Alan Balls White Boots

Alan Balls White BootsWorld Cup winner Alan Ball first showcased his distinctive white football boots in the Charity Shield at the beginning of the 1970/71 football season.

Why did he wear white boots?

Alan heard a rumour that the boot manufacturer Hummel, were looking for a professional to wear their white boots and were prepared to pay £2,000. He took them up on the deal, only to be disappointed, he said

“To be honest lads they were crap, like cardboard, so I got the young apprentices to paint my Adidas football boots white. It was great, till one day it rained and the black came through. A not too happy watching Hummel rep saw what I’d done so I said goodbye to the two grand.”

Picture: Alan Ball in his white boots.


Article by Felipe. View all posts by Felipe.    
Updated: 06/02/12





  • kiemac

    Does anyone know where you can buy some alan ball boots

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  • jeezy

    does anyone know where you can boot alans balls

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  • Bruce Morrison

    Hi everyone,
    I loved playing football when I was young, and when I bought some alen ball football boots I thought they would help me play better…….My dad always made me clean and dubbin my boots after every game so the novilty soon wore thin.
    But nowadays everyone wears coloured boots so I take my hat off to the guy who started the trend…..just took a while to take off
    And Yes, my dad use to repair the football with a bike repair kit, and every header left a shoelace inprint on my head with the odd shaped ball…..those were the days

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  • Bhewitt6

    As the person who actually came up with the idea of white boots – I can tell you that Alan’s version above is not quite on the nose.  I knew that Hummel – being new to the UK market – needed something to make the jump from Adidas.  So, that was the idea and we sold it to Alan and he was terrific.  His first boot WERE  his own Adidas boots which WE had painted white for him in Heckmondwyke!!!  After that we improved the boot enough to have them used by Alan Hinton and others and we also made red ones which were worn by Charlie George of Arsenal and Tommy Smith of Liverpool.   Before we launched with Alan Ball at the Charity Shield match we had sold just 5000 pairs since people thought it would be ‘girlie’ to wear them.  In the first hour of Monday morning AFTER the Charity game we sold 15000 prs in the first hour.
    That is the true story.
    Brian Hewitt

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