adidas Nemeziz

The Nemeziz was Lionel Messi's boot for four seasons, from June 2017 — when his first Nemeziz colorway went on sale — until he switched to the X in 2021. That span covers one full World Cup cycle, a sixth Ballon d'Or, and the last years of his Barcelona career. It is also one of the few adidas silos launched, iterated and then retired with no direct successor. This page covers what the bandage concept actually was, how his pairs differed from the ones on the shelf, and why the whole thing ended.

What the AgilityBandage actually was

The Nemeziz launched on 24 May 2017, and it was one new silo rather than a range reset: SoccerBible's launch coverage described it as sitting "alongside the ACE and X silos, replacing the signature Messi silo." Copa 17 had been on shelves since November 2016, so adidas now ran four main boot silos — the count Footy Headlines used when it later reported the line's end. The construction idea was literal: the upper was built from interwoven, elasticated strips — AgilityBandage with TORSIONTAPES — wrapping the midfoot and ankle in imitation of the athletic taping used for lockdown and injury support. Sam Handy of adidas Football framed it at launch as looking backward in order to look forward, with the taping tradition as the reference point.

Underneath the wrap sat AGILITYKNIT 2.0, an interlocking yarn structure for touch, a Dual-Lock Collar at the ankle, and a TORSIONFRAME outsole with TORSIONRIBS, aimed at sharp directional change rather than straight-line speed.

That is the concept as adidas sold it. Worth being precise about what it was not: the bandage was a fit and lockdown system, not a padded touch layer. By the third generation adidas had abandoned the padding entirely, which is the single most important technical fact about the line's arc.

Generation Year Upper Soleplate Nemeziz 17.1 2017 AgilityBandage + AgilityKnit 2.0 TORSIONFRAME Nemeziz 18.1 2018 AgilityBandage + Torsiontapes + Agilityweave Torsionframe with Torsionribs Nemeziz 19.1 2019 Tension Tape (padding removed) Split-sole Torsion System Nemeziz .1 / + 2020–21 Tension Tape, V-shaped tape collar Split outsole, Torsion System

Nemeziz 17.1 (2017): the end of the Messi silo

The adidas Nemeziz Messi 17.1 is the boot that closed out Messi's dedicated signature line — the Messi 15 and Messi 16 families, from the Messi 15.1 through the Messi 16.1 — and folded him into a mainstream silo. He headlined the launch, and his colorways (Ocean Storm, Pyro Storm, Skystalker, Cold Blooded, Deadly Strike) swapped the NEMEZIZ wordmark for MESSI. His debut colorway went on sale on 29 June 2017 at £160 / $210 / €210, which Footy Headlines noted was a small premium over the standard Nemeziz. US retailers listed the laceless Nemeziz Messi 17+ 360Agility at $319.99.

One 2017 Nemeziz in the archive was never sold at all. The Nemeziz 17.1 "Lili Cantero" was a single hand-painted pair made by the Paraguayan artist as a gift, using the bandage panels as a canvas. Messi was photographed with them in January 2018 and the image travelled; there is no retail price because there was no retail pair.

Nemeziz Messi 18.1 "Energy Mode" (2018): the World Cup boot

The Nemeziz Messi 18.1 "Energy Mode" is what he wore in Russia. Technically it was a refinement rather than a reset: AgilityBandage carried over, Torsiontapes handled lateral and medial lockdown, and Agilityweave replaced the old knit for a softer touch. The Dual-Lock Collar gained a V-groove cut around the ankle socket, and the outsole was the chrome green Torsionframe.

Messi's own pair was already a hybrid — the laced 18.1 build carrying a collar design held over from the 17.1 generation. On the retail version, BootHype's 18.1 review scored it 8/10 while describing something close to the opposite of the marketing: a thickly padded upper, thicker than that year's Predator 18.1, on a boot that felt tight and narrow through the midfoot.

Nemeziz 19.1 (2019), plus the Ballon d'Or and "15 Years" editions

May 2019 brought the real overhaul. The Nemeziz Messi 19.1 dropped the padded AgilityKnit for Tension Tape — tape strips woven at varying widths and tensions, sitting directly between foot and ball — with a V-shaped tape collar and a new split-sole Torsion System on oval studs. Launch price was $225 / £180 / €220. BootHype's 19.1 review weighed the retail pair at 226 grams, scored it 8/10, and raised the obvious question about a boot marketed on agility: it felt bottom-heavy, with the soleplate weighing down a very light upper, and the fit was surprisingly wide. The same review found the upper slick and wanting a grip element in wet conditions, and an outsole stiff enough to cause foot cramping until it was broken in.

Two 19.1 colorways matter beyond the chassis. The Nemeziz Messi "15 Years" landed on 16 October 2019 for the fifteenth anniversary of his Barcelona debut, a purely symbolic design loaded with career dates and numbers. Then the Nemeziz Messi 19.1 "Ballon d'Or 2019" arrived on 3 December 2019, the day after his record sixth award, at $225 / £180 / €220 — the standard 19.1 price.

The nickname is genuine, but the boot is not a trophy edition. adidas and its affiliated retailers did brand it as the Ballon d'Or edition; Footy Headlines' point was that the release had been scheduled about a year in advance, and it pointed to the complete absence of Ballon d'Or imagery on the boot itself as the evidence. The same outlet read the colorway as a nod to his 2010 World Cup boots, and noted that Nike had produced one-off boots for recent Ballon d'Or winners including Ronaldo, Modrić and Megan Rapinoe while adidas released nothing dedicated for Messi's sixth.

Nemeziz Messi "Copa" (2020)

The Nemeziz Messi "Copa" in Team Royal Blue / Silver Metallic / Solar Yellow was built for a Copa América that COVID-19 postponed. It went on sale in July 2020 at €200. It is the most personal design of the era: the graphic does not repeat across the pair, with the right boot referencing Rosario and the left Barcelona.

Two naming warnings on this one. Footy Headlines covered it as the Nemeziz Messi 19.1, and Unisport retailed the identical colorway as the Nemeziz Messi 19.1 FG/AG "The Journey" — this archive files it under a 19.2 "Copa" entry, so it is worth searching both names. The graphic also went below the top tier: Unisport listed a Nemeziz Messi 19.3 indoor version in the same "The Journey" colorway.

Nemeziz+ Messi "Rey Del Balón" (2021)

The Nemeziz+ Messi "Rey Del Balón" arrived in Solar Red / Solar Yellow / Core Black in March 2021 at €220 / £180, on the Nemeziz .1 platform — V-shaped Tension Tape collar, split outsole, Torsion System, plus a gold welded crown logo and Messi's signature mark. Messi wore the laced .1, as he always did, even though the same graphic shipped in laceless "+" form.

How Messi's Nemeziz differed from the retail Nemeziz

This is where sources genuinely disagree, and it is worth not smoothing over.

Element Standard retail Nemeziz Messi's pairs (as reported) Forefoot upper AgilityKnit 2.0 AgilityKnit 1.0 carried over from Messi16+ (Soccer Cleats 101) Tongue One-piece upper, Dual-Lock Collar "Burrito" tongue attached on one side, from the old Messi silo (Footy Headlines) Soleplate TORSIONFRAME / Torsion System Modified Gambetrax plate from the Messi16+ (Soccer Cleats 101) — see caveat below Lacing Laced .1 and laceless + offered Laced only, every generation 18.1 collar 18.1 V-groove collar 17.1-generation collar on the 18.1 build

The soleplate row needs a caveat: the Gambetrax plate was not a player-only part. adidas specced the retail Nemeziz Messi 17+ 360Agility with a messiGAMBETRAX 2.0 outsole, so anyone could buy that plate on the Messi edition. The gap it illustrates is between Messi's pairs and the standard Nemeziz, not between Messi's pairs and the Messi retail edition.

Footy Headlines, reporting on his November 2017 pairs, stated that apart from the tongue the rest of the boot was "identical to the regular Adidas Nemeziz 17.1." Soccer Cleats 101, looking at the March 2018 "Cold Blooded" pair, described the Messi16+ AgilityKnit 1.0 forefoot and the modified Gambetrax soleplate. Both cannot be fully right. The most defensible reading is that the degree of customisation varied pair to pair and season to season, and that the soleplate and tongue carry-overs from his discontinued silo are the best-documented deviations.

Why adidas killed the line

Footy Headlines reported in October 2020 that adidas would discontinue the Nemeziz and run three boot silos from summer 2021: Copa, Predator and X — which arrived as Copa Sense, Predator Freak and X Speedflow.

adidas has not published a stated reason, so anything beyond the timeline is inference. The structural argument is straightforward: Copa was renewed in 2019, and X occupied speed. Nemeziz's "agility" brief sat in the narrow gap between the other silos, and a four-silo range asked retailers and players to distinguish something adidas had not made easy to distinguish. Sponsored players including Roberto Firmino were moved off the silo through early 2021.

Where he went next

Messi switched to the X line in 2021 with the X Speedflow Messi "El Retorno". Everything after runs through /lines/adidas-x, from Speedflow to Speedportal and the World Cup boots, before his 2024 move back to the revived F50 at /lines/adidas-f50.

Buying a Nemeziz in 2026

There is no new stock. The silo has been discontinued for five years, adidas does not restock it, and the official Messi storefront carries only current F50 product. Every Nemeziz pair is resale-only, which means condition, size and colorway rarity set the price rather than any list figure — the 19.1's $225 / £180 / €220 launch price is history, not a benchmark.

Search eBay for Nemeziz Messi and StockX before committing to anything, and read our vintage Messi boots collector's guide first — deadstock synthetic uppers and glued soleplates from 2017–2021 have specific ageing problems, and Nemeziz sizing runs snug with almost no upper stretch.

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