any actual boots as Americans understand the term, those old-old-school chukka ankle boot things…the Bellottis were as close as I could get. And they have proven to be some tough shoes, too.
I looked up the Pantofolas–Awesome! Gotta get me some!


I love your site! I love browsing through your pages & soccerbible’s boot vault… it’s so nostalgic.

Let’s see… I had a sweet pair of Umbro Pele Supremes that I loved. They were my first kangaroo boots, and I remember I played with them long after the fiber midsoles had cracked clean in half. I also had a pair of Mizunhos that may well have been the first soccer boots imported to the States. They had a real carbon fiber shank & were built on a sprint last… I remember the toes pointed up so high that they looked kinda funny when you were standing in line for equipment inspection. Good shoes, though, in their own right.
I spent part of the 90s in Alaska, so indoor was all the rage. I had countless Sambas, blue Gazelles, a pair of black leather Lanzeras with purple tongues… so many memories!
A year and a half ago I asked my wife to order a pair of blue Samba Super Suedes from the ProDirect Soccer UK site for me for Christmas. She came through, and I love those things. I rock them every chance I get… unless I’m mistaken, the last time they were sold stateside was back around 1995.

I haven’t seen anything about balls, but that may be another area to cover if you haven’t already. I, for one, would love it if 18 panels came back… long live the Mitre Ultimax!

Thanks for the great site!


Happy see this conversation going on about Bellotti. I’ve owned 10+ pair since the early 1980s to about 1994 and they were a superior and extremely cool boot. Don’t like the insoles? You must have tender feet:)

I’ve been searching for a pair of indoor Bellotti’s since I jumped Online in 1991. Alas, they are non-existent.

Ernesto Quirarte August 10th, 2016 at 8:09 pm

Do you know where I can get the Belloti shoe?


Unfortunatley, No. I haven’t seen them produced since the early to mid 90s. Although…I did see some Pantafola d’Oros back in action so there’s hope yet.


adidas worldcup, adidas coppa mundial and puma king….my favorites…. I bought them over and over again…. i stil have te last set….there now 20 years old i think….

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