adidas F50 Messi x Bad Bunny

The Adidas F50 Messi x Bad Bunny is a special collaborative signature boot released in late October 2024, uniting Lionel Messi with Puerto Rican global music superstar Bad Bunny (Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio). Rather than a standard seasonal colorway, the boot was conceived as a genuine cultural crossover between football and music, built around the two men's mutual public admiration for one another, and released alongside a matching adidas Gazelle Indoor sneaker. A pink pair connected to this design and its wider marketing moment was subsequently auctioned in November 2024 for Hard Rock International's PINKTOBER breast-cancer-awareness charity campaign, adding a philanthropic dimension to the release.

The collaboration was previewed in earlier 2024 reporting, but the boot's confirmed on-pitch debut and retail launch both occurred in October 2024. Messi first wore the boots in Inter Miami's regular-season finale ("Decision Day") against the New England Revolution — reported as October 19, 2024 by Boston.com and beIN Sports (SoccerBible's own report cites the boots being shown "over the weekend" around October 21, reflecting slightly different publication timing) — before the pair released commercially on October 26, 2024 via Pro:Direct Soccer and other adidas retail partners. Separately, a pink pair tied to the Bad Bunny/Messi marketing moment (described in press coverage simply as "pink cleats" worn by Messi during the November 2024 MLS Cup Playoffs) was placed into Hard Rock International's 25th annual PINKTOBER charity auction, which ran on the QTEGO auction platform through November 22, 2024.

The boot was built on the same F50 platform technology used across Messi's 2024 signature releases: a HybridTouch upper for a soft, ball-controlled touch, a knit "burrito"-style tongue, and a Speedframe 360 outsole. What distinguished the Bad Bunny edition was its personalization: a heel "X" stripe referencing Messi's number 10, an iridescent soleplate with subtle Messi-branded callouts, and construction drawing on adidas heritage materials and archived colorways rather than a purely modern speed-boot aesthetic.

The boots were released in a "Cardboard/Cream White/Bright Cyan" colorway — a muted, brown-gold and creamy-white base offset by a striking bright cyan accent — chosen to evoke a heritage, lifestyle-sneaker feel rather than the high-visibility neon tones typical of performance speed boots. Personalized design touches included "Messi para Bad Bunny" text on the tongue, the Puerto Rican flag paired with "B. Martínez" (Bad Bunny's given surname) on the instep, "Leo" lettering on the soleplate rendered with a metallic effect, gold hues referencing the Ballon d'Or and World Cup trophies Messi has won, and both athletes' signatures in red on the lateral side of the boot. The companion adidas Gazelle Indoor released in a coordinating tan "Cardboard" shade, tying the football boot to a broader lifestyle collection.

adidas and both athletes framed the collaboration around genuine personal fandom rather than a purely commercial pairing. According to campaign messaging, Bad Bunny had referenced Messi five separate times across his music, while Messi has said he keeps seven Bad Bunny songs on his pre-game playlist. Bad Bunny said of the partnership: "Collaborating with him is an honor that so many people dream of and I never even imagined I could achieve it." Messi, for his part, said: "Music is connected to many aspects of my life, and Bad Bunny is an artist who is never missing from my playlist." The pairing reflected two of the most globally recognizable Latin figures in sport and entertainment, and was widely covered as a crossover moment bridging football and music culture, reinforced by matching apparel/footwear drops (the Gazelle Indoor) that extended the collaboration beyond the pitch. The subsequent inclusion of Messi's cleats in Hard Rock International's PINKTOBER auction gave the moment additional cultural resonance: Hard Rock's SVP of People & Inclusion, Stephanie Piimauna, stated, "We're grateful to Lionel Messi, Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez for their exceptional contributions to Hard Rock's PINKTOBER auction," with all proceeds benefiting the Hard Rock Heals Foundation's breast cancer research and awareness efforts.

Messi debuted the Bad Bunny boots in Inter Miami's 6-2 win over the New England Revolution on the final day of the 2024 MLS regular season. Coming off the bench, Messi delivered an extraordinary cameo: he scored a hat-trick in an 11-minute span and added an assist, helping Inter Miami secure an MLS single-season points record (74 points) en route to winning the Supporters' Shield. This performance made the Bad Bunny boot's on-pitch debut one of the most statistically dramatic of any Messi boot launch covered in this archive. Separately, a pink pair connected to the release/marketing period was worn by Messi during Inter Miami's November 2024 MLS Cup Playoffs run and was subsequently signed and auctioned for Hard Rock International's PINKTOBER breast cancer charity campaign, with the auction closing November 22, 2024; the auction announcement did not disclose the final winning bid amount.