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…

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