Football Boots Research Articles

Given the Boot: Reading the Ambiguities of British and Continental Football Boot Design

The robust design of the mass-produced British football boot from the late nineteenth century onwards appeared to evolve rather slowly compared with subsequent lightweight, flexible ‘continental’ fabrication. However, with careful reading we can identify considerable overlap and influence between manufacturers, distributors and retailers. Boot and shoe manufacturing was an intensely competitive industry and it was in the interests of entrepreneurs to pioneer advances in order to promote a particular brand. In developing football boots for the mass market this may have included much pseudo-science but even small innovations sought to improve performance and market share. Design ambiguities were also inherent because footwear manufacturers routinely borrowed and appropriated successful design elements for their own products. With more choice and consumer demand, football boots became increasingly less adapted from other outdoor footwear owned by the participant, to specialised models manufactured as part of the flourishing sporting goods industry. The internationalisation of the mass market for football boots is here explored though the distinct but related case studies of two family firms; Manfield from Northamptonshire, England and Adidas from Herzogenaurach, Germany. Arguing that there was much continuity between the designs and manufacturing processes of the two firms, the article explores how the design of the football boot became increasingly influenced by the fashion industry as items of conspicuous consumption. By 1954 the launch of the training shoe saw sportswear become a style trend worn on the street, rather than on the pitch. This in turn, influenced football boot design as both a highly technical item of elite sportswear and an expensive, aspirational essential in an everyday kitbag.

A Study of Football Footwear Bending Stiffness

For the past century, football boots have constantly changed, with new designs and materials being developed by sporting goods manufacturers to meet player demands. Investigating the effect of such changes on performance was important to further develop football boots. Bending stiffness has been demonstrated as an important performance parameter in running footwear; a concept with potential to investigate football footwear. As football boots consisted of an upper and an outsole, with the latter being manufactured from a far stiffer material than the upper, it could be speculated that the outsole limits the boot's flexibility. The aim of this paper was to create a testing device to quantify whether the whole shoe needed to be considered when designing football boots. The test device consisted of a simplified foot based on biomechanical factors linked to an Instron machine to quantify the load during bending. The bending stiffness of the uppers and boots were found to be non-linear, highlighting the need to specify the angle at which the stiffness was recorded. The upper was shown to have a significant effect on the bending stiffness of the overall boot construction, whilst different upper constructions were shown to affect the bending stiffness. With regard to the findings in this paper, it was concluded that the upper was an important consideration in boot design.

The influence of football boot construction on ball velocity and deformation

Research on the biomechanical properties of football boots has received little scientific attention. Recently, modern and scientific football boots has been developed that afford excellent ball control, shooting and running ability. Different constructions of football boot deliver different velocity and deformation of the ball. In this study, three commercially available football boots were compared during kicking in terms of, ball velocity and deformation of the ball. A subject performed three repetitive shots of the ball into the net for each football boot model. The footballer's foot and the ball velocity were recorded using a high speed camera. From the recorded video, the kicking velocity, ball velocity and ball deformation were measured. Based on the foot and ball velocity data, the Coefficient of Restitution (COR) was calculated. The results obtained show the COR value varies with different boots (CORBootA = 0.89, CORBootB = 0.59, CORBootC = 0.47) thus delivers different ball velocities at same kicking foot velocity (Uleg = 14 ms−1). It is apparent that the Boot A was made with the best upper material (Teijin synthetic leather), design and also construction of the boot.

The effect of stud configuration on rotational traction using the studded boot apparatus

Due to its associated injury risk, rotational traction is a frequently measured natural turf surface property. The most commonly used equipment, the studded boot apparatus (SBA), consists of a circular stud configuration that does not replicate the stud pattern on a regular football boot and may under or over estimate the surface traction. The aim of this study was to establish potential differences in the rotational traction measured between the current stud configuration on the SBA and the stud configuration on the most commonly used Australian football boots. The original studded boot had significantly higher rotational traction than the moulded stud sole or bladed sole. Location, quality and time tested all interacted significantly with the rotational traction measured. The current SBA may not accurately represent the rotational traction experienced by football players, and consequently may not be the most appropriate configuration to assess the relationship between rotational traction and injuries.

Tolerance to mechanical damage in ten herbaceous grassland plant species

The establishment of plants with high damage tolerance may provide a means for soil protection on sites exposed to strong disturbance. In a pot experiment, we investigated the tolerance to mechanical strain of ten grassland plant species representing three growth form groups (cespitose: Festuca arundinacea, Lolium perenne, Taraxacum officinale; rhizomatous: Achillea millefolium, Elymus repens, Poa pratensis; stoloniferous: Agrostis stolonifera, Festuca rubra rubra, Poa supina, Trifolium repens). We hypothesised that growth form and pre-disturbance biomass allocation to the root serve as predictors of damage tolerance. With a tool imitating the action of cleated football boots or scratching chicken, we applied three standardized levels (moderate, medium, strong) of a torsional force which exceeded the shear strength of the sward and impacted on shoots and roots. Post-treatment shoot biomass in relation to shoot biomass of the non-treated control plants served as a measure of damage tolerance. Species, but not growth form groups, differed significantly in damage tolerance, with F. arundinacea and P. pratensis showing the best performance. Shoot re-growth was strongly correlated with relative post-treatment root biomass across all species and treatment levels (R<sup>2</sup> = 0.25, P < 0.001), but not with pre-treatment root biomass. We conclude that root resistance to mechanical damage is the prevalent determinant of tolerance to disturbance.  

Harmful cleats of football boots: A biomechanical evaluation

Football players wear boots of varying cleat designs with some preferring the bladed cleats while others opting for the conventional studded cleats. The current study compares biomechanically the boots with differing cleat designs and their effect on feet, if any. Twenty-nine healthy male volunteers were recruited from amateur football teams. They were asked to perform three trials each of two activities: a straight run and a run cutting at a 60° angle wearing bladed and studded Adidas®-F series boots on artificial turf. Plantar pressure values were recorded using the Pedar®-X in-shoe pressure measuring device. Peak pressure and pressure-time integral were analysed over 11 clinically relevant areas under the foot. While the in-shoe pressure and pressure-time integral were higher under the medial half of the foot with studded boots, they were higher under the lateral half of the foot with the bladed design. The studded boots can be considered safer as the pressure distribution across the foot and the pattern of centre of pressure progression mimicked the normal motif, whereas the bladed boots could potentially be deemed relatively more harmful due to the unnatural increased loading under the lateral half of the foot, predisposing the foot to injuries.

Faces, flowers and football boots: Capacity limits in distractor processing

While visual attention can be attracted by task-irrelevant stimuli, questions remain regarding how many irrelevant items can be processed simultaneously and whether capacity limits are equivalent for all types of stimuli. To explore these issues, participants were required to classify verbal stimuli that were flanked by either one or two response-matching or response-mismatching faces (Expts. 1 and 2) or objects (Expt. 2). The results revealed that when stimulus categorization was sufficient to trigger flanker interference, distractor processing was insensitive to the number of irrelevant stimuli. When, however, stimulus identification was needed to drive flanker interference, distractor processing was attenuated when two task-irrelevant items were presented. The theoretical implications of these findings are considered.

New football boots and toxic shock syndrome

Toxic shock syndrome is unusual in childhood. Although it is easily recognised by those who have seen it before—and is an important diagnosis to make—few clinicians will have encountered a...

Rye grass is associated with fewer non-contact anterior cruciate ligament injuries than bermuda grass

Objective: To assess the contribution of ground variables including grass type to the rate of anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury in the Australian Football League (AFL), specifically which factors are...

98 Stud placement in australian football boots: Does it make a difference?

98 Stud placement in australian football boots: Does it make a difference?

Incidence and risk factors for injury in non-elite Australian Football

This paper identifies the risk and protective factors for injury in non-elite Australian Football. Five hundred and thirty five non-elite Australian footballers completed a baseline questionnaire at the commencement of the 1997 preseason. Participants were telephoned each month during the 1997 and 1998 playing seasons to provide details of their exposure at training and games and any injury experiences in the previous four weeks. The incidence of injury in this study was 24 injuries per 1000 player hours. The risk factors for injury were identified as: not wearing sports-specific football boots (IRR 1.40, 95% CI 1.03-1.90); an existing back pathology (IRR 1.29, 95% CI 1.10-1.51); excessive foot pronation (IRR 1.29, 95% CI 1.07-1.56); and extroverted behaviour (IRR 1.01, 95% CI 1.00-1.03). Cooling down after training (IRR 0.95, 95% CI 0.90-0.99) and not being injured in the previous 12 months (IRR 0.73, 95% CI 0.61-0.88) were found to be protective against injury. This study found that there was a high risk of injury associated with playing Australian Football at a community level. Further research is required to gain an understanding of the mechanisms by which the identified risk factors influence injury risk in community level Australian Football.

Football boot insoles and sensitivity to extent of ankle inversion movement

Background: The capacity of the plantar sole of the foot to convey information about foot position is reduced by conventional smooth boot insoles, compared with barefoot surface contact. Objective: To...

Distribution of in-shoe dynamic plantar foot pressures in professional football players

At two football venues, 35 professional football players, aged 17 to 30, took part in a study. The aim was to compare in-shoe dynamic plantar foot pressures between football boots and trainers by investigating relationships between area, force and pressure. The study showed a decreased plantar foot area of 9.3% in the left football boot when compared to the trainer and 7.2% in the right. Maximum pressure was 35% higher in football boots when compared to trainers. Similarly, mean pressure was 27.6% higher in football boots. The study suggests that a reduced football boot surface area may be responsible for the increased forces and pressures within football boots when compared to trainers.

Where Does the Body End?

Where Does the Body End?

The football boot, saint or sinner?

The football boot, saint or sinner?

Ankle loading and football boots.

Ankle loading and football boots.

A biomechanical approach to the design of football boots

A large proportion of all soccer injuries occur at the ankle and take the form of damage to the collateral ligaments. In order to examine the possible influence of footwear on these injuries an experimental and theoretical study was made of the effect of different types of boot on loads in the collateral ligaments during inversion and eversion. This consisted of an experimental measurement of the stiffness of different types of boot in inversion and eversion followed by analysis of a simplified model of the boot and ankle to predict the loads in the collateral ligaments. It was concluded that the old fashioned high boot was 50% stiffer than the current low boot and that it reduced consider-ably the ligamentous load. Furthermore, it was shown that, if low cut footwear was preferred for reasons of mobility, it should be as flexible as possible in the region of the ankle.

“Heels - For and against”

In normal everyday activity, men wear shoes with heels, varying in size from j 4, but when they partake in athletic activity Football, Rugby, Physical Education, Tennis, Athletics etc., they change into flat soled footwear, such as football boots, gym shoes, running spikes etc., which in my opinion produce an increase in tension on the calf musculature and the knee joint, plus circulatory disturbance, which over a period of 90 mins. is sufficient to cause muscle fatigue and cramp in the calf muscles. This condition is more pronounced and earlier in effect when ground conditions are less firm for example, the Wembley final Leeds v Chelsea, when numerous players became subject to cramp.