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100% Legal, 0% Fair: The adidas Predator's First Slogan
How a four-word slogan sold the Predator in 1994, and how adidas keeps bringing it back.
When adidas launched the Predator in the summer of 1994, it came with a slogan: “100% legal, 0% fair.” It is the Predator’s best-known advertising line, and adidas has revived it, in one form or another, several times since.
The idea behind the boot was Craig Johnston’s: rubber fins on the upper to grip the ball. The slogan did the selling in a sentence. It played on the idea of an unfair advantage that was nonetheless entirely within the rules, which is still what the Predator promises.
A Boot With an Edge
The original Predator arrived in black with white stripes and red accents, the colourway that later became the line’s standard. A second early commercial, shot in Brazil, pushed the swerve message according to SoccerBible’s roundup of Predator adverts.
We haven’t found a reliable record of the cast, director or agency behind the first films, so we haven’t guessed. If you know, tell us.
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The Slogan Keeps Coming Back
- 2017: when the Predator returned after its break, a spot starring Paul Pogba was noted by NSS Magazine for referencing older adverts, the slogan among them.
- 2020: the Predator Mutator launch played on the line, teasing it with a “Who said anything about ‘fair?’” caption and billing its 406 rubber spikes as unfair. The launch film leaned into the mantra, with Pogba rescuing a match in the last minute.
- 2024: adidas re-released the original, the Predator 94, exactly 30 years after launch. Our remakes versus originals guide explains how to tell a remake from the real thing.
- 2025: a Predator 25 Elite colourway put the slogan on the soleplate and the original Predator logo on the side of the upper. A retailer’s write-up says it also nods to Beckham’s 2001 free kick against Greece and Zidane’s 2002 final volley.
Why It Worked
Four words explained a technical idea that was hard to see: rubber on a football boot. It also set a tone that later Predator adverts often echoed, with the boot cast as the choice of players who curl, swerve and strike the ball, and a knowing wink at how unfair that was.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does “100% legal, 0% fair” mean?
It was the Predator’s launch slogan, selling the boot as giving a player an edge that was entirely within the rules. The line has been reused in later Predator marketing.
When was the slogan first used?
It launched with the original Predator in the summer of 1994.
Has adidas used the slogan since?
Yes. It has been referenced in the Predator Mutator campaign in 2020 and printed on the soleplate of a 2025 Predator Elite colourway.
Who invented the Predator?
The idea came from former Liverpool midfielder Craig Johnston. Read his story.
Read more: Craig Johnston · Predator (1994) · Remakes vs originals