The average professional football boot weighs between 200-250 grams – about 40% lighter than boots from the 1990s.
That represents about 30 years’ worth of progress, but people have been playing organised football since the 1800s. So how have boots evolved from then to now?
In the early days of the game, what people wore on their feet wasn’t given a great deal of thought. It was a case of ‘wear what you’ve got’. In today’s game, football boots are an industry in themselves. Contracts worth tens of millions are signed between brands and players, and sports outlets showcase the latest releases on their shelves.
Football boots are a key part of the game, for players of course but also for fans. People talk about the latest boots, what their favourite players are wearing, top brands. They serve a practical purpose but they are just as important as fashion statements.
Once upon a time they were reserved for professionals and dedicated amateurs, now they are on every little boy’s Christmas list. So how did we get to where we are now?
The First Football Boots
Hundreds of years ago, before they became a fashion accessory, the first football boots belonged to a King.
It was back in 1526 that King Henry VIII, famous for marrying and murdering women, had a pair made. These are the first documented football boots in history. Presumably, this was before he got so fat he couldn’t mount his horse…
However, the game as we know it did not exist in Henry VIII’s day so I will jump ahead to the 1800s.
Since the game was mostly played by workers with little money, they simply used their work boots. Think old fashioned steel toe cap boots. You can imagine the damage they would do in a badly timed tackle. Ouch.
Then, in 1891, the first official football boots were designed.
These had small fixed studs or bars on the undersole to help with grip. The boot was designed to lace up past the ankle to offer better protection and support.
They weighed about half a kilogram, but as with old fashioned footballs, the weight would almost double when wet.
Although football was now an organised sport with uniform rules, it wasn’t the industry that it is today. Indeed, most ‘professional’ players still had jobs outside of the sport. No one was researching how to improve football boots.
A famous amateur player named Norman Creek gives us some insight into the 1930s era from his book, Association Football. After buying new boots, his advice was to:
“Sit on the edge of the bath with the boots soaking in tepid water for about half an hour. The boots are next allowed to dry slowly – not in front of the fire – and are finally well greased with dubbin.”
The aim here was to mould the boots to your feet.
Between 1914 and 1945 everyone had far bigger issues to worry about than football. This meant little to no progress in football boot design, but things changed in the 1950s.
Screw in Studs of the 1950s
The lower cut style of football boot worn by South American players caught on in the 1950s. These boots put greater emphasis on flexibility and agility and less on protection. They also weighed less.
One innovation in particular had a big impact on the game during this era: screw on studs.
These allowed players to adapt their boots to different ground conditions. In England, with its ever changing and unpredictable weather, this was a big deal. It was Adidas who came up with the idea, and many credit this innovation as contributing towards West Germany’s 1954 World Cup win.
It was during the 1950s that real research and testing began taking place, so improvements were inevitable.
New technology meant boots could be made lighter, but also faster. This allowed mass production and boots that were more commercially available. Whereas once they were a significant purchase for the most dedicated amateur players, now, casual players would own them too.
Brands and Sponsorship
Heading into the 1960s, a number of new brands entered to football boot market.
It’s difficult to trace every single improvement because each brand was working on their own designs, but in general, boots got lighter and more streamlined. Manufacturers also started to explore different colours and aesthetic elements.
Adidas was by far the most popular brand in this period. In fact, more than 75% of players at the 1966 World Cup wore Adidas boots. Some other brands in the market were:
- Gola
- Valsport
- Hummel
- Puma
- Mitre
- Joma
- Asics
Synthetic materials were being used by the 1970s, with improved padding in key areas that didn’t weigh down the wearer. New man made materials meant more could be achieved without compromising on weight or style.
It was also in 1970 that the first boot sponsorship deal was struck. Sort of.
Hummel had produced a white football boot – they had always been black up until now – and wanted a player to wear them. England and Everton midfielder, Alan Ball, heard the company were willing to pay £2,000. He agreed, and became the first player ever to be paid for wearing a specific brand’s football boots.
This started something that you might say has got out of control. Neymar’s £23 million contract to wear Puma boots is just one example of what I mean.
It was during this period too that the first moulded soleplates were trialled. These are the shaped soles that take the place of traditional studs. They were reportedly better on firm ground, but studded boots continued to be worn as well.
The 1990s
Ask any kid of the 1990s to name a football boot and they will give you one word: Predators.
People were obsessed with these boots.
Adidas made them with studs or blades, but if we’re honest, we loved them because they looked amazing and David Beckham wore them. And Zinedine Zidane. And Del Piero. And loads of huge names of the day.
Reebok had entered the market by now too, but the biggest brand yet to be mentioned is Nike. The Tiempo Premier and the Mercurial Vapor boots were their first to become popular. It probably helped that Ronaldo (Brazilian Ronaldo not Portuguese Ronaldo) wore the Vapors in the 1998 World Cup. Nike had been active in their native America, but the rest of the world didn’t see them as a football boot brand.
That changed in the 1990s.
One reason they made such an impact was because they weighed just 200g, about half the weight of many competitors. They were also a beautiful boot, using bright colours and a contemporary style.
The 1990s was the decade in which all boot brands really embraced different colours. No one wanted black boots anymore.
Going into the 2000s some players even had personalised stitching, such as Michael Owen who had his initials written on the tongue of his Umbro Specialis. It’s much more common now of course.
Modern Day Boots
As far as professionals are concerned, technology has come so far that they can even have boots tailor made for them these days. Laser technology allows manufacturers to make boots which fit their feet and their feet alone.
Players can ask for modifications, or have slightly different boots made for slightly different situations. Declan Rice has famously gone through 25 iterations of his Copa Pures, and some even hire independent boot customisation experts. These people add studs, move studs, replace inner soles with silicone, stretch the leather, steam the boots or put them in ovens to make them more malleable.
The rest of us still have to make do with off the shelf products, but these too are incredibly high spec.
Some boots don’t even have laces anymore, they are a slip on design and feel more like a second skin than a football boot. Yet, they still offer protection in the right places while allowing for precise control and enhanced agility. They improve speed, help with quicker starts and stops, provide support to the ankle, have more flexible soles for improved movement, etc.
There is much more focus on performance and less on protection nowadays. That’s not to say protection isn’t taken into consideration, because it is. The rules of the game are tighter now though, players can’t take lumps out of each other like they used to. So Football boots don’t serve quite the same purpose.
There are whole teams of researches testing ad trialling new features and designs. Every possible aspect of a boot is pored over in meetings. We are talking about super fine margins here.
In terms of appearance, even the undersoles are designed to look good. How fashionable football boots are or aren’t has never been more important. Huge sums of money are spent marketing these things. Amateurs and cash strapped parents can shell out up to £300 for the latest and greatest releases.
We have come an awful long way from heavy leather and steel toe caps.