BESPOKE FOOTBALL BOOTS SHOOT INTO THE FUTURE

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BESPOKE FOOTBALL BOOTS SHOOT INTO THE FUTURE

The football boots of the future will be individually designed and fully customisable with outsoles that mirror the contours of the foot and revolutionary snap-off studs that will help make metatarsal injuries a thing of the past.

future of football boots

Leading football boot expert, Greg Lever-O’Keefe, who has worked in the football boot design industry for over 10 years, revealed his vision of the future to us here at Footy Boots.

By the 2018 World Cup Lever-O’Keefe claims:

Retail environments will begin to install running machines manned by highly trained staff and in some cases podiatrists and sports biomechanics. Force distribution data will allow the expert to assess what outsole is best suited while looking for key things such as pronation, supination, or differences in leg length.

Customised in-socks like the ski boot industry which offers in-socks which are thermoset to the 3D contour of the foot.

By 2018 the use of rapid manufacturing machines will allow us to fix studs in very specific areas based on the athlete’s foot type, running style and loading pattern using 3D scanning. These studs could be tuned to help prevent metatarsal injury or designed to snap under extreme rotational forces to alleviate knee injuries.

The consumer will become a co-designer - not only for veneering exercises but also for tailored function. Buying football boots in the future may include bespoke, personalised fitting including 3D laser scanning of the feet and legs. Boot testing using force distribution software coupled with expert evaluation. Selection of the best outsole with added adaption’s (e.g. expanded toe box), fully customised with colours and aesthetics.

Outsoles will be contoured to the foot, adapting more and utilising technology from running shoes.

Stud size, shape and positioning will become a freedom of choice for the consumer. Further products will become environment sensitive and able to adapt to the environment they are within. Studs will have the ability to tune themselves to the surface under the foot helping offset forces as an example.

football boots future

That’s the future, now recap on the History of Football Boots

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6 Comments »

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Paul Bush said: Comment 12 August, 2008 @ 5:33 pm

Don’t Nike basically do this already with NikeiD/Bootroom?

I can’t see it taking them 10 years to get on the bits on this article they don’t already offer.

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bespoke said: Comment 12 August, 2008 @ 9:34 pm

Nike ID boot room only allows aesthetic changes within limited options framework…nothing tuned to you functionally. Nike will never deliver service that gets into biomechanics-it is to risky for them

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Adam Henry said: Comment 13 August, 2008 @ 12:51 am

I can’t say that I think they will ever be fully customisable aesthetics. The football boot industry is just too big.

Nike and Adidas will continue to release designs that players will wear. The reason brands get players to wear their boots is because kids (and some adults) see their favourite players wearing them and then go out and buy that very boot (or those of a similar design).

Unless Nike (for example) stop having multiple lines and just have boots called “Nikes” that are fully customisable but have a huge Nike tick on them, I just don’t think that all football boot brands will just disappear.

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Oliver said: Comment 13 August, 2008 @ 12:14 pm

Great article - well done for the insight

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Paul Bush said: Comment 14 August, 2008 @ 10:57 am

Bespoke - if Nike or Puma or Adi would find this too risky then who will do it?

If it’s some Joe Schmo brand then it’ll never see light of day at the top of the sport. It’s not like in cricket where Ian Bell can buy a bat made by a dude in his shed in Guatemala and then chuck Slazenger stickers on it.

This will only happen if one of the big brands thinks it’s worth doing, which might be likely if Nike and Adi continue with services like Bootroom.

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bespoke said: Comment 15 August, 2008 @ 11:17 am

Hi Paul, I am not saying they will never not do it. They will do it in the future. They just don’t do it now - however these are things which are on the radar. Look at the new NIke Town - the core focus is customisation. It wont be all teleport shoes or space ships but more personlistaion and better function. Look at the past 30 years - what has arisen, low cut uppers, screw in studs, vulcanized rubber over the upper (predator, T90) TPU! cross compare that to the growth of the sport, money, media, medical, training…

As for other brands, Nike and Adi will not be the only big brands. China is emerging as is its own brands with as much money, power and creativity to compete. They are not feeling the current economic pinch like we are, their economy is growing 10% every year.

As for the worth. In big brand terms they create the want (marketing strong companies) by understanding the language the athlete/consumer speaks and then talking in that language coupled with amazing aesthetics

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