Football boots
Posted by: count.d on 20 May 2004
After playing a football match in studded boots last Sunday, for the first time in years, I'm looking for a new pair of football boots.
After having swollen ankles, couldn't run as quick as I'd liked as it felt like running on stilts and having burning blisters on my big toes after twenty minutes, I have come to the conclusion that the ones I bought were wrong.
They were normal shaped studs for soft ground. The ground I was playing on was hard, hence the "stilts" which also caused too much stress on my ankles.
So, are blade studded boots better and which ones?
I always buy the best, so is it Adidas Predator or Nike Mecurial Vapour?
Posted on: 20 May 2004 by Two-Sheds
I haven't played for a while, but when I was playing a year ago or so I upgraded my boots from cheap as you like adidas boots with normal studs to mid range adidas boots with blades. I found in general the blades gave more grip and the foot was flater to the ground on harder surfaces.
Some friends I played with prefered normal studs, but I must say I prefered the blades and would buy blades again. Some guys did say though that because you got more grip when turning with blades they put more pressure on your knees making them more suceptible to injury, but I never noticed anything like that (playing 20ish games over a year plus training in them).
As for the predator boots, I wouldn't get them, but thats because I'm a plodder of a full back and I know someone who bought a pair and ended up getting rid of them because he couldn't hit the ball stright anymore.
Posted on: 21 May 2004 by greeny
Sort of agree with Alex.
Blades work Ok on quite hard ground, but can be useless on soft/muddy stuff (keep your existing boots for this). I also find the Molded studs can be more comfortable than the blades (but less choice when buying.
I also find that the astro turf variety work well on hard ground.
Posted on: 21 May 2004 by matthewr
Whatever you buy make sure they are black. Coloured boots are the work of Satan and, like wearing sunglasses indoors, can only be pulled off if you are a seriously talented megastar. So Thierry Henry can get away with them but Martin Keown can't.
Matthew
Posted on: 29 May 2004 by count.d
Thanks guys.
The Nike Mercurial Vapour seem to be made the best. They are incredibly light. The uppers are synthetic and are very thin. The idea is that they hug the foot for support. They're not padded, so the only problem I can see is they don't offer much protection against someone standing on your foot.
They're available in different colours. Perhaps I should get the red ones, as Thierry Henry wears these and we do have a lot in common.
