World Cup fever is building, and that’s good news for the soccer cleat category.

“The soccer footwear business has been quite [sluggish] for the past 12 months,” said Billy Lalor, the footwear expert at Soccer.com and its director of consumer merchandising.

According to Lalor, the soft market can be attributed to brands not putting out a lot of new products or innovation, due in part of slower consumer spending.

That’s all expected to change as June approaches, which coincides with the start of the FIFA Men’s World Cup across North America. This is when brands typically bring out their best innovative products, coinciding with marketing and storytelling, because “they know the size of this stage and the amount of eyes that are going to be on [the television] watching the event and seeing the footwear on the players that are out there.”

Looking at year-over-year sales expectations, Lalor said “we expect to be up over 40 percent” during the event, “led by Adidas and Nike with their innovations, and in third place, there’s Puma.” He also expects a residual increase from consumer interest for the rest of the year “up in the low teens” even after the event is over.

According to Lalor, while brands typically put out new product in July and August that are usually just updates, the innovations that “come around World Cup are usually leaps forward, so they’re more revolutions than evolutions.”

He also said that this year, the new product will begin to hit the market earlier in June to coincide with the World Cup schedule.

The price point for premium soccer shoes is in the $200 range, while the average suggested selling price for the non-elite category is around $140. Junior shoes for kids and teens — 35 to 40 percent of Soccer.com’s customer base — tend to have a $45 entry price range. Lalor said there was a price increase of around five percent early last year, but that manufacturers, factories and retailers absorbed most of the cost increases from the new tariffs imposed in 2025.

Lalor said the gender mix of its customer base is split down the middle, although in the younger ages, its skews “super high on the girls side,” adding that as they get older, the attrition rate into the teens is a “little bit higher on the girls side than on the guy side.” He also noted that soccer shoes are unisex in sizing.

Nike tends to index higher among female customers at Soccer.com in terms of brand preference, with Adidas close behind in second place. For male consumers, the two brands are “neck-and-neck,” although “the preference grows a little bit for Adidas as they get older, and it’s the opposite on the women’s side,” Lalor said.

Come next year, which coincides with FIFA Women’s World Cup, the Puma brand is likely going to have a bigger presence in soccer footwear.

In its October earnings conference call, Puma CEO Arthur Hoeld ticked off a list of things Puma needs to correct, including that it lacks brand heat and has too much inventory in the marketplace. Separately, the company has been hit with sale speculation, most recently that Anta Sports could be a white knight for the brand.

As for those much-needed corrections, Lalor said he sees that the cleanup of the market is “happening right now.” Puma also has new products in its lineup, which “is going to take a while for [them] to come all the way through development and production and hit the market.”

Even though the new product line won’t be available until next year, Lalor said he’s already seen previews of the upcoming launches. “I think fit and performance are going to be good and we expect the consumers to appreciate it,” Lalor said.

The brand is expected to garner some heat during the World Cup, thanks to its athlete tie-ups.

Christian Pulisic, the captain of the U.S. Men’s National Soccer Team, is under contract with Puma, and Lalor said “he and Puma will get a ton of marketing” as the media covers the U.S. national team. “He is the main guy they’re going to be talking about. He’s a Puma athlete, so that’s going to be energizing for the brand,” Lalor concluded.

He also cited New Balance and Mizuno as label that could see a lift in the soccer category. “These brands will come out with special edition product for the World Cup and it’s all very design and color aggressive. It’s all meant to make a statement,” Lalor said.

Most of Soccer.com’s customers are from the U.S., with some over-indexing of sales from California, New York and the site’s home state of North Carolina.