As the women’s game continues to gather momentum in the football space, its fashion is still very much trailing behind. I ask why men are treated to bold colourways and designer collabs whilst women are left in the dust with ill fitting, uninspired studs.
Alessia Russo broke records in the 2022 Euros where, at the 68th minute, she scored England’s third goal against Sweden with an elegantly daring back-heel shot, unbelievably through Sweden keeper Hedvig Lindahl’s legs.
With mainstream media watching the ball’s speed and direction and FIFA nominating the goal for the coveted Puskás award, female fans watched in wonder from the stands, and their screens, at Russo’s neon green personalised Adidas x SPEEDPORTAL boots.
They were bright, cool and strikingly different. A green boot with purple accents was exciting, mouth-watering even, to starved female players who watched the men’s game announce designer collaborations and limited editions whilst they had the demanding decision between pink and white.
Lillian Stockwell, 19, plays in the women’s team for AFC Tickton in East Yorkshire and has always had an interest in the women’s game. She said: “I’ve been playing football for ten years now and there was a massive boost in recognition after the Euros, but it feels like it’s on the decline again.
“It’s like when women aren’t winning the national championships people forget we exist in the game, there are still so many leagues and clubs for people to support.”
When it comes to her own games, she still feels a sense of defeat when it comes to recognition:
“It’s just become a natural part of the game to not be able to find boots. There’s definitely more improvement on how comfy they are but it’s hard to find ones that don’t all look the same. I usually wear Adidas, because they seem to do loads of colours nowadays. Adidas and Nike are doing more female collaborations but there’s still a gap with other names.
“If I was to dream up a boot I’d love a black and amber one for the [Hull City] Tigers. A girl can dream!”
Some big brands are starting to up their game, with Nike releasing their rather dreamy Nike United collection this year, in collaboration with multiple female players including Chelsea pair Lauren James and Naomi Girma. As great as a sleek lilac boot is, there’s one simple thing big names could be doing that would make waves in the industry.
Lillian continued: “Most of all, big brands just listening would make the biggest difference. I feel like women in the game just aren’t listened to as much. We want the collaborations and graphics that men get, as well as ones more tailored to women, and not just really girly design and bubblegum pink.”
However, there is a brand out there that actively calls out for women’s input. Australian boot manufacturer Ida is a female led company, constantly working on the feedback from their customers in surveys and focus groups. Their cleats are not only made with womens feet in mind, but considering their style dreams too.
Emelia Funnell is the Product Research and Development Lead at Ida and alongside overseeing the technical build of an Ida boot, gathers consumer insights around colour and designs.
“I think it’s interesting how football is now bridging into fashion a lot more. Full caveat, my background’s sports science and engineering. I’m not a fashionista, but I do work a lot with our designers and developers, and we talk about this a lot. I think from the fashion point of view and from that kind of the graphics and catering towards women, it’s definitely lacking.”
From Ida’s perspective, big brands struggle to bridge across from women’s comfort to womens fashion when it comes to boots.
“You can actually develop women’s boots that have designs and graphics that are more catered towards the feminine side of things. Not necessarily just feminine, but that whole feminine but fierce kind of mantra.”
Ida took the “feminine but fierce” mantra and ran brilliantly with it last October, releasing a limited edition Breast Self Pack cleat to raise awareness for breast cancer. Whilst being a pink and white shoe, typical of female boots, Ida took this and twisted it by adding a design of hand-drawn boobs to the soleplate.
“In the US, we recognised that October is a big month for breast health awareness and we thought that would be kind of an interesting moment to show up for.
We didn’t necessarily want to make a pink boot because for so long, we’ve been kind of anti shrink it and pink it so we were like what can we do? And we said, ‘let’s just put some boobs on it’.”
This project specifically emphasised the significance of not only listening to a female audience, but having a woman’s voice in the design room. Emelia said: “Having that female voice is pretty important. At the beginning, we’re just gonna put all the same boobs and aesthetically, it looked nice, but then I kind of recognized, this is for breast health awareness and breast cancer, and we need some we need to create more diverse boobs here.
“We did work with a heavily male design and development team, they’re like an agency, and we’re all pretty much women now. We kind of balance out a little bit, which is good. But if they’ve just kind of done it without us, then you could have not had that voice saying diversify!”
Ida is still however a young brand and is constantly trying to balance creating an iconic, recognisable brand for consumers, and producing what their customers want. Whilst some are happy with a simple white shoe, others are hungry for the outrageous yet thoughtful designs that many brands just aren’t providing.
Emelia said: “We’re still talking about what is our Ida brand, what does that look like, and how do you pick up an Ida cleat? We are trying to do it a lot whilst appealing to that feminine design as well.
“We survey a lot across the year, and we’ll ask younger players things around colour preferences, monitoring reviews, and just what people are buying as well. Definitely always speaking with female athletes.
“We’ve got one that’s going to be released where we developed it with players, and asked them what do they want to champion in the sport, what message do they want to convey to young players. Just hearing kind of what they appreciate and like about a boot, I think is quite important as well.”
So, to the dominating boot brands of the industry, the growing world of female football urges you to constructively listen. Why not test a neon green colourway, a striped black and amber design, or put boobs on a boot – it might just pay off. We love the beautiful game, so stop giving us boring boots. Take risks, ask questions and, for the love of Alessia Russo, please rethink the pink.
Featured image via Wikimedia Commons
