What Puma says about this boot: Next-generation adaptive fit to create without constraints throughout the 90 minutes
Boot style: Touch/Comfort
Weight: 220g / 7.76 ounces (US 8.5/26.5cm)
Previous model: Puma Future Ultimate (2023)
The Puma Future silo has always been built on a strong knit base to give you the best fit and most sock like feel on the ball. Earlier iterations of the Future came with a Netfit system that gave you the ability to customize the fit any way you liked, which we really enjoyed.
Today, it’s still the most comfortable and sock-like boot on the market, with a super soft upper out of the box, comparable to leather boots. Puma has also constantly found a way to surprise me as well.
I felt the concept peaked with the Puma Future 1.4, which refined the edges of the Future 1.3. Yet somehow the Future Ultimate not only got softer, better fitting and reduced the padding to give you an incredibly balance touch on the ball.
The Puma Future Ultimate has been a constant mainstay in my rotation of boots whenever I’m not testing boots and just want a comfortable slipper like boot, so I’m quite curious to see how the Puma Future 7 Ultimate refines the formula further.
The Puma Future 7’s new and improved upper
Perhaps the most significant visual change is the new position of the PWRTape. Instead of being placed on the side of the boot, where truth be told, it was more of a visual than a functional feature, it’s now placed on the top of the boot. This allows the boot to lock your foot into place, a seat belt if you would, for a more secure fit.
Puma also improves on the 3D grip texturing that was on the previous generation. Now called PWRPrint, it covers a greater part of the upper, giving the boot a rough scaly touch on the ball for more grip.
Not quite the Ultimate fit
With great lockdown comes, necessary break in time. While the new PWRTape positioning felt excellent on feet, I needed a good amount of effort to get my feet into the boot in the first place. I would recommend wearing your thinnest pair of socks to get the boots on feet and doing some warmups in the park before bringing them to a game. A shoe horn goes an absolutely long way too.
Curiously, Puma have also tweaked the shape of the Puma Future 7 Ultimate. Their boots of late have trended towards a slimmer, tighter silhouette, especially with the new Puma King Ultimate, and the Future has also gone through a diet.
The toebox is also slightly lower, so I’d recommend going true to size if you’ve got a high volume foot in general. If not, going down half a size would give you the best fit still, lengthwise at least.
A grippier extension of your foot
Personally, it took around 3 training sessions before the boot really moulded and stopped constricting my toes. After putting in the hard work of breaking the boot in, the rewards is arguably one of the best all-round boots on the market.
Unlike many of the “knit boots” on the market, the Puma Future 7 Ultimate, adds in a thin layer of foam padding, which gives you that little bit of comfort to hug your foot. That comfort, as well as the knit tongue and collar, gives you that “extension of foot” feeling, similar to what I’ve always loved in my leather boots.
Where the boot really shines though, is when you start dribbling the ball. The PWRPrint really makes a difference when you start making those little touches on the ball with the outside of your foot and manipulating it. It adds that little bit of extra grip to help you stabilize your first touch, without feeling overly grippy to the point that you trip over the ball. My favourite improvement of the Future series thus far.
This is further aided by the PWRTape which works in tandem with the grippy insole to really lock your foot into place when dribbling. Regardless of me changing directions or making straight sprints, the new PWRTape position kept me feeling secure and distraction-free.
When it comes to shooting and passing the ball, these feel very much like the previous generation – it is nice and functional without feeling spectacular in anyway.
Great FG tooling, avoid for AG
Puma has reused the FG/AG tooling from the 2023 Future Ultimate and while it works great on FG (firm natural grass) surfaces, I definitely do not recommend it for AG (artificial ground) due to how long and bladed it is. I went with the HG (hard ground) variant which uses rounded studs and I feel that the HG variant is the more well-rounded tooling, safe to use on all 3 mentioned ground types.
They also have an MG version which is excellent on AG and I highly recommend it if your games are mostly smaller sided like 5v5 and 7v7.
The Puma Future 7 Ultimate is the easy option for everyone
Future has been arguably Puma’s best silo since its introduction in 2018 thanks to its focus on fit and comfort through their excellent knit uppers. For us, it’s always been one of our easy go-to recommendations for anyone that’s looking to buy a boot but unsure about fit and sizing.
The Puma Future 7 Ultimate continues much of that tradition, although I’m unsure if the new fit and shape was a step in the right direction, considering how comfortable the previous generation was out of the box.
Having said that, with knit making a small resurgence , Puma’s improvements on the Puma Future 7 Ultimate ensures that it doesn’t lag behind their competitors and that it’s still one of the best choices on the market.
