You can get an affordable kid’s pair of soccer cleats for $15 or splash out $400 for a version that automatically extends its studs for better purchase on slick ground. If you make $17 million a year, such as Real Madrid’s Cristiano Ronaldo, a lavish Nike contract induces you to wear pistachio green Mercurial Vapor Super Fly cleats televised around the world. If you’re a journeyman player wearing what you love, it could be Adidas’s all-time bestseller, the Copa Mundial in basic black. Essential components make up soccer cleats no matter how humble or exalted their pedigree.
Evolution
In the early years of league soccer, in 1880s England, players wore high-cut boots that provided ankle support and reinforced toes to kick the ball. Brazilian players by the 1940s wore lighter, low-cut shoes that allowed all parts of the foot and ankle to caress the ball more gently for tremendous control. In the 1950s, teams such as London’s Arsenal returned from matches in Brazil with word of lighter cleats that permitted track meet speed. In 1954, German shoe giant Adidas outfitted Germany's World Cup-winning team with the new-style cleats, and the modern shoe became standard.
Outsole
The bottom of the cleats, technically called the outsole, is a rigid single piece of polyurethane or carbon fiber, typically with four studs in the heel, and seven or eight in the forefoot and arch region. A top end cleat such as the Mercurial Vapor may feature more elaborate gripping technology, in this case six studs flanked by small blades to give purchase on a grass field. Adidas’ high-end Adizero cleats priced at just less than $200 in February 2010, worn by Barcelona’s Lionel Messi, feature triangular studs. Diadora’s affordable $85 Maracana cleat has studs shaped like sharks’ teeth. The Copa Mundial 12 studs are all simple conical shapes.
Uppers
The uppers of soccer cleats, the flexible material designed to hug the sides and top of the foot, are cemented and sometimes riveted to the outsole. More affordable shoes feature cow leather, and more expensive ones, softer kangaroo leather or thin synthetic microfibers. The laces can be centered, off-center, visible or partially hidden in a recessed area of the top of the upper. A half-century of black shoes have given way to a vibrant rainbow of color and customization options, including logos, initials and slogans available by special order from leading manufacturers. Stitching patterns on the uppers vary and affect how the ball responds when you try to add spin.
Insoles
The material that comes in contact with the bottom of your foot within the shoe is called a sockliner. High-end shoes come with an ultralight sockliner and an optional insert comfort sockliner. Middle-range shoes have a removable or fixed foam insole.
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