Having to break in your new pair of football boots can literally be a pain.

This top 10 guide, will help you and your football boots perform better, sooner and help reduce susceptibility to injury.

If you’re in the UK, you’re probably in pre-season training, getting match fitness for the new season.

It’s also likely that you’ve bought or are considering a new pair of football boots for the new campaign as many of us do.

As you’ll know, new football boots can mean sore feet, that is until the new football boots and your feet get used to each other. Even if you are dusting off last year’s equipment, your feet and football boots may need to readjust to each other again.

Fortunately, many modern football boot materials are mow softer than they used to be, reducing the time needed for you to ‘break in’ your new football boots. Even so, it’s highly recommended that you follow this guide as injuries can happen and who wants to be sidelined at the start of a season?

The Ultimate Guide to Breaking in Your New Football Boots

1. Ensure that your new football boots are the correct size for you, considering length and width. A wrongly sized football boot is a sure fire way to injured feet. Forget rumours of professionals wearing a size too small, specialists confirm that football boots that are too small for the foot can lead to injury.

2. Before wearing new football boots, rub Vaseline on all of the contact points on the foot that are susceptible to blistering, such as your toes and heel. This will help reduce friction against your skin and help prevent blisters forming.

3. Where possible, try wearing your new football boots to walk around in naturally, without exerting pressure on your feet like you would do in game conditions. Walking around the garden or a local park in your new football boots can help your foot and boot get used to each other and you may spark a new fashion!

4.  Gradually introduce the new football boots during training sessions. Start by aiming for a maximum of twenty minutes of play in your new football boots. Should you start feeling any pain, then change the football boots immediately.

5. Continue wearing your football boots in training for progressively longer spells, or until the football boots feel very comfortable.

6. If you feel like you are struggling to break the football boots in, try dampening the upper slightly before using them, but don’t soak the boot. Also, don’t use very hot water as this can melt the adhesives used on the football boot. Dampening them lightly with a sponge should do the trick.

7. After using the football boots, clean any debris or dirt off of the football boots with a soft brush or sponge.

8.  Stuff the football boots tightly with newspaper after use, or use a shoe stretcher. This will help keep the football boot in good shape and will help dry the moisture out of the football boots.

9. Let the football boots dry naturally after use, so keep the football boots away from heaters and direct sunlight.

10. If you continue to have problems breaking in a new football boot, even after regular short intervals of using them, seriously consider replacing them.

Do you have any tips to share on how to break in new football boots? If so, please share your advice in the comments section below.

If you haven’t yet voted in the Footy Boots Football Boots Awards don’t worry. There’s still time.

Since it launched on Monday, thousands of votes have been received from all around the globe with fans picking out the football boots that ‘do it for them’.

So, if you haven’t recorded your opinion yet, make sure you do so soon. Not only could you swing the vote in favour of your particular choices, you could also be in line to win some fantastic prizes.

Now, you’d think that former Liverpool star Craig Johnston would probably vote for the Predator as he dreamed it up. But the revolutionary designer and Footy Boots Awards adviser was giving nothing away when we asked him to give us his opinion on what made the perfect football boot.  However, what he did come up with were some brilliant pointers as to what you should look out for when spending your ‘hard-earned’ on a new pair of football boots.

6 Tips - Choosing the Perfect Football Boot

1. What conditions are you playing in?

First of all are your football boots for winter or summer use, are they to be studded or rubbers? It sounds silly but if you don’t think it through you may end up with the wrong pair of football boots for the conditions, always a good players nightmare. Ideally, all serious players must have a great pair of interchangeable studded shoes, a great pair of rubbers (moulded) or bladed, and a great pair of indoor or astroturf boots.

2. What are they made of?

This is fundamental to your choice of football boot. Leather is still my favourite but some synthetics these days are very acceptable and have some interesting properties. Beware however as some synthetics at the lower price points are counter-productive to a good feel of the ball, they make you feel like you are wearing a pair of galoshes. On top of this some synthetics have no breathability, so your feet get very clammy very quickly.

Up for Populist Football Boot of the Year, the K-leather adidas adiPure II

3. Comfort and craftsmanship

Comfort is a given. If they are not comfortable, don’t buy them. Good simple craftsmanship always wins for me over garish fads and gimmicks, and there are lots of them these days…yuk.

4. Lightness and suppleness

Lightness and suppleness
 are are always key indicators if a shoe is well made. The perfect football boot is always rigid where it needs to be but flexible elsewhere. It is always stiff from toe to heel and supple width ways where the foot naturally bends.

A contender in Panel Football Boot of the Year, the lightweight PUMA v1.08

5. Cleat concept

Again, what players want from a sole plate is more of what they do naturally…therefore the manufacturers will promise more grip, more thrust, more turning traction, less mud clog and more easily changeable cleats. The stud or cleat concept, shape and positioning are really important, as well as the ability to quickly and easily change the height of the stud. What’s often overlooked but important to me is the feel of the studs underneath your hot spots. You should ask yourself, what is the stud placement and layout concept, are they comfortable. If not, wait till you have gone 90 minutes with them on a dusty dry pitch in summer and see how red raw your feet will be.

6. Value for money

I am not going to name names, but quite often a manufacturer who has some proprietary technology at the top end football boot will pull this technology down to a lower price point to make a better shoe at a lower price.  This is good value. Other manufacturers will make up a gimmick, name, colour or performance concept to just hit that price point. Not good. So shop around, use common sense, and try to see which brand is full of it and which brand and football boots are the real deal.

The F50i Sprint Skin features in the Most Innovative Feature Award

Craig Johnston, was a Liverpool footballer from 1980 to 1988. Craig invented the Traxion sole, used on many football boots, he designed the Predator Adidas football boot used by the likes of David Beckham and Steven Gerrard.

Craig Johnston:

For me to be asked to be an ambassador for Footy-Boots.com is quite an honour…

Don’t forget to register your vote in the Football Boot Awards 2009…

There are many foot injuries which football players develop as a result of overuse, pounding pressure, wet conditions and friction on the foot. We look at what you can do to look after the most important part of the body when it comes to football - the feet!

Football Foot Stress

Football puts a lot of stress on the feet due to the nature of the game. Sharp turns, quickly stopping and starting, often on hard or un-even surfaces, or in conditions which leave the foot soaking wet for 90 minutes.

In a typical match, footballers run for around 10 kilometres at fairly modest speeds, they sprint for about 1,000 metres, accelerate 50 different times, and change direction every five seconds or so. When running, a footballer’s body weight can be multiplied by up to 5 times, with the feet bearing the majority of this stress.

Many footballers wear football boots which are normally tight around the foot, often a size too small and modern football boots are more frequently made of synthetic materials which are less breathable than leather.

So we know that our poor feet get a hard time of it, but hey, we footballers are tough, what the heck…. Well, no. Who wants to be watching their team from the touchline due to a foot infection? Or who wants a long term issue with corns, or ingrown toenails?

Symptoms

Tight football boots can chafe the skin and cause blisters which are not only painful and can put you on the injury list, they can also lead to infections which can cause many other issues.

Football boots which are synthetic and don’t allow the foot to breath, can lead to the growth and multiplication of odour-causing bacteria.

When your feet are subjected to pounding pressure caused by differing surfaces, the skin starts to dry out. If left untreated, it will crack and peel. Tiny fissures can develop that may even begin to bleed!

Preventative Measures

So much time and money is spent on deciding what football boots to buy and wear, but then the feet that go inside those football boots are neglected.

Foot Hygiene

Hot sweaty feet are part and parcel of football, so good foot hygiene is important in avoiding conditions such as Athletes Foot. Wash your feet regularly and dry them thoroughly.

Foot Conditioner has been developed to repair the damage that football inflicts on the feet. It helps revitalise your feet so they feel supple and responsive. It’s absorbed quickly and leaves no greasy residue so it starts working immediately and is easy to apply. At Footy Boots HQ we’ve used Zuku conditioner and have found it has worked well for our feet!

Wear the right socks

Studies have shown the importance of socks in preventing football injuries. There are socks available now that let the foot breath better in the football boot and prevent water from absorbing through the sock onto your foot.

Wear the right football boot

Get the right sized football boot. Some football boots have a wide fit, other a slim fit, read up on the football boot before buying it.

Get the right football boot for the surface you are playing on. That may mean more than one pair of football boots a season, but its worth it.

Look at the material. Some upper materials do not allow the foot to breath, which as we know can cause problems. Consider the materials available within your budget and ask your team mates for their recommendations.

Footy Boots reviews the leading football boots and is an ideal source of reference to learn more about football boots.

Related pages - Football Boot Care

Synthetic leather football boots are becoming more and more popular. Nike have the Mercurial Vapor’s, Puma the V1.06 and Adidas +F50 TUNiT.

In fact, nearly all of the major football boot manufacturers now have a synthetic upper football boot, but how do you clean these boots which are not made from leather?

Follow the instructions from the first series, Caring for your Football Boots. However, you do not want to use any abrasive brush or cloth on the football boot upper.

Also, do not use any oil, Dubbin or nourishment on your synthetic leather football boots. Synthetic leather football boots can be damaged if you use a detergent or a polish.

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).