Sports company PUMA on Wednesday launched the revolutionary ULTRA 1.1 football boot, bringing groundbreaking innovation and uncatchable speed to the world of football.

Speed is in PUMA’s DNA, and continuing this legacy PUMA introduces the next generation of speed. The ULTRA 1.1 features PUMA exclusive MATRYXEVO® technology, providing elite-level stability, durability and traction.

Following years of testing and player feedback from some of the world’s best attacking players, including Antoine Griezmann, Sergio Agüero and Nikita Parris, the PUMA ULTRA 1.1 is engineered to deliver the game’s fastest football boot. Combining a dynamic silhouette that utilises a fully engineered and technologically advanced, lightweight MATRYXEVO® upper with an instinctive running spike outsole to create the ultimate weapon for speed.

The MATRYXEVO® upper enables PUMA to utilise a single layer of material that is closer to the foot, while providing outstanding support at an extraordinary light weight. This signals the first time this material has ever been utilised in a football boot.

‘A key feature of the new MATRYXEVO® material is that it is one layer. We wanted to embed all the functionality into one upper material to make it as foot-friendly as possible. This helps to create a superior fit without perforating the material to keep it lightweight, strong and durable. The feedback from our professional players and our consumer testing has been exceptional,” said Roman Girard, senior head of innovation, PUMA.

After years of testing the materials properties, PUMA has worked with its partners to develop a method to coat each individual fiber – an industry first, and constructed the perfect blend of polyester yarns, carbon yarns and aramid fibers. The extremely strong aramid fibres run through the lateral side of the upper. Player feedback identified that players needed more support on the lateral side to keep them locked in, preventing the material stretching over the tooling. The carbon yarns provide superior lightweight benefits and additional foot support to ignite explosive forward motion.

Peter Stappen, lead product line manager, PUMA said: ‘Our goal was not to create the lightest boot possible, but to create a speed boot with optimal weight for speed to ensure features such as control, traction and comfort were not compromised. We were not about chasing grams, but about chasing adrenaline. When we put all the components together, the boot had all the essential properties we wanted: comfort, stability and durability but maintained an exceptionally light weight.’

A GripControl Pro skin has been applied to key areas of the upper to provide complete and decisive control of the ball when moving at uncatchable speeds. Bonded to the upper is a lightweight PEBA SpeedUnit outsole, featuring a split sole design inspired by PUMA running spike DNA for dynamic acceleration. The sole plate combines subtle ‘spikes’ in the forefoot and V-shaped blades for added aerodynamics, configured for explosive speed.

The PUMA ULTRA 1.1 launches in the Chasing Adrenaline colour combination of shocking orange, black and white and is available from 4 September at PUMA.com, PUMA stores and select retailers for R3,299.

WATCH: Introducing the world’s fastest football boot – PUMA ULTRA