Taking them out of the box for the first time and gazing upon them, taking in their smell, their feel, and almost not wanting to take them for a spin incase their pristine image should be tainted by a speck of mud or a scuff from a challenge.

There really is nothing like getting a new pair of football boots. 

Those who don’t get it, will never get it. Those who do, know exactly what I’m talking about. Going into a shop, gazing up at the shinny new shoes in their different colours and designs, you can feel like a kid in a candy store (and that’s not just because most of the designs are more ‘out there’ than a Lionel Messi Ballon d’Or suit).

Picking out the style you want, knowing exactly which players wear which boot, imagining how they’ll look along with your club colours, the mind can roam in this playpen of fun for hours.

Playing for the first time in them gives you confidence, and that first match can feel like your best ever, thanks to the ‘look good, feel good, play good’ premise.

But even those of us who are into our ‘Boot Porn’, as it’s come to be known in the halls of World Football Daily, are divided as a group.

The new school against the old school, Copa Mundials or Predators, Puma Kings or Evo Speeds?

It’s a tough choice.

Some of us love the retro look. Sleek and plain, there’s no need for the bright colours, the overly complicated patterns, the personalisation. All it needs to be is a boot, as our play, our passing and our touch do our talking for us on the pitch.  There’s a history too, to our vintage look kicks. Just give us a black and white patch ball and we can imagine ourselves alongside Zico, Michel Platini or Johan Cruyff, recreating the goals from football’s classic age. The players then didn’t need the marketing, the brash colours, or the one of a kind design schemes. They just needed something that was comfy and that would survive a season. Go out in these and it’s finally a time when Instagram becomes useful, as you put sepia and black & white filters on the pictures of you and your friends reliving the ‘good old days’.

For others, though, it’s the design, the technology and the branding that gives us that rush.

Adidas’ lethal zones on their Predators, the light weight feel of the Nike Mercurial or the power of Puma’s new Evo Powers, this is what gets a new boot fan up in the morning. You can feel the adjustments made to develop the shoe with every strike, every touch, and theirs a overwhelming sense of self confidence as you play knowing that you have all the additional help you can get behind you. “It doesn’t matter if I slice this too much, the boot pull it back for me.”

Combined with the shear aesthetic beauty of most new boots and suddenly you can find yourself bending towards the post-2000 group, those who want their shoes bright and dazzling as they weave through your defence.

There is a place where many of the rest of us sit, slap bang in the middle.  A place that sees us longing for a mix of the two; the history and emotion behind the old, with the bold brightness of the new. Long have we been sat, not wanting to pull on the plain black and white of Nike’s Tiempos, but also not wanting to sell our sole to modern football’s, ‘it’s a business not a game’ philosophy, as clubs bring out a new kit for every other occasion, let alone once a year.

Before I continue, I would like to remind everyone that I have not been paid, nor am I going to be paid, for any sort of promotional advertising regarding this post, but I believe there is now finally a middle option, a place of near perfection.

The Copa Mundial is one of the most iconic boots in football. Released in 1982 (the year of the greatest World Cup and the greatest side to never win the World Cup, Brazil), the boot has been worn by some of football’s most majestic players. Made from Kangaroo leather, the original’s sleek black design with a white fold over tongue and Adidas’ three white strips in it’s side, every football fan since it’s release would recognise it in stores or on the pitch, even if they couldn’t tell you it’s a Mundial.

Now, those who love the old have been given a kick from the new with the boot being given a makeover, inspired by Brazil, this year’s World Cup hosts.

The pictures will please all; the new school fans, with its vivid colours, and the old with its untainted classic design, and are arguably the boots to please all.  Having worn Mundial’s back in the day (as a youngster), I can tell you that they are extremely comfy, the soft leather from down-under moulding to fit the foot perfectly after a few days in them, although I can’t recall whether I was more or less accurate due to their plain, retro design.

The new designs respect their past in a modern tone and will shortly be in my boot room, once I can find where I left my wallet.