For many years, Adidas was known as a brand with generally wider boots and Nike was more narrow. When Adidas completely redesigned their four silos and retired classics like the Predator and the 11Pro, the fit of their boots changed. The current Adidas silos (X, Ace, and Messi) are no longer the wider boots on the market. Nowadays, the width of boots vary by specific styles, and not by brands.

Wider Nike Boots: Tiempo or Magista
Wider Adidas Boots: Copa
Narrow Boots to Avoid: Mercurial & Messi

For wide feet, we always recommend a leather upper for customers. The reason for this is that leather expands and stretches out over time before it molds to the shape of your foot. We’ve seen the Nike Tiempo Legend expand up to one half size with wear. Synthetic uppers like Primeknit or Flyknit will not stretch with wear. There’s a difference between “breaking-in” and “stretching.” All boots will break-in over time, which means that the upper will become more malleable.

Tips for Finding The Right Fit: When trying on boots, if they are uncomfortably tight when you first put them on, you need to try a different style of boot. We sometimes see people making the mistake of thinking that going up a size will help. This only increases the length of the boot (which will now be too big for your foot) and doesn’t affect the width. To find the right width, you want a boot to initially feel snug but not uncomfortably so, because it will break-in properly after some wear.

Images courtesy of Nike Soccer.