With your football boots becoming a more and more expensive investment, it’s important to understand the best ways to look after your football boots and prolong their life.
The football boot is a footballers most important piece of equipment. Ensuring your equipment is in good working order, can only help improve your game.
Over the course of the next few days, I will be giving you a series of guides to help you care for your football boots.
Series 1 - The Basics
1. After playing, always loosen your laces to allow you to remove your boots without using excessive force.
2. Remove loose soil by brushing the football boots with a stiff brush. Do not use a wire brush, instead try and use a brush with a natural material.
3. Wipe the football boots with a damp cloth to remove smaller particles of soil. Do not use a cleaning agent to clean your football boots.
4. If the football boots have been used in wet conditions, you can use an old toothbrush to remove soil that has been trapped in small grooves.
5. Stuff the football boots with newspaper to maintain shape.
6. Allow the football boots to dry in a natural heat.
Warning: Drying the boots with heat can cause the football boots to become stiff and the adhesives can deteriorate. Stiff boots are far more likely to rip and are weak. Deteriorated adhesives can make joints weak, such as the join between the upper and the sole plate. Additionally, heat drying your football boots can cause your soleplate to warp.
7. Once dry, grease the studs. This will prevent rusting if the boots are screw-in, it will also help prevent soil from sticking to the studs.
8. If the boots are leather, they can be polished to retain their colour.
9. After allowing the polish to work in, typically 24 hours, the boot should be protected by a Dubbin or natural leather oil. Dubbin or oil, helps keep the football boot waterproof and the leather supple.
Warning: When cleaning football boots with synthetic material, do not use a Dubbin or oil.
10. If changing or cleaning studs, add a slight lubricant to the stud thread to prevent any rusting if moisture gets in. Ensure the stud is tight, but not too tight to damage the thread. (Too much lubricant will reduce the friction and prevent the stud from properly tightening).
david said: Comment 28 January, 2007 @ 9:32 pm
Is it possible to use Vaseline when cleaning black leather football boots in place of dubbin, eg does it have same effect?