Soccer Cleats Buyer's Guide
Plain and simple, the most important piece of gear for a soccer player is the shoe. Goalies have their gloves, but if you're on the pitch in any other position then all you need is a great pair of shoes. They keep your feet in the game with a combination of materials to give you plenty of grip on the run and protection in those scrums for the ball.
Many of the leading manufacturers enhance their shoes with exclusive technologies to help you play the game more effectively, but whether or not you feel like those elements actually contribute to the way you play the game is entirely up to you. While most of these cool sounding elements are marketing tools to get you to buy, there are certain fundamental components you must consider before you make your purchase. This guide is going to help you navigate through all of that confusion.
Men's and Women's Soccer Cleats
While the major manufacturers offer apparel lines built for the masculine and feminine foot separately, sizing, fit and comfort is important regardless of whether you're looking for a men's or women's shoe.
Sizing
The rule of thumb to making sure you have the right fit for your shoe is to keep it snug on your foot. Toes shouldn't be jammed up against the front of it, there has to be a little bit of wiggle room. A little space between the heel of your foot and the back of the shoe is also important. If the shoe is too tight or too loose it's going to affect the way you play, and no amount of breaking a shoe in if it doesn't fit right the first time is going to help. Width is also a crucial component to sizing, everyone has different size feet and shoe manufacturers offer different shoes that cater to wider or slimmer feet.
Comfort and Fit
Fit concerns the size of the shoe and how much room you have for your foot inside of it. Is the shoe snug or does it afford a little bit of movement? Comfort is how the shoe feels on your foot when you're in the game. Do you have enough touch on the ball? How does it perform when you're running?
Youth Soccer Cleats
With kids' shoes the same issues of sizing, fit, and comfort are even more important because like adults, children need to be comfortable in their shoes. However, there's the additional consideration of growth. If you have a youngster who's especially passionate about the game, you don't want to have to buy new shoes every season just because your future All-Star's feet have grown.
Buying the right shoe is going to take a little bit of research so they can grow into the shoe future while making sure it still fits well enough in the present when they’re playing. A good option is to go with a leather upper which will stretch some as it breaks in, affording a little extra growing room to extend the use of the shoe.
Soccer Cleat Components
Uppers
This is the portion of the shoe that covers the foot and makes contact with the ball during game play. The upper is usually made of a natural or synthetic leather material and each type of upper has distinct advantages that offer comfort, touch, and durability.
Not all materials are created equally of course, so you must determine what you're looking for the most in your upper. Fit, performance, strength, are all factors in selecting the right kind of upper and you have more than a few to choose from.
Leather Upper
here are three types of leather material almost all soccer shoies are manufactured with including calf-skin, kangaroo and Pittards; all have varying degrees of softness, durability, and moisture retention. The Pittards leather material can only be found on Puma shoes but the others are used in most every brand. Break-in times and techniques will vary with each type of leather.
Synthetic Options
There are also synthetic leather choices designed to look, feel, and respond like leather but you lose a little bit where touch is concerned. The same goes for synthetic fabric or material which is usually much thinner and while it might not give you as much protection for your foot, these can be more comfortable to wear.
Outsoles
The outsole is the actual cleat; it refers to the bottom of the shoe making contact with the surface of the ground. As with uppers, there are plenty of styles from which to choose. Making this choice can be a little bit more straightforward knowing the type of surface area you plan to play on, mainly boils down to whether you’re playing an indoor or outdoor game.
Indoor
Indoor shoes are pretty self-explanatory and you've narrowed the field down drastically with these types of shoes. Sure, there are still a wide variety of styles and brands to choose from, but you are dealing with a common rubber sole that is flat instead of a selection of cleated outsoles.
Outdoor
The cleated shoe is for the outdoor game. This is where things can get just a bit complicated as you're looking at four possible choices of sole-plate when choosing the right shoe. Soccer cleats come in firm, soft, and hard ground types of constructed studs.
Firm ground studs
are the most commonly purchased shoe and are designed for natural grass and dirt fields. The stud configuration is built for traction and control.
Soft ground cleats
are meant for routinely wet or soft soil surfaces and, because of the flexibility of many professional stadium surfaces, the superstars of the sport tend to prefer these types of shoes. There are often fewer studs and those are usually removable.
Hard ground cleats
are suited for artificial turf and hard-packed natural surfaces and these types of shoes will often have a large collection of shorter, round studs to enable comfortable movement on unforgiving terrain.
Turf Shoes
are usually made of a hard rubber sole-plate that resembles the closely spaced knob design of the hard cleat shoe. They're built for grip and versatility on hard or artificial surfaces and consumers will need to decide which of the shoes will fit their situation best. They are similar, but one will perform better than the other in specific instances.
Try Before You Buy
There's nothing worse than a pair of ill-fitting shoes on the pitch. The likelihood of trial and error through the mail could prove more of a headache than going to your local store and taking a test run in a few pairs first. Obviously, you're going to want to try on a few pairs of shoes and actually feel them on your feet and walk around in them first even if you’re planning on making a purchase online.