Asics Lethal Testimonial 4 IT Football Boot Review

Josh shares his insight into the technical features of the Asics Lethal Testimonial 4 IT football boot. Coming in a bunch of different colourways to suit all tastes, these killer kicks don't just look great but are packed full of the technologies you need to leave the opposition eating your dust.

They're designed for premium comfort and a custom fit, sporting a kangaroo leather upper, 10mm heel gradient and longer sprig length for traction when the football season throws at you a range of soft and firm grounds.

Check out the full review with transcript below.

Hello and welcome to Sportitude.

It’s about time we start looking at the football range on offer in 2017. So what I’ve got in front of me right here is the Asics Lethal Testimonial IT 4. Very premium boot from the Asics range and this year they’ve thrown in a couple of extra colours.

That being said, colours aside, the shoe itself is amazing. I want to talk about the technical features today to give you some help and understanding of whether it’s going to be the right boot for you.

Firstly if I just grab one of these little guys in my hand, what Asics have done in the last 10 to 12 years has set them apart from the other brands in the football category in the sense that they’ve introduced a 10mm heel gradient. 

What that essentially does is lift the heel of your foot up and gradually drops the midfoot support down to your forefoot. What that will do is take a little bit of stress off that lower achilles and calf and then when you’re running and turning your legs over, it also takes stress off the back of your knee and hamstring, minimising hamstring strains, calf soreness and achilles tightness.

It’s a fantastic little feature that Asics has done with their football boots. Now 99% of the boots in the Asics range have that feature.

There is one boot in their range, the DS Light, that is on a zero platform. So if you’re looking at the Asics range and you’re thinking ‘fantastic idea, I need that [10mm gradient]’, don’t buy the DS Light.

Looking at this guy here, the Lethal Testimonial, I will quickly show you all the colours. So we’ve got the new black, very sleek lime bottom. Then you've got your crystal snow white number, little guy here with a black base. Then we’ve got this little beautiful number here the orange sun burnt red, fantastic little boot. They’ve had that for a couple of years now, it’s been very popular for us.

For your traditional football player that wants to looks the part, look like he’s born in the 1980s, well that’s your number right there, your black and white classic looking boot.

Now the Testimonial, what has it got. So I've already talked about the 10mm heel gradient. It’s got a Solyte base through the rear of the foot here, giving that foot a little bit of softness underneath on those hard pitches, hard ovals.

It’s also got a full kangaroo leather upper. When we’re talking about the upper, it’s a really important feature. The kangaroo leather allows the foot to almost customise the shape of the boot. After a couple of wears, kangaroo leather can give a little bit, adapts to whether you’re a wider foot through to the forefoot or whether you have a slightly wider midfoot. It will allow your foot to sit a bit nicer inside the boot.

Looking at the back of the boot through the heel counter region, Asics have just slightly dropped the external heel counter down the back at the base of the achilles. The reason they’ve done that is to allow a bit more of a customised fit.

If you’ve got a heel counter that comes up a bit higher it does feel like you’re going to have a little more support but it doesn’t have much play, much give. By dropping the external heel counter around to the base of the achilles, it will just allow the back half of your foot or your ankle to sit a little bit nicer inside your boot. It’s a beautiful feature too.

The kangaroo leather doesn’t just stop through the forefoot, it goes right around the boot, customising and stretching 360 degrees around this whole boot. 

Now quickly let's look at the base. I want to show you the sprig pattern through here. You’ve got your traditional four sprigs at the back. Being an IT model, essentially this boot is for firm grounds. ST models stand for soft turf so you wouldn’t have this amount of sprig pattern underneath.

Four sprigs at the back. You have eight through the forefoot. Eight is about standard with most boots, some boots have more. That’s about the amount of traction you require on firm ground.

One little feature I do need to talk about just briefly before we say adios, looking at the boot from the side, the sprigs are a fraction longer. Depending on what part of Australia you’re from will determine whether you need a longer sprig or not.

If you’re from, for argument's sake, in a state or territory where the grounds are a bit firmer, a bit harder underneath your foot for the majority of the football season, I’d probably suggest this boot might be too aggressive for you.

If you’re in a state or territory where the grounds can be firm some and some can be a bit softer, and you don’t want to wear a screw-in football boot or a soft turf football boot, this guy is fantastic. The sprigs are long enough to give you traction when it’s a bit damp but also short enough to give your foot a little bit of respite on those firmer decks.

Look guys, I hope that’s given you a bit of insight into the Lethal Testimonial IT 4. Great boot! If you’ve been nervous about buying it in the last couple of years or if you want to give it a crack, it's certainly ready to go. Give it a shot.