Zhero Gravity © Lotto

We all need a bit of protection when on we’re field, some more than others, and it goes without saying that a good shinpad can make all the difference between playing confidently or shrinking away from tackles. For the casual shopper, there is quite a choice out there, with all the major manufacturers staking their claim to the best football boots and shinguards your money can buy.

A brand worthy of consideration alongside the Nike and “Puma football boots” of this world is the Italian company Lotto. They produce the Zhero Gravity football boot and accompanying shinpad. The boot stands out from the crowd with a unique laceless design, putting an end to the age old fear that every footballer secretly has - tripping up over your own boot laces when running around, or worse, when kicking the ball.

Whilst the shin pads aren’t quiet as revolutionary, they are flexible enough to be worn by any size of player and offer good protection levels when an impact is made. On the downside, they are not overly large, so the area they protect is obviously affected by this, but they are lightweight enough not to hinder your movement, and there are some good prices to be had for those of you who are prepared to shop around. Recommended.

Rated: from 2523 votes

Istockphoto © Peepo

Last weekend’s games saw a little bit of history repeating itself, as two Premier League sides played against each other with not a football shirt sponsor in sight. Harking back to the glory days of the 1970’s, when shirt sponsorship had yet to take off, West Ham and West Bromwich took to the field in their corporate-free “football kits” sporting only their team colours. The game ended 3-2 to the Baggies, marking their first win of the season, and left new West Ham manager Gianfranco Zola with plenty of thinking to do. Perhaps he will want to invest in some new training equipment for his team!

I would like to say the reason behind the unbranded football kits was a romantic notion by the owners, celebrating the days when the game wasn’t so driven by money, but no… no such luck. The real reason is down to West Bromwich’s contract with T-Mobile expiring and West Ham losing XL Holidays after the travel firm recently went bust.

With the credit crunch well and truly with us, more teams may be following suit as stock markets crash and companies fid themselves upon hard times. Already Manchester United sponsors AIG have had to be bailed out by the US government, and Arsenal and Manchester City may find themselves looking for replacements for Emirate Airlines and Thomas Cook respectfully if the cost of fuel for air carriers continues to bite deep.

Could unbranded football shirts be all the rage this season? Only time will tell…

Rated: from 2186 votes

Football-boots.com launched the prestigious Football Boots Awards last week, which is set to become the premier awards ceremony for kit manufacturers. This new football boots awards ceremony is a bit like the Oscars, expect with more mud and grass stains. Prizes were dished out for the following categories…

Most Comfortable Football Boot
Predator Power Swerve

Football Boot of the Year
Mercurial Vapor IV

Best Looking Football Boot
Mercurial SL

Most Innovative Football Boot
Mercurial SL

Best Football Shirt
Manchester United

Football Boot Brand of the Year
Nike

So, pretty much a clean sweep for Nike then, who spent all night quaffing champagne and lording it up for all to see. Puma football boots and Adidas football boots, take note! You have some serious catching up to do…

Next week – the football socks and shin pad awards. Just kidding.

Rated: from 1845 votes

A revolutionary new football boot that promises 15% more power and an increase of 40% accuracy when compared to its competitors has gone on sale in the UK.

Launched last weekend in Liverpool, this new football boot picks up the ‘next big thing’ mantle of the Adidas Predator (now relegated to standard Adidas football training equipment) and looks set, alongside a snug pair of football socks, to adorn the feet of thousands of footballers across the world.

The makers boast that the football boot helps players strike the ‘sweet spot’ when kicking the ball, improving accuracy and timing when hoofing it up the pitch or attempting that all-important penalty. Not only does it promise to improve your performance, but thanks to its clever design, the boot offers increased protection to the Achilles Heel of English football… the metatarsal. Did anyone mention Wayne Rooney?

I haven’t got my hands on one yet, but if the press release is anything to go by, it will be well worth snapping up a pair. They’ll certainly jazz up my increasingly worn-looking football socks.

Rated: from 2026 votes

JD Sports have recently announced their definitive list of the top ten men’s trainers and sports shoes. Mens football boots don’t qualify for the list unfortunately. Perhaps I should create my own ranking. While I’m at it, football equipment in general could do with an ordering system.

Anyway back to the trainers … What’s this? Nike Air’s only at number three? Something must be wrong there! Here’s the top ten, in reverse order:

10 – Nike Windrunner TR2
A classic trainer, released way back in the mid-1980’s and revamped for today’s generation.

9 – Adidas Originals Training P.T. 70s
First released back in the 1970’s by the German footwear giant, this trainer looks just as good as it ever, over three decades later.

8 – Adidas Originals Porsche Design Sports II
Utalising ‘Formotion’ technology, this smart looking trainer has classic written all over it.

7 – Adidas Originals Forest Hill Vintage
A lace up version of the popular Forest Hills range in a striking red colour.

6 - Nike Air Match Classic
A black tennis shoe? You cant be serious??

5 – Nike Court Tradition Velcro Woven
Probably the cleanest looking trainer ever invented, if you work in a hospital and need to be somewhere fast, you could do a lot worse than slipping a pair of these on.

4 – Adidas Originals Forest Hill Vintage
Harking back to the 1980’s, this distinctive trainer incorporates NASA technology. No honestly, it does.

3 – Nike Air Max Light
Originally released onto the market a couple of decades ago, Nike have given their legendary trainer another lease of life. Hurrah!

2 – Lacoste Regan 2
A new and updated version of Lacoste’s popular Deviation show, only available from JD Sports. Or failing that, your local Saturday morning market.

And in first place …

1 – K-Swiss Fenley

© k-swiss

A tennis shoe that is exclusive to JD Sports, rather innovatively you can change the trainer’s appearance to suit your mood by adjusting its side stripes. Whatever will they think of next? Mens football boots that sing to you when you score a goal, perhaps? Now there’s an idea …

Rated: from 2650 votes

Each and every week I will, courtesy of this sport blog be profiling a true hero of the game; the kind of player whose mere presence on the pitch is enough to inspire his team to victory. The kind of player who’s the best of the best, who deserves a place in any football hall of fame, and who should have a piece of new football kit produced in his name. Agree or disagree? Feel free to comment!

wikipedia © jarvin

Name:
Ian Rush

Age:
46

Clubs played for:
Chester City, 1979-1980
Liverpool, 1980-1987
Juventus, 1987-1988
Liverpool, 1988-1996
Leeds United, 1996-1997
Newcastle United, 1997-1998
Sheffield United, 1998
Wrexham, 1998-1999
Sydney Olympics, 1999-2000

Career highlights:
603 appearances and 254 goals to his name. He scored the majority of these when playing for Liverpool and Wales in the 1980’s and 90’s, breaking countless records along the way…
• Highest FA Cup goal scorer of the 20th Century
• Most goals scored in an FA Cup final (5)
• Most goals scored in the League Cup (49), shared with Geoff Hurst
• Most goals scored for Wales (28)
• Most goals scored for Liverpool (346)
• Most goals scored in the Merseyside Derby (25)

Believe it or not:
Ian’s boyhood team was Everton, Liverpool bitter rivals, although the latter won the race for his signature when he was 18 for a then record fee of £3,000,000. So much for team loyalty, eh? On the plus side, he was able to afford the very best “new football kit” on the market for that kind of money!

Ian also made his international debut for Wales - England football presumably didn’t do it for him - before his first appearance as a fully fledged Liverpool player.

Where is he now:
Last seen managing Chester City back in 2005. Rather unsuccessfully. A great player doesn’t necessarily translate into a great manager.

Beyond the England football scene, he has recently released a book called Rush: The Autobiography. Can you guess what it’s about?

Check out my sport blog next week for profile number two.

Rated: from 2275 votes

The dust is finally starting to settle after arguably one of the busiest and most exciting football transfer windows in recent memory. I can’t actually remember any other year that has provided so much frantic activity, particularly on the last day. If you were anything like me, you were glued to Sky Sports, jaw wide open as the announcements were made, confirming or refuting the various football rumors that had been flying around regarding which football transfers were in the offing. It was more exciting than watching football itself. Possibly.

flickr © stella_gonzales2003

Here’s a quick round up of the wheeling and dealing that occurred on the deadline day…

Robinho [Real Madrid - Manchester City] £32.5m
Dimitar Berbatov [Tottenham - Manchester United] £30.75m
Marouane Fellaini [Standard Liege - Everton] £15m
Roman Pavlyuchenko [Spartak Moscow - Tottenham] £14m
Vedran Corluka [Manchester City - Tottenham] £8.5m
Michael Tonge [Sheffield Utd - Stoke] £2m
Tom Soares [Crystal Palace - Stoke] £1.25m
Peter Gulacsi (MTK Hungaria - Liverpool) Undisclosed
Danny Higginbotham [Sunderland - Stoke] Undisclosed
George McCartney [West Ham - Sunderland] Undisclosed
Carlo Nash [Wigan - Everton] Undisclosed
Jon Parkin [Stoke - Preston] Undisclosed
Albert Riera [Espanyol - Liverpool] Undisclosed
Louis Saha [Man Utd - Everton] Undisclosed
Xisco [Deportivo La Coruna - Newcastle] Undisclosed
Vitor Flora [Botafogo - Liverpool] Free
Collins John [Fulham - NEC Nijmegen] Free
Nadir Belhadj [Lens - Portsmouth] Loan
Rachid Bouaouzan [NEC Nijmegen - Wigan] Loan
Fraizer Campbell [Manchester United - Tottenham] Loan
Jean-Francois Christophe (Portsmouth - Southend) Loan
Martin Cranie [Portsmouth - Charlton] Loan
Ryan Donk [AZ Alkmaar - WBA] Loan
Blerim Dzemaili [Bolton - Torino] Loan
Paul Gallagher [Blackburn - Plymouth] Loan
Ignacio Gonzalez [Valencia - Newcastle] Loan
Jonathan Grounds [Middlesbrough - Norwich] Loan
Julian Gray [Coventry - Fulham] Loan
Antoine Sibierski [Wigan - Norwich] Loan
Javan Vidal [Man City - Grimsby] Loan
Andriy Voronin [Liverpool - Hertha Berlin] Loan
Gabriel Zakuani [Fulham - Peterborough] Loan Kamil Zayette [Young Boys - Hull] Loan

The football rumor mill has been whirring away for months, and now the results are out. This bunch of football transfers is bound to shake things up. Whether that’s for better or worse remains to be seen, but I for one will be fascinated to see what effect so many football transfers has on the game.

Rated: from 2089 votes

flickr © jeffedoe

It would seem that while some football clubs in the premier league are going from strength to strength others aren’t fairing so well.  A case in point at the moment is Newcastle United Football Club which seems to be having difficulties with top management.  Sales of football kits (both home and away), football boots, season tickets and the likes may be on the up but player and supporter morale seem to be on the way down.

As the black and white adorned fans loitered outside St James Park this week sporting both new and old home and away kits, behind closed doors the emphasis didn’t seem to be on the sales of merchandise but the sales of players and more importantly what was going to happen to Kevin Keegan.

flickr © scartinho

Was he going to stay or was he going to go?  Did anyone know if he was going to stay or going to go?  The sports commentators and media circle joined in the scrum, surrounding themselves with a black and white throng of unhappy and distinctly enraged fans; whilst behind the scenes the once curly-haired Keegan remained tight-lipped.

Was it a clever marketing ploy though because sales of Newcastle United Football kits and shirts rose considerably as fans on the outside rallied to show their support.

Keegan, who has only been back at Newcastle Football Club for seven months, has been no stranger to controversy and indeed no stranger to venting his spleen towards club owner Mike Ashley. As the season kicks off and the fans adorn themselves with their new Newcastle United strips one can’t help but wonder just where the army is going to go next?  And, more importantly, who will lead them there?

Rated: from 2407 votes

© Adidas

England soccer fans can at least look forward to more of their stars making it out on to the pitch, provided the revolutionary visions of football boot manufacturers come true. Wayne Rooney, Steven Gerrard, David Beckham and Ashley Cole have all suffered the dreaded ‘broken metatarsal’ in recent years. It’s an injury often caused by players’ studs sticking in the turf. But snap-off studs are just one innovation likely to feature in the footie footwear of the future.

Expert Greg Lever O’Keefe reckons that, within the next decade, boots will be individually designed with fully customisable out soles that mirror the contours of each unique foot. He predicts that by the 2018 World Cup, sportswear shops will have running machines manned by experts able to assess factors like the exact load each part of the foot takes. Rapid manufacturing techniques will then deliver the fully bespoke footwear in minutes. Studs that can be tuned to help prevent metatarsal injury or designed to snap off under extreme rotational forces to alleviate knee injuries, would be just two cutting-edge options.

Meanwhile, Nike have been named top brand in this year’s International Football Boot Awards which recognise excellence in design, comfort, innovation and style. Nike’s Mercurial Vapor IV scored the honour for ‘Football Boot of the Year’, and Adidas’s Predator Power Swerve won the gong for ‘Most Comfortable Boot of the Year’.

Rated: from 2438 votes

Just how important are football boots: is it skill or do the boots maketh the man?

As children and young men we’ve all dreamed of having that powerhouse kick at stardom; blasting that football into the back of the net and slaying the opponents in the dying seconds of the game.

But how much of that is down to skill and determination and how much of it is down to the boots on the player’s feet?

© Nike

Football boots are the stuff of legend for some fans; those worn by the likes of George Best, David Beckham, Pele and Ronaldo may be unattainable but the fact that some of these legends have sponsored footwear that the ordinary man in the street can wear has spurred on many a Sunday morning league player.

It’s a comfort thing and football boots should be comfortable; they should fit the foot snuggly but not too tightly.  They should look the part and most of all protect the foot from the impact of that all important penalty kick.  Wearing a pair of football boots that your idol may have held up in front of a camera is one thing but knowing they’ve tried them for themselves – well that’s something else entirely.

Whether it be fifty pounds or a hundred and fifty pounds, there’s nothing quite like the feeling of stepping out onto the pitch – even if its the waterlogged one at your local park – and knowing that somewhere, at some point in time, your hero tested them before they were even put into production.  And let’s be honest, if its good enough for Beckham, Ronaldo and Co then those football boots have surely got to be good enough for you?

But just to be sure take the kids to the park at the weekend and kick a ball around and see just how much of a legend you feel in your favourite pair of boots?  If nothing else it can only bring out the big kid in you!

Rated: from 1674 votes