The Studs on These Soccer Boots Look Just Like Taco Bell Tacos

A tasty footwear drop in Spain

In Spanish, “taco” refers to both food and the studs on soccer boots.

Tasked with tying Taco Bell closer to football for the World Cup season, Madrid agency Fuego Camina Conmigo leveraged this linguistic factoid as the basis of a new campaign.

“That double meaning opened a whole territory for us: Celebrating an essential part of the game while positioning our tacos as something just as essential to the football experience,” agency ECD Uri Fernández Tur and creative director Nacho Hernández tell Muse.

The team created limited-edition shoes, with every stud resembling a taco in fast-feeder’s very distinctive colors. LaLiga legend Pablo Alfaro hypes the footwear in this clip:

For a chance to win a pair through June 27, fans can like a post and tag a friend on Taco Bell Spain’s IG, or visit the app to take part in the giveaway.

Here, Tur and Hernández tell us more about the project:

MUSE: Can you tell us how you made the shoes?

Uri Fernández Tur, Nacho Hernández: Creating the boots was an amazing process, almost like building a collector’s piece. We worked closely with YYPLUSPLUS Studio to design a pair of boots that felt like something a major sports brand could actually release.

The goal was to seamlessly integrate our tacos into the structure of a professional football boot—not as decoration, but as the actual studs.

Every detail was carefully developed and supervised to make sure the design lived up to the standards of the sport. The final result is a pair of custom football boots featuring 10 taco-shaped studs made from flexible resin, each one attached with stainless steel M4 Allen screws.

They also come with a custom Taco Bell key that lets you unscrew each taco and reveal a laser-engraved code hidden inside, redeemable for free Taco Bell tacos for an entire year.

Did you set out to create something tangible, not just ads?

We wanted to create something people would actually want: a limited-edition object where the tacos themselves became the most desirable part of the boot. The idea was simple: if we can create desire around the object, we create desire around the product and ultimately around the brand.

These boots are a literal expression of Taco Bell’s role in football culture: a pair of football boots with Taco Bell tacos as the stars of the show. Because, in the end, a good taco makes football better.

Why team up with Pablo Alfaro?

He is actually the player with the third-most most red cards in LaLiga history. In other words: few people knew how to use their “tacos” better than Pablo.

He certainly seemed to have fun in the advert.

Anyone who remembers him on the pitch might expect him to have that same tough personality in real life. But the opposite is true. He is incredibly kind, approachable, funny and intelligent. The shoot was great because Pablo completely understood the humor behind the idea and embraced it. He was able to laugh at his own football legacy and help us deliver the message.

[Editor’s note: When it comes to rough tactics, he’s got nothing on Jack Box!]