Adidas Copa Icon 2 - Review
The Adidas Copa Icon 2 FG/AG is a refreshing sight in today’s soccer cleat market. Designed by Adidas’ Japanese team, this model proves that high-quality leather cleats still have a place even as other major brands like Nike, Puma, and New Balance continue moving away from them. After wearing the Copa Icon 2 for several months, it’s clear that Adidas aimed to blend traditional leather comfort with modern construction. Let’s break down how they perform on the pitch.
Upper
The Copa Icon 2 follows a familiar modern leather cleat formula with a calf leather toe box and synthetic midfoot and heel. While many people compare these to the Mizuno Morelia, they also kind of remind me of the Adidas Predator Adipower (my favorite predators!), just without the rubber swerve elements.
Although they don’t use kangaroo leather, the calf leather feels extremely soft right out of the box. It’s slightly padded without being bulky or heavy. The synthetic leather used in the midfoot is thin and feels pretty good, it could be a little more structured but otherwise no complaints from me. They also have a slightly textured finish on the three stripes which adds just a little bit of extra grip.
The touch feels great as you would expect from leather cleats. I particularly enjoyed shooting and dribbling, and the upper has a good amount of grip without being sticky.
Fit & Comfort
I went with my regular Adidas size for these, which is a US size 8. The fit felt pretty much perfect right out of the box and these required zero break in time.
One thing to note: the leather stretched a bit more than I expected. If you have really wide feet, or like a bit of extra room, this may be a plus. However, it can also make them feel a bit sloppy later on, especially since the synthetic midfoot and heel don’t offer much structural support. The lockdown did seem just a bit worse on AG versus FG.
That said, this is one of the most comfortable Adidas cleats available for wide feet. The leather molds exceptionally well to your foot shape and you can wear these right out of the box. .
Heel
The heel area is decent, but not outstanding. It’s pretty soft and unstructured, and feels a bit too shallow in my opinion. That said, it is still quite comfortable and much better than most of the other Adidas cleats.
For the next model, I would love to see a slightly deeper and more supportive heel to help with lockdown.
Soleplate
Adidas has slapped on their AG soleplate and branded it as FG/AG in this case. It performs pretty well on artificial grass, but the studs are ever so slightly longer than some other popular AG plates.
I wasn’t super impressed with it on longer/thicker natural grass like we have here in the PNW, but it worked okay. On firmer, drier pitches with shorter grass, the soleplate should perform much better.
Still, a dedicated FG option similar to the Mizuno Morelia or Nike Tiempo lines would make these cleats even better in my opinion.
Durability
While leather boots can often struggle with durability on AG, I haven’t had any durability issues so far.
Weight
Adidas has done an excellent job trimming down the weight for the Copa Icon 2. The original Copa Icon was a bit more heavy and bulky, but the Icon 2 is noticeably lighter, with a comparable weight to many modern speed boots. My pair in a US size 8 weighed 7.2 oz.
Value & Overall Verdict
The Adidas Copa Icon 2 FG/AG stands out as one of the best-value elite-level cleats Adidas currently offers, especially since they’re often discounted online. I would rank them ahead of both the predator and F50 elite, and probably the Copa Pure as well, though the Pure has a better FG soleplate in my opinion. They are not quite at the level of Mizunos, but with a more structured heel and true FG soleplate, I think they could get pretty close.