The History of Football Shoes

Anyone remotely interested in football knows what soccer shoes look like, but have you ever thought about their history? The history of football shoes is a lot older than you might think. Did you know that King Henry VIII wore a pair in 1526? Football shoes, also known as cleats, are shoes that have studs on the underside. These studs are designed to help the shoes grip the playing surface and prevent the player from slipping on muddy or wet playing surfaces.

Football Becomes Popular

Fast forward 300 years. Around the 1800s, football became a more popular hobby, but the shoes the players wore were the same ones they wore to work in the factories. Made of hard leather, they had steel toes, long laces and metal studs or tacks hammered into the sole to give them better grip on the ground.

In the later 19th century, the shoe became modified to better fit the rules that had only recently come into play. Teams now wore the same shoes that had been made into a slipper style shoe and featured a rounded stud (the first cleats) instead of the tacks and metal studs that had been used before. These shoes were designed for better support with a back that came up the back of the ankle and six studs in the sole.

By the time the 1900s rolled around, several companies had started making these specialized boots and in 1925, two brothers (Rudolph and Adolph Dassler) who owned one of these factories developed a new shoe that had 6-7 replaceable studs that were made to be augmented depending on weather conditions and play.

Big Changes: 1940s

In the 1940s, football became an international sport, and the football shoe went through some of the most significant changes of its existence. The South American players wore a model that was more flexible and much lighter than those that had been previously made. The amazing skills of the South American players led manufacturers to modify their shoes to be more like the South Americans' shoes to allow for better kicking and control of the ball.

The next innovation occurred shortly after the Dassler brothers had a falling out and created two separate companies. Thus were born Adidas and what would later be called Puma.

1950s

In the 1950s, Pumas was credited with having created the screw-in stud, and the football shoe started being manufactured with a combination of synthetic and leather materials to get an even lighter shoe. This offered players a better range of movement.

1960s

The 1960s brought further changes. The shoe was now cut lower and allowed for faster movement on the field. It also marks the point at which Adidas became the leader in football shoes with a unprecedented 75% of World Cup 1966 players wearing their shoes.

Modern

In the 1980s, the Predator was born. Designed to offer more surface area to the ball and better traction to the ground, Craig Johnston's football shoe made it possible to better maneuver the ball and hit it at its "sweet spots". In the 1990s, the shoe began being produced by Adidas, who made the sole more flexible and improved bladed studs that gave the player a more stable base. It was also in the 1990s that Nike joined the marketing fray with the Mercurial, a shoe that weighed no more than 200 g.

References

• footy-boots.com, "Footy Boots - History of Football Shoes"