Special Issue: Enhancing performance and protection of soccer shoes

The performance-enhancing benefits of proper traction became international news during the 1954 Soccer World Cup. The so-called ‘Das Wunder von Bern’ (the Miracle of Berne) occurred when Germany defeated heavily favored Hungary. The game was played on a muddy pitch in heavy rain, and the upset is generally regarded as due, in part, to the German's new innovative soccer boots. For the first time, their shoes featured removable studs that allowed the players to use longer cleats which provided better grip in those slippery conditions.

This story illustrates the potent role that proper traction plays in soccer performance. Generations of scientists and engineers have manipulated cleat and sole designs to gain more traction and to enhance player performance. There are several articles in this issue which demonstrate state-of-the-art efforts to find the best cleat design and to optimize cleat and stud layout and dimensions. This includes an analysis of the latest blade-type designs as well as other new concepts which will no doubt find their way onto the feet of players at this year's World Cup. Players at this level demand the maximum in performance from their footwear. But maximizing performance also has the potential to put athletes at a higher risk of injury.

Strategies that bring traction to the maximum level required but not beyond are intended to minimize injury potential and enhance safety. Optimization strategies such as this, as well as regionalizing traction requirements in various regions of the outsole, are also part of the science which goes into the design of today's top-end soccer shoes. The common threads of these design and engineering strategies are woven into much of the work presented here.

No one questions the performance enhancing benefits of cleats on natural turf, but the introduction of artificial turf in international play has brought up questions of how best to optimize cleat design for enhanced performance and safety on these relatively new surfaces.

The influence of artificial surfaces and all of the other important questions mentioned above are addressed in this special issue dedicated entirely to soccer footwear science. In these pages, our readers will see how science is used specify the requirements for various players and surfaces and to enhance the performance and protection of soccer shoes.

For further examples of Footwear Science's contributions to this area of investigation, you need only turn to our last issue where John Wannop, Geng Luo and Darren Stefanyshyn at the University of Calgary showed how cleat wear can significantly affect traction properties (Wannop et al. 2009). Also, in our inaugural issue, there was a research article demonstrating the considerable effects of various aspects of soccer shoe design on performance over Functional Traction Courses on different surfaces (Sterzing et al. 2009). Finally, the proceedings of last summer's Footwear Biomechanics Symposium in South Africa contained no fewer than ten papers that touched on cleated shoe performance and safety issues (Stefanyshyn et al. 2009).