Having said that, it would have been nice to have received a wide version of the Puma Ultra 1.3 to cater to a broaded customer base (pun unintended). Raw performance At the moment, you can get the Ultra in a Cage variant that is good for the harder synthetic pitch of indoor football. Pretty sure Puma will release a soft ground version soon. In case you didn’t know, Puma’s football boots are labelled as FG/AG, so by default it should be alright for the newer generation of artificial grass pitches at least. Puma always had a reputation for pushing the boundaries of speed, culminating in their SL boots which infamously only lasted 10 games. The Puma Ultra 1.3, though is a much more balanced affair. It’s very light but does not compromise on touch and thinness nor sacrifice too much on the durability front. Last year, Puma rewrote the rules of the speed boot game with the Puma Ultra 1.1. For years, the speed boot market had reached a sort of détente, with the brands distancing themselves from defining their speed boots by weight, and instead focusing on being ‘light enough’ whilst not compromising on comfort. But all that changed in 2020, with Puma igniting a new arms race for the lightest speed boot title. That’s a big NO. The boot does not have any mechanism on the midfoot, unlike the Future Z, that can make the case for a laceless Ultra. Perhaps you might want to take a look at the Ultra Match LL, just not the Ultra Ultimate please.

Antoine Griezmann comes to mind when it comes to the Ultras. He is not alone though as he is now joined by a cast of quality players like Kingsley Coman and Christian Pulisic. It’s also worth mentioning that the Puma Ultra has a dedicated women-sizing, and with the likes of Fridolina Rolfö on board, should not have any problems getting a following in women’s football. With its fully re-engineered, lightweight ULTRAWEAVE upper, ULTRA takes its signature speed and acceleration to the next level. Unlike other releases in the market, the Puma Ultra 1.3 was the first to arrive in two variants – a unisex fit and a women’s fit. We’ve previously discussed Ida Sports football, which is a women-centric football boot. This made it one of the few wide-foot friendly speed boots on the market, whilst also having a super lightweight and aggressive tooling with a thin barefoot knit based upper. Just on looks alone though, the Puma Ultra 1.3 is an entirely different beast, so strap up to find out just how different the new Puma Ultra is. Puma Ultra is made for men and women We were huge fans of the Puma Ultra 1.1 and 1.2, because interestingly, Puma gave it a more voluminous fit, which made it friendly for wider footed players.At a US9 size, the Puma Ultra 1.3 comes in at a stunning 159g which is a weight that can hardly be beaten by another mass produced football boot. A speedier and streamlined fit Editor’s note: For those wondering about why it’s a women’s fit and a unisex fit. Part of the reason is that because most girls have grown up wearing men’s variant of football boots. The Ultra Ultimate overhauls the the Puma speed silo from the ground up. The outsole now has a dual structure comprised of an outer skeletal TPU layered over a Peba-base frame , with the mix of chevron and triangular stud configuration being the only carry-over element. MATRYXEVO now gives way to the ULTRAWEAVE material that is also used in Puma’s high-profile kits. The women’s variant of the Ultra 1.3 follows closely to these principles, swapping the super aggressive bladed tooling for a conical one, similar to the one found on the recently released Puma King Platinum 2021. It’s an interesting experiment and one that we’d love to see other brands follow, as the women’s game grows.

While I’m not the biggest fan of such a move, it’s an understandable one. When it comes to speed, one of the ways to make a boot feel “faster” or more lightweight, is to have the boot fit your foot more tightly, so it feels more one-to-one. To further reduce weight, Puma also included transparent cut-out windows in the upper, giving it that super speedy look. To ensure that you’re not faster than the ball in wet conditions, the upper has also been coated with a GripControl Pro skin upper to ensure the grippiest touch on the ball even in wet conditions.Puma has continued to name the tooling as being FG/AG, and we’re still reasonably pleased with its performance on AG despite the extremely aggressive looking bladed studs. Yes, there is some cling, but it’s at the edge of being acceptable, and considering that this is a speed boot after all we think that it’s still one that we’d recommend for both FG and AG. It should come as no surprise that the tighter fit means that there is some break-in time required when you first put on the Puma Ultra 1.3.