The first record of a pair of football boots appears in 1526 in a list from King Henry VIII's Great Wardrobe which suggests he was not short of a few boots: "45 velvet pairs and 1 leather pair for football". His football boots were made by his personal shoemaker, Cornelius Johnson in 1525 at a cost of 4 shillings (about £100 in today's money). They were made of strong leather, ankle high and heavier than the normal shoe of the day... Nike Mercurial V FG on sale which position Henry played, we shall never know.

Moving forward to the Victorian period, football was gaining in popularity throughout Britain. Teams represented local factories or villages and players would wear their hard, leather work-boots, which were long-laced and often steel toe-capped. Despite the foundation of several football boot producers in the early twentieth century, Nike Mercurial V FG including Gola (1905), Valsport (1920) and Hummel (1923), these heavy boots, with protection for the ankle, remained the standard style of boot in northern Europe for many years simply because players had to endure endless muddy winter pitches.

A lighter boot, without ankle protection and resembling a studded shoe, became popular in southern Europe and South America where pitches were generally harder and less muddy. Nike Tiempo Legend IV Elite FG Soccer Cleats - White/Metallic Gold The 1960s saw this lighter, more flexible football boot being thrust onto the world stage. The ball skills and technical ability of the players amazed those that watched them, and football boot production shifted to producing this lighter football boot with the focus on kicking and controlling the ball rather than simply producing a piece of protective footwear.

The earliest football boots had metal tacks hammered into them to increase ground grip and stability. With the foundation of the Football Association in 1863, rules were introduced that banned any kind of projection on the soles or heels of football boots but in 1891 the rules were revised to allow studs, so long as they were made of leather, Nike Tiempo Legend IV Elite FG Soccer Cleats - White/Green were rounded, did not project more than half an inch and had their fastenings driven in.

These leather studs were originally hammered into the boots on a semi-permanent basis and players would have several pairs of boots with different length studs. The earliest replaceable studs were made in Germany, at brothers Adolf and Rudolf Dassler's Schuhfabrik (Shoe Factory) in Herzogenaurach, in 1925. Nike Tiempo Legend IV Elite FG Soccer Cleats - White/Blue Their boots had 6 or 7 nailed studs, which could be changed according to the weather conditions of play. The early 1950s saw the introduction of the screw-in plastic/ metal studs.

Football boots were available only in black originally, but in more recent years many more colours have become available in various colours such as red, white, yellow, silver and, famously, gold. The scale of the football boot industry today is vast, with companies vying for sales. Looking at a website like [http://www.justsoccca.com], you can see today's boots are incomparable to those early workmen's boots.

Names such as the Total 90 and Mercurial Vapors (Nike), the Predator range and F. 50. 8 TUNiT (Adidas), the V1. 08 (Puma) and the X-Boot range (Umbro) aim to set each brand apart in a crowded market, with Adidas tending to focus its brand on technology and class in their boots, whilst Umbro has a strong association with the England team, for whom it produces equipment to add to the endorsement deals with John Terry and Michael Owen. I wonder what King Henry VIII would have made of it all... but more importantly which boots would he have worn?

Just Socca are one of the UK's leading specialist retailers of football boots, goalkeeper gloves, training equipment, base layer and team wear from major brands including Nike, adidas, Puma, Reebok and Under Armour. Permission is granted to publish this article electronically provided that a working hyperlink remains to our website.