Though the earliest known pair of football boots dates back to King Henry VIII’s reign in the 1500s, football boots weren’t really a thing until people started to take the sport seriously in the 1800s. As football grew to become the biggest sport in the world, boot technology became a major focus, with brands adapting to different play styles, players and conditions across the globe in an effort to produce game-winning footwear. Now, as the sport continues to become more and more technical, a football boot with even marginal advantages can make the difference between a World Cup-level win and a devastating loss. Weight, comfort, support and fit are all absolutely essential for a player’s performance – but even then, it’s reported that a massive 82 per cent of female football players have issues with the fit of their boots.
With that said, football boots have still come a long way from old Henry’s days or the 1800s, and it's an area that brands will continue to invest in. With major tournaments on the horizon and increasing financial pressure on sportswear brands leading them to resurrect key franchises, we took a look back at how football boots have evolved over their 500+ year history and the styles that have played their part in defining the modern game.
1500s: Ye Football Boots of Olde
Believe it or not, Tudor Monarch Henry VIII had hobbies other than beheading or divorcing his wives, and one of them was football. While we have no doubt the common folk had to make do barefoot or at least with a less padded variation of a boot if they fancied a kickabout, the King is widely recognised to have commissioned the very first pair of football boots. The boots, which reportedly cost four shillings (that’s roughly $172 today, adjusted for inflation) were found in an inventory of the King’s clothes when he died, and they were more expensive than the shoes he had made for other medieval sports, like jousting. Though the boots haven’t exactly stood the test of time (or really survived at all), they were reported to have been made from premium Spanish leather. It’s unlikely that they were studded though, and that’s probably for the best – football at the time was hardly a gentleman’s game and was said to be a ‘game of beastly fury and extreme violence’. Just imagine the extra time racked up from that!
1800s: Kicking the Sh*t Out of Each Other
Ever taken a stud to the ankle? Not fun is it? Now imagine that those studs were made of nails. Yup – makeshift studs were all the rage in the 1800s, as players hammered nails into their shoes to gain a practical advantage when out on muddy fields. And to be fair, they needed all the advantages they could get. Boots weren’t exactly specially designed at this point, and many players wore (slightly questionable) adaptations of their usual work boots, which also tended to be made from high-cut, inflexible leather and featured steel toe caps. Finally, in 1863, the FA was established, and with the governing body now in place, the official Laws of the Game were soon to follow. Rule 13 read: ‘No player shall wear projecting nails, iron plates, or gutta percha on the soles or heels of his boots’, putting an end to some seriously nasty injuries. But that didn’t spell an end for studded boots altogether, as in 1891, a revision to the rules allowed for bars or studs underfoot. Around the same time, football boots had begun to take shape, and players were ditching their work boots in favour of silhouettes a little more akin to those we see today.
However, there was still a long way to go. Most pairs weighed at least 0.5kg (or even more when wet), and they featured a high cut for better ankle support, which came at the cost of flexibility.
1940s–50s: PUMA vs adidas
The early 1900s didn’t see many developments in terms of football boots, but there were a few obvious differences between boots from different countries. The establishment of the FIFA World Cup in 1930 saw challengers come together from all over the globe, and though progress was put on pause during the Second World War, the tournament’s return in 1950 saw big strides in the boots development department. During this time, brands like Gola, Hummel and Valsport had the game on-lock, but with the competition taking place in Brazil, South American teams sported boots that were much lighter and more flexible in order to cope with their warmer weather. The thinner material also had the added benefit of giving the player a better feel and control over the ball – an essential consideration in today’s market. After the competition, England Winger Stanley Matthews reportedly ran out to a Rio de Janeiro sports shop to buy himself a pair, before returning home and designing his own, which he’d wear for the rest of his career.
But that wasn’t the only development. Ahead of the 1954 FIFA World Cup in Switzerland, adidas debuted a boot with screw-in studs: the adidas Argentina. The screw-in nature of the studs meant that the grip could be switched up for a range of ground conditions, and in the case of this World Cup, it led to a 3-2 win by West Germany when their boots gave them an advantage in the lashing rain over a powerful Hungary team. Whether adidas were the first to use the screw-in technology is disputed though, as both Adolf and Rudolf Dassler had been introduced to the tech by a German shoemaker when they were running their joint business. According to PUMA’s Archive Manager, Helmut Fischer, a PUMA advert exists that depicts Hannover 96 players wearing studded PUMA boots, and it dates back two months before the World Cup even kicked off.
Despite this uncertainty, adidas’ boots continued to make strides in other areas. The Argentina featured a narrow sole, no toe cap and a lower cut upper, which gave players much more flexibility and control when it came to scoring game-winning goals. This set the standard until around the 1970s, when things really started to take shape…
1970s–80s: The Era That Changed Everything
The 1970 World Cup in Mexico saw another competitor enter this mix, as Nike (then known as Blue Ribbon Sports) created ‘The Nike’ for the competition, introducing their famed Swoosh to the world of football. However, the boot was riddled with problems – no players ended wearing the pairs in Mexico, and they weren’t cut out for the colder weather, often cracking when worn in cooler climates. The blunder saw the Swoosh retreat from the sport for a decade or two (but more on that later).
Elsewhere, the 70s saw manufacturers progress in the weight department, shaving things down to make boots as light and agile as possible. Brands started to experiment more with different materials: kangaroo leather and calfskin became more widespread, and moulded stud outsoles became commonplace. Boot sponsorship deals became standard, and among their bitter feud with adidas, PUMA signed Pelé. As the legacy goes, PUMA forked out a reported $120k to get the perfect shot of the star lacing his PUMA King boots, (originally introduced in 1966) during Brazil’s game against Peru in 1970. This broke the ‘Pelé Pact’ they had with adidas, where both companies had agreed not to sign the athlete, and it scored PUMA record sales as the striker sailed to his third World Cup win. Diadora also entered the market, kitting out Roberto Bettega for the 1978 World Cup.
Alongside the technological advancements and sponsorship deals, the world of football boots was also changing in another big way. Up until 1970, boots had only ever been black in colour, but Hummel’s marketing director Brian Hewett was about to do something unheard of. Hummel kitted out Everton player Alan Ball in a pair of white boots for the 1970 Charity Shield match. The catch? Despite being paid to promote them, Ball wasn’t a fan of Hummel’s boots, so the white boots worn in the match were actually a painted pair of adidas boots with a Hummel logo sprayed on top. That month, Hummel sold 12,000 pairs of their actual white boots, leaving their usual average sales figures that hovered around 5000 units in the dust. They also improved their boots to the point that Ball was happy to wear them, so he eventually swapped out his painted Three Stripes pairs for the real deal.
The breaking of the Pelé Pact and fraudulent white boots didn’t phase adidas though, as they were about to unleash an absolute weapon. Making its debut in 1979, the adidas Copa Mundial went on to become one of the best selling football boots of all time. Named after the Copa America and designed with the 1982 Spain World Cup in mind, the Copa Mundial was made from soft kangaroo leather, making it uber light and easy to run in and giving it a serious competitive advantage. Other features included a narrow sole with moulded lugs for added traction, a cushioned midsole that used rubber instead of foam, an outsole designed specifically to provide stability on muddy and grassy pitches, and a fold-over tongue to keep laces out the way, allowing for a more accurate kick. And though PUMA may have had Pelé, the Copa Mundial wasn’t exactly short of loyal fans – the boot went on to be worn by Franz Beckenbauer, Diego Maradona, Zinedine Zidane and David Beckham over the years. Maradona ditched the Mundial for the 1982 World Cup though, and instead opted for the PUMA King, which saw the King and Copa Mundial battle it out for the top spot for the majority of the 80s.
1990s: The Colourful Game
Admittedly, there’s some degree of nostalgia talking, but many would consider the 90s to be the golden age of football boots. At this point, plenty of brands were adding their two cents to the mix. Japanese brand Mizuno released the Morelia in 1991, which was regarded as being one of the most comfortable boots on the market thanks to its supple leather and lightweight build. Umbro, who’d long-dominated the kit game over the years, introduced the Speciali in 1994, which went on to be worn by the likes of Alan Shearer and Michael Owen. But three key franchises dominated the world of 90s football boots and shaped the scene to come. Let’s get into it.
One of the biggest developments in tech at the time came with the introduction of the adidas Predator in 1994 – but it actually almost never existed. The story starts with former Liverpool and Middlesbrough player Craig Johnson, who became obsessed with creating a new style of boot that would have better grip and control over the ball. Having returned to his hometown in Australia to care for his sick sister, Johnson began a coaching career, and it was while coaching a group of kids that he had the idea to add rubber fins and jets (like a ping-pong bat) to the front of boots. This would provide better traction and a bigger sweet spot to encourage longer and firmer contact, and the use of rubber would allow for players to kick the ball harder, encouraging a more powerful shot. But despite these advantages, the shoe’s potential was a hard-sell. Johnson took the prototype to a number of big brands and failed to convince them, but rather than give up, he hit up Franz Beckenbauer and Karl Heinz-Rummenigge and filmed them wearing the prototypes for a kickabout in the snow. The footage was enough to convince adidas to invest, and the Predator has gone on to become one of the most revered boots of all time, with many variations hitting the market since.
Around the same time, Nike were gearing up to re-enter the football market with a bang. After the relative embarrassment of The Nike, the Swoosh poured its effort into the Tiempo. Though the Tiempo had actually been around ten years prior, it was until the 1994 USA World Cup that Nike began to push the Tiempo Premier. Taking on a starring role in one of the Swoosh’s most iconic footballing ads, ‘The Wall’, the boot went on to be worn by ten players during the 1994 World Cup final. It was so successful that Nike barely changed the design for the following tournament, where they introduced the Tiempo Premier M that had an additional Swoosh on the sole plate.
By 1998, Nike were well and truly in the swing of things, and the brand introduced the Mercurial alongside the Tiempo. With a particular focus on speed, the Mercurial was worn by the likes of Ronaldo and also saw Nike embrace colourful boots while the Tiempo tended to come in black and white. The Mercurial was an update to the Tiempo in that it took inspiration from track spikes to make it quicker and it came with a thinner, lighter sole plate and KNG-100 synthetic upper. The boot weighed a tiny 250g and featured a sticky coating on the upper for better grip on the ball. adidas also raced to create a faster boot with the introduction of the Predator Accelerator. Worn by Zinedine Zidane and Beckham, this pair boasted flashy coloured accents, subtle fins and off-centre lacing for a bigger contact area. The Tiempo, Mercurial and Predator continued to dance throughout the 2000s, with various evolutions improving play each time.
2000s – Get Techy With It
The 00s saw huge strides in football boot tech – colourful pairs were quickly becoming all the rage, and personalisation had become an important part of the game. In terms of styles, the scene was dominated by adidas’ Predator Mania – an aggressive-looking style favoured by Beckham, the Mercurial Vapor (Nike had shaved off another 50g for this pair, and the upper was made from a one-piece synthetic construction called Nike Skin), the Zoom Total 90 (a Rooney fave, now back in indoor form), and the Tiempo Legend, as worn by Ronaldinho. The adidas F.50 Tunit 6 was also a popular choice – it came with changeable studs so that players could customise the pair to their specific playing conditions. However, it wasn’t the most comfortable era for football styles, as the F.50 and Mercurial Vapor 1 were known for causing blisters. Luckily, new game-changing technology was on the way to deal with just that. The world’s first laser-printed boot was designed in 2006, and the technology was designed to mimic an individual's foot perfectly. It wouldn’t be long before custom-fit boots were standard in the game.
2010s: Ultralight Feet
The main legacy franchises continued throughout the 2010s (the Predator did seize production from 2015–2017), but experimentations with new lines and materials remained an important part of brands’ strategies. In 2010, Nike introduced the Mercurial Superfly, featuring Flywire tech – a material made up of strands of Vectran that are thinner than human hair but stronger than steel. The ultimate lightweight boot, the Mercurial Superfly II, was Christiano Ronaldo’s first signature and initially dropped in the Swoosh’s iconic ‘Safari’ colourway. In 2013, the Swoosh also pressed on with the development of NikeSkin, applying a honeycomb-shaped upper detailing to the Nike Hypervenoms as worn by Neymar Jr. In response, adidas dropped the CrazyLight in 2014, applying the basketball-born tech to a football boot that weighed in at just 145g, before going on to drop the F50 Adizero Crazy Light at 99 grams in 2015. Only 250 of these were released to the public. Laceless boots also found their strides, with styles like the adidas Copa 19 finding favour due to the added padding and bigger strike zone. On the flipside, boots like PUMA’s Future 18.1 Net Fit provided even more lacing options, allowing the wearer to lace their boots in a way that was most comfortable to them. The decade also welcomed the return of mid-cut styles like the Nike Magista Obra 1, though they’d come a long way from the rigid collars of the early 1900s. Instead, sock-like constructions hugged the ankles, providing flexibility and adding support at the same time. Additional techy features were also introduced, including microchips that tracked playing data and gave real-time feedback during games and training. Studs also started to diversify in shape, with blades in square and triangle shapes offering a finer point of contact versus typical rounded studs.
Present: The Modern Game
To keep pace with the modern game, football boots and boot franchises are ever-evolving. Brands will always be looking for ways to make boots quicker, lighter, and more impactful depending on each player’s position and style of play. Signature boots are standard, and although the majority of us are no Erling Haaland, there’s nothing to stop you rocking the Nike Phantom GX II Haaland ‘Force9’ at Sunday league if you feel inclined to. However, it’s important to remember that these top players aren’t getting their pairs off the rack – with boot deals being such a lucrative part of modern-day football, custom fitting is essential, and many players also modify the soles of their boots to suit their play style.
Despite the advances in technology, the football world has proven it’s also susceptible to the same treatment as the sneaker scene, with retro silhouettes now making their return on the reg. Arriving in their ‘Next Gen’ variations, boots like the Predator 24 have proven themselves to be equal parts fashion statement and tool – and that’s all good – just as long as the tech keeps on coming.