Guest Post by Chicken Run Boy
Another player looking to jump on the endorsement bandwagon was England hero Alan Ball. While his remuneration was very modest compared to Pele’s, his boots has a far bigger impact on the life of 10 year old me. Ball heard that Danish manufacturer Hummel, was prepared to pay £2,000 to a professional for wearing their new white boots. He famously showcased his special white football boots in the Charity Shield at the beginning of the 1970-71 season.
Now, the rumour mill says his actual boots were actually Adidas painted white with the Hummel chevrons stitched over the top because Ball didn’t much like the early Hummel version. Almost certainly true, but it really doesn’t matter. Hummel’s sales doubled overnight and non-black boots had arrived. Football would never be the same.
To convey some sense of the impact these boots caused, glance at Bally’s stats -World Cup winner at 21, League winner, over 800 career appearances, League Record transfer. That’s some career. So, what was the title of his biography? The Man Who Played in White Boots. For those too young to remember Alan Ball or the 70s, you’ll just have to trust me – this was the very definition of excitement for young dreamers like me.
Picture: Hummel boots (not mine) for sale on Ebay for £500 + postage
If the seventies opened with a challenge to Adidas in the form of the stylish Puma Kings and Hummel’s white revolution, the end of the decade saw the Adidas team responded like champions with the introduction of the Copa Mundial. Launched in 1979 ahead of the 1982 World Cup, it featured tough kangaroo leather, moulded studs, and a foam-cushioned instep. For many good reasons it went on to become the most successful boot of all time, still selling 40 years later. Can’t argue with the Adidas PR team on this one:
“Every time you lay eyes on its instantly recognisable silhouette, the adidas Copa Mundial evokes visceral feelings about the beautiful game.”
The first half of the 1980s saw more makers enter the crowded market including English company Umbro, Italy’s Lotto and Spain’s Kelme, but it wasn’t a big manufacturer that made the next breakthrough, but an ex-player turned inventor. Liverpool’s Aussie midfielder Craig Johnston had retired early from the game to care for his ill sister. While doing some coaching he hit upon an idea to attach rubber strips from a table tennis bat to the forefoot of his boots, instantly improving the amount of swerve and power that could be applied to the ball.
It took several years of further development and was eventually licensed by Adidas. The Predator boot was launched in 1994 also featuring Johnston’s pioneering Traxion soles – a hybrid of traditional studs and blade grips, which enabled a player to turn in tight spaces and at high speed. Worn by the likes of David Beckham and Zinedine Zidane, unsurprisingly, the Predator became an instant and lasting success. A game changer, in fact.
One potential game changer that never quite happened was being developed in the unlikely setting of Malaysia (home of the trees from which the rubber-like ‘Gutta Percha’ is derived). Rumours began circulating about a revolutionary new boot from small newcomer to the market, Knotso. Apparently, the new boots had a form of liquid rubber in the sole plate. This was released from the sole if the force used in a tackle was potentially dangerous (based on a complicated formula) to an opponent and would instantly seal the wound inflicted – thereby protecting the player from threat of infection. The prototype had a initial sponsorship deal lined up with Man U’s Roy Keane but the new boot sadly never made it into the shops. What happened to The Knotso Keane – Red Mist 97 remains one of football’s great mysteries.
While The Predator may have cemented Adidas’s place at the top of the football boot market approaching the new millennium they weren’t without a new challengers. Emerging out of the pack came one of the companies that only entered the market in the 1970s. Named, after the Greek goddess of victory Nike has gone on to become a significant name in the football world. Their success was kick started when supplying Brazil’s kit, with the latest superstar, Ronaldo wearing the brand’s first classic boot during the 1998 World Cup. According to Nike, The Mercurial brought innovations such as lightweight ‘synthetic leather’ (that’s plastic isn’t it?) and a sticky outer layer adapted from racing motorcycles tire materials to enhance the touch of the ball for players.
I decided to have a look for the latest Nike Mercurial. On one UK website I found them at £240 along with another 25 pairs of boots in the same price range (if you are tempted to scoff at the cost, please wait until you hear what they can do). “For players demanding lightweight lockdown for pure speed and devasting rapid cuts (see, you’re interested now) the Nike Mercurial Superfly V11 Elite SG-PRO Anti-Clog football boots have a Flyknit upper to create a close, secure feel on the foot as Anti-Clog tech helps prevent mud from sticking to the soleplate.“ Wow. Just wow.
My life to this point can be divided evenly between playing and non-playing days. So, it follows I haven’t bought a pair of boots for myself for a long time but I can still get how a kid might get feel when gazing at the Mercurial or a similarly iconic boot. In Black Boots and Football Pinks Daniel Gray wrote:
“With a likely purchase identified, and a shoebox’s rustling promise unleashed, came the time to trial the boots and check whether they could harness a season’s growth. Big-toe test passed, it was a happy kid who left a shop with new boots in a carrier bag.”
Happy? Happy was an extra sausage at school lunch. To a football mad kid like me, getting my hands on a new pair of Hummel Alan Ball boots took me beyond happy, closer to euphoria or rapture. I have a single photograph of my school team – displaying 3 trophies (back in the day, when doing the Triple meant something) and I’m grinning away and my boots are standing out, in a sea of dull black boots, as white as a Bobby Moore smile. Looking at the photo I’m transported back 50 years to the sports shop opposite Barking station and the moment my infatuation with football boots first began.
From that awakening to the idea that the football boot was worthy of my attention, my teenage years were marked first by the realisation that Hummel and me was no longer a good fit and we had to part. I spent several years fumbling around with several alternatives, experimenting with the different names but never feeling that special moment. It took me ten years of searching before the spark reignited. For me, seeing my first pair of Copa Mundial was love at first sight and even in this cynical, commercial, over-hyped world, there is still a little room for that magical feeling when you find your perfect boot, whatever the price or brand. Sure, my head frequently got turned my younger, flashier models as I got older, but the Copa Mundial was my boot for life.
Picture credit: Adidas. The Copa Mundial. The most popular boot ever.