The Boot Room A-Z of football boot brands

Usually the lack of new posts on here have been due to real life getting in the way however this time it’s been a case of a NEW life preventing me from updating the blog. Just over 2 weeks ago our second child was born (a boy) and so a lot of my time has been spent dealing with dirty nappies and sleepless nights. I’ve sometimes been using the numerous ‘interruptions’ to my sleeps  to think of possible blog-post topics. The other night I tried to find a football boot brand (either past or present) for every letter of the alphabet but there are some that are proving a little elusive to me. Hopefully you guys can help – please feel free to make suggestions in the comments below.

A – adidas, asics, Admiral, Arrow (thanks to @dazmundo919), Aspero

B – Brooks, Bata (courtesy of Giles Metcalfe), Brine, Bikkembergs (via Miro)

C – Converse, Cica, Cruyff (thanks to FCE), Concave 

D – Diadora, Dunlop (courtesy of @conmeister82)

E – Errea ( via @Bantr )

F – Fila

G – Gola

H – Hi-Tec, Hummel

I – Inter

J – Joma

K – Kappa, Kipsta (thanks to Luca), Kelme

L – Lotto, Ligne 7, Lanzera, Le Coq Sportif

M – Mitre, Mizuno

N – Nike, New Balance, Nomis, Nokia (thanks again to Giles Metcalfe)

O – Olympic (courtesy of @jessey83 )

P – Puma, Patrick, Pony (courtesy of @conmeister82), Power, Pantofola d’oro (thanks to @nathan_morris), Penalty (thanks to Chris), Pele Sports (thanks to Ed), Pirma

Q – Quaser, Quick (thanks to FCE)

R – Reebok, Ryal (thanks to FCE), Rucanor (thanks to FCE)

S – Sondico (courtesy of @Cedric_Sneer),  Slazenger  and Stylo Matchmakers (via Giles Metcalfe), Specs (thanks to Digsy)

T – Topper (via @darthadibious), Tepa ( via Luca)

U – Uhlsport, Umbro (via @nathan_morris) , Under Armour (thanks to @nathan_morris)

V – Valsport

W – Warrior, Winfield Hotspur (thanks to Giles Metcalfe)

X – Xara (via @Hunt_Daddy)

Y – Y-3 (thanks to @paddock5 for this link showing the boots to prove it!)

Z – Zygo (massive thanks to@Box_to_Box) , Zapkam (thanks to Lucid)

From the archive – Part 8: Brooks Vicenza

Once again we’re having to start a new post with an apology… Sorry for the lack of updates recently but unfortunately real life and work have got in the way. Hopefully now though things have settled down a tad and we’ll be back to updating this site a little more regularly.

Anyway enough of lame excuses and apologies let’s get on with this post. These boots were meant to offer Brooks a real breakthrough into the lucrative football market. Brooks had been and continue to be a serious player in the running shoe market. In an attempt to really grab the attention of the boot buying public Brooks signed up the then Spurs and England star Paul Gascoigne to be the face of Brooks football boots. Gazza was hot property at the time and signing him up to wear Brooks was a major coup. The top of the range boot worn and endorsed by Gazza was the Vicenza (and not the Vincenza as suggested by the Sportsshoes Unlimited ad below). A predominantly black boot it featured orange and purple accents. As can be seen in the Gazza boots competition clipping from an old Shoot magazine these splashes of colour were considered wild and eye-catching but they look pretty tame compared to some of todays colourways. The Brooks boots also featured an unusual stud configuration on their screw-in versions. Many screw-in boots of the time had the traditional 6 stud configuration (2 rear, 4 forefoot) – indeed many boots still do today – but These Brooks boots featured 8 studs (3 rear, 5 forefoot). We’ve tried to track down images of the moulded version of these boots but so far our search has proved fruitless.

We’re also pretty sure that Brooks had other players on their books at this time and for some reason Lee Dixon and Perry Groves spring to mind but we can’t find any pics to back this up.

Vintage Nike football boot ads

Whilst clearing out the loft recently we found a box full of old (mostly mid 1980′s) Shoot and Match magazines. The task of sorting out the loft was soon replaced with the task of browsing through each and every one! We soon found ourselves reminiscing over adverts for old boots, trainers, kits  and even goalkeepers gloves!

Obviously we’re not going to keep all these goodies to ourselves – we want to share them with you guys and over the coming days or weeks we’ll be featuring some of them on here. Unfortunately our scanner was playing up so you’ll have to make do with these photo’s instead. Anyway, first up is this collection of Nike adverts – enjoy!

 

6 of the best vintage football shirts on eBay right now

In a bit of a deviation from our normal subject matter of vintage football boots we thought we’d highlight a few of the vintage football shirt gems on eBay right now. We at The Boot Room love vintage shirts almost as much as vintage boots. We regularly trawl through the numerous listings hoping to spot a poorly listed bargain or to track down our favourite shirts from years gone by. Anyway, here are 6 of the best shirts on eBay right now:

1. Vintage Umbro Scotland Home shirt circa 1982-1985 Mens Large – £54.99

 

2. Vintage admiral Match Worn Saudi Arabia Shirt - £150 Buy It Now

 

3. Vintage adidas Malaysia shirt 1989 – £59.99 Buy It Now or Best Offer

 

4. 1982/83 Sampdoria away shirt – £159.95 Buy It Now

 

5. Vintage adidas Real Madrid away shirt – Zanussi sponsor – current bid £25.57

 

6. adidas Flamengo home shirt 1990/92 – Mens 42/44″ – £79.99 Buy It Now or Best Offer

Best of luck if you decide to bid!

 

From the archive – Part 7: adidas Milano

As regular readers of this blog may know we used to have an image gallery/repository based website hosted by the now defunct fotopic.net . When the aforementioned hosting company went belly up we like many other users lost access to hundreds of images that we’d collected over the years. Thankfully, a few months ago we received an email out of the blue stating that we were  going to be able to regain access to the files that we had posted on our old site and that we had resigned to never seeing again. These images of the adidas Milano moulded stud boots were previously posted on our old site but hopefully they are new to some visitors of this blog.

The stand out features of these boots are the hi-viz green stripes and sole unit that contrast so well with the black leather upper. Here at The Boot Room we are big fans of any boots that feature the hi-viz or dayglo branding. The other feature that really stands out on these boots is the very plain one piece toe box. As you can see from the pictures below the leather looks super soft and we’re sure that these would have provided superb ball feel but we can’t help thinking how plain and almost unfinished these boots look. These boots also feature the 18 studded FIFA approved moulded stud sole unit used on many adidas boots of this era.

 

 

Ebay gem #5 – Mizuno RunBird Atacante moulded

These very rare RunBird (Mizuno) Atacante boots have appeared on eBay a few times now and we’re constantly amazed that no-one has bought them yet – maybe it’s just because they are a size UK6.5 but these stunning boots would surely grace any collection.

These boots are so rare that we can’t recall ever seeing any of these before either in the flesh or in print. They are in fantastic condition and come complete with the original hangtags and the original box. The boots are clearly unworn and the leather used on the upper looks to be top quality – not surprising from Mizuno. These feature the 13 studded DualTechno moulded sole unit that Mizuno have used on their top end boots for years and continue to do so today on boots such as the Morelia.

Having not seen these boots before it’s hard to date them accurately but they must have been produced after 1983 as this was the first year of production for Mizuno RunBird athletic shoes.  Mizuno was actually founded by Rihachi Mizuno and his younger brother Rizo in 1906 but the RunBird name didn’t come into use until 1981. Mizuno’s athletic division have been using the RunBird logo since 1983  when it replaced the  ’M’ logo to more clearly distinguish Mizuno’s from the 3stripes used by adidas. The RunBird was supposedly created to communicate speed, agility, and strength.

The mint colourway used on these boots is reminiscent of the range of boots that Mizuno produced for Careca whilst he was playing for Napoli between 1987 and 1993. We’ve trawled through numerous pics of Careca wearing Mizuno boots around this time in the hope of finding him wearing  something similar but sadly not many of the pics show his choice of footwear that clearly and so we’re still no closer to the answer of when they boots were released.

One of the best things that can be said about these boots is that they still look like they could be used today and that they wouldn’t look out of place or dated alongside some of today’s more ‘traditional’ styles. They are available now on eBay for the bargain price of £69.99 Buy It Now

The full listing can be found here

 

Best of luck bidding!

6 of the best vintage football boots on eBay right now – Part 2

With this weekend being a free insertion weekend on eBay we thought that today would be a good time to take a trawl through the popular auction site. Whenever these free listing promotions are featured on the eBay the number of items listed always shoots up. A quick scan of the site has delivered these fine examples of bygone boots! Enjoy, click through to the auction and place a bid if you like them enough. A quick disclaimer though – none of these boots are anything to do with us here at The Boot Room.

1. Puma Maradona Hero – UK10 £150 Buy It Now

 2. adidas Leeds – UK6.5 £69.95 Buy It Now

3. adidas Everton – UK10 starting bid £89.00

4. Converse Cons – UK6.5 £35.00 Buy It Now

5. Nike Hotspur – UK11.5 starting bid £39.00

6. Puma Kempes Rosario – UK5.5 £79.99 Buy It Now (Best Offer available)

 

Best of luck bidding!