German sports brand Adidas has unveiled the first image of its lace-free football boots, which are due to be released in 2016.

Earlier today, the Adidas Ace GTI 2016 boots were presented to a selection of Adidas-sponsored football players, including Arsenal's Mesut Özil, Barcelona's Ivan Rakitić and Real Madrid's James Rodríguez.

The design replaces the usual eyelets and shoelaces found on traditional boots with a continuous upper made from Adidas' flexible Primeknit material and a sock-like ribbed ankle section.

Student Ammo Liao also did away with laces for his recyclable Bio-Knit trainers, which featured 3D-printed soles and uppers constructed using 3D knitting.

Adidas' football boot features looped tabs at the front and back of the shoe, and a criss-cross textured surface. The models revealed today are entirely black.

The trademark triple stripe is emblazoned in relief on the side of the boot, which the brand described as "the future of football footwear".

It's the latest in a series of innovative trainers from Adidas, which recently announced a 3D-printed shoe sole that could be precisely tailored to the contours of the wearer's feet.

In addition to collaborations with Zaha Hadid, Pharell Williams and Rick Owens, Adidas has also recently produced a trainer made using yarns woven from plastic salvaged from the ocean.

Meanwhile Nike has announced it will release its self-lacing Nike Air MAG sneakers from Back to the Future II in 2016, and presented the first pair to actor Michael J Fox on 21 October 2015 – the date he travelled to in the 1989 film.