Your first boots

[whuru]

heres one for the older players and managers, can you remember your first pair of boots ?

Mine were from woolworths and were black with an orange flash with white moulded soles and made by winfield !!!! after 3 games they turned up at the end like aladdins shoes !!!!!!!!

[cornishteddyboy]

My booties were knitted by my granny and kept my toes all snuggly and warm :P

[Mike C]

Anyone remember Botra boots?

Like wearing a pair of rounded rockets!

[The General]

Power White flah size 1!

I was some player then!

[r_and_l]

My first pair where hitec strikers! quality boots scored shedloads of goals in them!! :P

[gillo10]

QUASER!! Gary Lineker also wore them, though he did have more success than me. There was a comic where the main striker also wore them, he was superb though I cannot remember his name.

[CoachKT]

This brings back some memories, I remember those winfield boots from woolies, but my first pair were 'Gola' boots.

I think everyone used to have mouldies in those days (we're talking 35 - 40 years ago), only the rich kids or those who were the best in the school team would have screw ins....my first par of screw ins were Adidas Penarol, although who remembers the George Best boots that were dark red with laces up the side (like Nike boots are today) or the White ones that were worn by Alan Ball and then Alan Hinton of Derby County.

Weren't so many top brands around then, but all the top European players wore Adidas and all the South Americans wore Puma, then the Italians all started wearing Diadora and 'Pony' boots came over from the States (think they sponsored West Ham for a while).

Then Kevin Keegan started a craze for 'Patrick' and Brian Robson likewise for 'New Balance', the danes introduced 'Hummel', we had 'Le Coq Sportif', from France and the Italians had gone from Diadora to Lotto.

Best ever boots are still:

Mouldies: Adidas Mundial

Screw- ins: Adidas World Cup or Puma Kings

Forget blades....Always thought they have been rubbish and dangerous (apart from 'Adidas Predator')

[Guest mariner]

Puma Gazza's :thumbsup:

[Guest stealth]

ADDIDAS PRO 3000'S

[Guest town man]

My first boots were SIMLAMS. Black with orange flash, mouldies from Mike Hodges. Circa 1977. Then graduated to POWER SIERRAS I think. Or were they trainers?? Not sure.

[oldasitgets]

We used to have a range of sizes on the street where we lived but they didn't have a maker's name.

When you grew out of a pair, you'd pass them on to the next child. Half a crown was the going rate. ( 2s 6d, now worth 12 1/2P.)

The boots then were all the same. Tough brown leather, above the ankles with a hard, round toecap (You mustn't dubbin it, as it'll go soft!). There was a thick leather band that wrapped round between the toecap and the laceholes.

The laces were white and had to be done up with the top layer going straight across from one side to the other. This was so that if you broke a bone, the hospital could just slice up the centre of the laces to remove the boot. (Obviously.)

The studs were leather, circular with three nails. Always 6. Of course everyone had one of those foot shaped metal things for putting the boot on to replace the studs. If you had old studs, the leather would wear away and leave three nails sticking out. They were quite useful for aggressive play.

The boots lasted for ever. You'd dry them out after the game and lag them with dubbin. (Not the toecap - remember!).

I do remember one of my University mates turning up with a pair in 1969 - long after they'd disappeared from normal use. He played centre back and none of the poofy forwards would want to go near him! He also "did" goalkeepers by using the toecap to shoot with. They just couldn't read the shot. If I could find a pair I'd use them. Loads of support, protection and a bit of clog behind the tackle.

Stanley Matthews, in the late 50s brought out the first change, probably that century. His boots were lighter and lower at the top, just above the ankle. They still had the toecap, leather studs and the leather band but they were much lighter and were black with a white stripe where the laceholes went. You had to be quite posh to get a pair.

The footballs then were also quite different to today's. But that's another story.

[Guest plonker]

my first boots was patrick :c:

[Guest mariner]

We used to have a range of sizes on the street where we lived but they didn't have a maker's name.

That cobbler is still going in Crowntown aint he bill lol

[Tommy Matthews]

The first pair I can remember wearing when I was a kid in primary school were Adidas Brazil. They were moulded soles and looked like a fore runner to today's most worn Copa Mundial.

I wore practically every make of top brand boots during my time with the exception of Hi-Tech and finished my last 6 seasons with Diadora studs and moulded which seemed to fit absolutely perfectly.

I now wear Copa Mundial, Nike Tiempo studs, and I've also got a pair of Hummel 4.2 moulded which are really comfortable but have stretched a little and are quite wide fitting.

[telithowitis]

The first pair I rememeber wearing were "Stylo Matchmakers" from Mike Hodges, mid 1970's.

Black with a white flash horizontal just below the lace holes.

Also purchased the same time were some of those tie up numbers that looked like a small flag at the top of your socks.

Magic.

[Mark Jones]

Gola and they were very uncomfortable.

[whuru]

I remember those numbered flags on socks i think leeds started the craze for them and nearly all the school football kits were the same no matter what plain colour, (red, blue, green) it always went with a white collar

[Rhondda]

Thanks bill, brought back some memories.

I remember those boots well. And the socks? all wool, get them wet, and they would double in size every 2 minutes... Even if you tied them up...

Ahhh... .the days of sepia.....

[Guest geachy1]

mine were a make called arrows

[Guest mariner]

mine were a make called arrows

I remember those bud :thumbsup:

[nephew]

Mitre scirroco were my first boots. Use to wear them round the house and everywhere. Thought i was the top dog when i wore them in my first game at beacon junior school. I dont think we scored a goal because the other school had a big boy at the back with this mass of ginger hair. i think they called him Fraggels.

[rovers08]

My first boots were a pair of black and yellow Dunlop (from tesco's i think) i loved them top draw plastic!!! split and me parents got me some Puma mouldys black and yellow again!!!!

any1 remember the pros like Rush and alike use to split boot at the heel to stop ach injuries! i did it was well popular at home & then pros started cutting foot part away from sock and wearing trainny socks for more comfort..yea did that to and got another clip round the ear!!!

[truros mr mourinho]

This brings back some memories, I remember those winfield boots from woolies, but my first pair were 'Gola' boots.

I think everyone used to have mouldies in those days (we're talking 35 - 40 years ago), only the rich kids or those who were the best in the school team would have screw ins....my first par of screw ins were Adidas Penarol, although who remembers the George Best boots that were dark red with laces up the side (like Nike boots are today) or the White ones that were worn by Alan Ball and then Alan Hinton of Derby County.

Weren't so many top brands around then, but all the top European players wore Adidas and all the South Americans wore Puma, then the Italians all started wearing Diadora and 'Pony' boots came over from the States (think they sponsored West Ham for a while).

Then Kevin Keegan started a craze for 'Patrick' and Brian Robson likewise for 'New Balance', the danes introduced 'Hummel', we had 'Le Coq Sportif', from France and the Italians had gone from Diadora to Lotto.

Best ever boots are still:

Mouldies: Adidas Mundial

Screw- ins: Adidas World Cup or Puma Kings

Forget blades....Always thought they have been rubbish and dangerous (apart from 'Adidas Predator')

heah i had a pair of george best boots,bought them second hand from the p.t. teacher for 1/6d. then i would have scored in my bare feet haaa :thumbsup:

[telithowitis]

WHURU

Those numbers tags they were numbers 1-11 only. You are dead right started by Leeds. Nice vinyl sort of material, well retro.

How time change!!!

Just had another thought

Who used to dubbin their boots.

Can't get my lad to clean his these days..!

[Tom Trust]

My first pair were bought 2nd hand off the boy next door, a lad named Chris Ettridge who was the actor who played Constable Deadman in "Goodnight Sweetheart". I don't know what make they were. They were just as Oldasitgets describes - this was in the mid-1950s - and I remember wondering what to do with the miles of laces until Chris showed me how to wrap them round several times before tying them! Lads in Junior school all wore them, nail-in studs and all, and those nails were a b*****d when the leather wore down: but kids still wore them, and a gashed shin was just part of toughening up (today they'd call the police and social services!). The smell of dubbin is one of those olfactory memories that never leaves you. A few years later in Grammar School, where we only played rugby - a class thing in the London suburbs in those days: only lads in Secondary Modern Schools played football and they didn't play rugby - I bought the first pair of moulded sole boots in the school. Make unknown, but they had thirteen studs each! Younger boys would run up to me if they saw me carrying them across the playground to the gym, just to see the thirteen studs. Such street cred!

How many out there ever had a cut eyebrow or forehead from the lace on the ball? What would Elf and Safety say?

But we were happy then...

[Speedy Gonzales]

lazers

[Magic Mike]

dunlop mouldies from woolworths!!!

they were the dogs

my mate steve did remind me of some stylo insteps, they had the spinning bit on the bottom and believe besty used to wear them, apparently they were a horrible plastic type m,aterial and if you wore them on a cold day they always spilt!!

[Guest eightyeight]

My first pair of boots were from a sports shop in St Ives and they were the legendary ' Buktas ' and were

£12.99 :lol: