// ISSUE 001 — A KICKERSHOE COMIC
THE MANTIS ORIGIN
A motion comic. A footnote in folklore. A shoe born from a broken leg and a quiet vow. Ten hand-drawn panels trace how a mantis nobody noticed became the reason a football boot exists — and why its green never lets him disappear again.
OUT NOW
// THE FULL STORY
THE COMIC
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01 // Long Ago
Once, there was a MANTIS named alberto that lived in the grass with his best friend, a bill.
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02 // DRILL
As a young mantis, he was UNDESTRUCTABLE. No one could stop him. His body was fast, strong and protected by thick skin.
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03 // THE BREAK
With his agility, he could pierce through a rock like it was nothing. Nothing stood in his way. He was a legend in that city and his friend was proud.
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04 // TAKEN
Inspired by the mantis, many designers went deep into the wild to study his body...
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05 // STUDIED
...his shape. his armor, his agility. They studied every detail. Every joint. Every layer
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06 // THE SHOE
From his design, they created something never seen before. A football boot inspired by the MANTIS.
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07 // FIRST TOUCH
A boot that PIERCES anything in its path... and gives COMPLETE AGILITY to the one who wears it.
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08 // COPIED
Sharp like a mantis. Tough like a shield. Fast like the wind. This is not just a boot. This is the MANTIS WEAVE.
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09 // THE NUMBER
Worn by those who dare to be different. Made for those who are unstoppable
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10 // HOME
From a mantis in the grass... to a legacy on the field. That's how legends are made. And this is just the BEGINNING
// FIELD NOTES — RESTRICTED
LORE
ENTRY 01WHO IS THE MANTIS?+
Born in the wet grass east of the river. Smaller than his peers. Quieter. He watched football from behind a leaf for nine seasons before he ever touched a ball. He is, by all accounts, still alive.
ENTRY 02THE BOOT'S FIRST MATCH+
A back-alley five-a-side, no name on the sheet. Player wore them straight from a paper bag. Scored four. Vanished at half-time. The bag was never returned.
ENTRY 03THE HIDDEN INSPIRATION+
A page torn from the same notebook shows slow-motion sketches of a free-kick stance — weight back, chest out, exactly 2.3 seconds of stillness before contact. Cross-referenced against known footage, the resemblance to a certain Portuguese forward is, we're told, "statistically improbable to be coincidental." Nobody involved will go on record. Nobody involved has denied it either.
ENTRY 04THE DESIGN BRIEF+
Nothing on this boot is decorative. The forward-raked ankle collar mirrors a mantis's raptorial forelimb — cocked, patient, built for one explosive strike rather than ninety patient minutes of chasing the game. The eight-stud sole plate spreads push-off force the way a mantis balances across four rear legs: silent until it isn't. The one flourish that isn't structural — the gold suture at the heel — exists purely because a certain someone has never worn a boot without a signature detail, and old habits are apparently contagious, even second-hand.
ENTRY 05WHY GREEN?+
Because invisibility is a kind of armour. Because the grass owes him nothing and everything. Because gold without green is just a bruise.
ENTRY 06THE GOLD STITCHING+
Filament is real. We tested it. We don't know where he gets it. He won't say.
ENTRY 07THE PITCH+
Internally logged as Project SIUUU STOMPER. Shopped, under a fake company name, to four major boot manufacturers. Two called the design "derivative." One asked, seriously, whether the mantis was trademarked. One went quiet for six weeks and came back asking for worldwide exclusive rights — at which point we stopped answering the phone, because by then we'd already decided: this one isn't for sale. If a certain someone in Riyadh or Turin is reading this, though — the mantis already built it for you. He doesn't do phone calls. Try leaving a leaf.
// KEEP READING
