Advising Parents on Choosing the Right Cleat for Young Athletes

Another school sports season is upon us, and we may be getting asked in the hallway, in the lunch room, or any number of places —“Doc, what brand of cleats should I buy my 7-year-old for soccer?” For most podiatrists, we don’t necessarily have to treat kids to be asked for our opinion on cleats.  

To make matters more complicated, just Google “buying cleats.” There are thousands of websites, PDFs, and recommendations from coaches, organizations, leagues, shoe companies, and of course, from sports medicine providers out there. In general, I was impressed with the general thoughts, but the bias towards purchasing sport-specific cleats for an 8-year-old is simply ridiculous. Based on my experience, an 8-year-old who is playing soccer, lacrosse, and/or baseball simply doesn’t need 3 different cleats all because a coach says so.

As I previously stated in my June 2022 column, “Key Considerations in Treating Teenage Athletes,” youth sports have become big business.¹ Purchasing sports equipment has become a huge business for communities and a huge burden on parents, with children’s cleats costing up to $180, and adult cleats up to $350, in my observation. Thankfully, decent, affordable options exist. But I hear all the time from parents that the coach will recommend a specific brand or style that they favor.

If parents can figure out what size they need, I have found potential for significant savings online, with tremendous variety and better selection, especially if you want colorful styles, versus the limited selection at a neighborhood shoe store. Who doesn’t want to wear a pair of multi-colored, fluorescent, glow-in-the-dark cleats? Most kids under the age of 14 are rarely hunting for extra widths or sizes over 13–14 yet.  

Before we get to some of the issues with cleats, we really need to discuss some of the in and outs of cleat design and what makes a cleat good for football, soccer, or baseball. Believe it or not, I find that many youth soccer referees are trained on cleat design and routinely will not only inspect every player, but will disqualify players for wearing the wrong cleats. Conversely, youth football and baseball will usually allow soccer cleats. 

Finding the Right Football Cleats

Near and dear to my heart is football, so I will start with the football cleat. Hands down, I feel that football cleats offer children the most support of all cleats because they come in low-, mid- and high-top and tend to have more studs per cleat than the other sports, offering kids a very stable and sturdy design. The traditional studded all-purpose turf cleat is in my opinion the safest and most versatile design for children and young teenagers. It is important not to utilize the screw-in type cleat studs, as most Pop Warner and high schools forbid this style. Those types of studs are utilized in college and the NFL, changing the length of the stud depending on grass or artificial grass surfaces.   

Although the focus of this column is not clinical, the traditional studded cleat can be a source of heel pain and can aggravate Sever’s disease. Throughout my career, the majority of children who presented with symptomatic Sever’s all wore studded cleats. Most often they were 6- to 10-year-olds wearing cleats with only 2 heel studs versus the traditional 4 under the heel. It is critical that we advise parents to purchase a cleat that has 4 or more heel studs, which can help decrease the pressure focused under the plantar calcaneus. This is why I routinely recommend the all-purpose turf-style cleat for children and younger teenagers. Over the years, I find that simply switching the cleat from the 2-stud to the 4-stud or turf-style calms the Sever’s down. The all-purpose cleat has utility across any and all sports.

When using a traditional studded cleat, parents should avoid very narrow or spiked-style studs that may increase risk for injury of the athlete and their teammates. Chunky studs are better in this regard.

What makes football cleats different from soccer is that there is traditionally a distal stud that aids in pushing off. It is that “toe stud” that the soccer referees may look for, and it is that stud that makes football cleats so “dangerous.”

Football cleats are very easy to shop for. Whether it be Nike, Riddell, Under Armour, or Adidas, there are plenty of affordable options. Like most shoes today, sizing will vary.  

There is very little difference between a football and “lacrosse cleat.” So if you buy a lacrosse cleat, you simply will pay more, but the design, the cleat, and the functionality will be essentially the same as football cleats.

What to Look for in Soccer Cleats

The basic soccer cleat tends to be very low. The soccer companies like to boast that soccer cleats provide superior agility to other cleats. As a podiatrist, I say that they provide inferior stability for children who tend to have ligamentous laxity in the first place. Either way, the basic design is very low-cut and the cleat tends to be lightweight, frankly lacking support and padding. The cleat pattern tends to be very minimalist, having no more than 6–10 studs, usually irregularly shaped, and often very narrow versus the chunky football-style stud. Whether that is by design or for a specific reason, these cleats simply give kids far less traction; thus why we see professional soccer players slipping and sliding all the time. Ultimately, soccer cleats are hands-down the most expensive cleat by sport with majority of the adult cleats being well over $150, going as high as $300 for an off-the-shelf cleat.

Additionally, soccer cleats tend to center the heel studs directly under the calcaneus, which can aggravate Sever’s disease or promote generalized heel pain in any age player. I prefer the studs be as posterior as possible and as anterior to the calcaneal tubercle as possible.

The thing that truly sets soccer cleats apart is the sole of the shoe. It is often very thin and could be rather flexible or very rigid. For a child who needs additional support, it is critical to ensure that the soleplate is stable, but not too rigid, especially if your patient uses arch supports. If the soleplate is too flexible, your child may develop foot or leg pain.  

Sizing soccer cleats can be a huge hassle, because the majority of popular soccer cleat manufacturers are European so there is frankly no standardization amongst the manufacturers. So don’t think you can buy a Mitre 7 and expect Mizuno, Umbro, and Nike to all be the same fit.

Interestingly, I didn’t find it in any of my reviews of other sports, but a very common theme amongst the soccer community was to buy a half-size smaller soccer cleat? Really, I advocate more to buy slightly bigger and wear thicker socks so you can get more wear out of them before the kid outgrows them.

Pointers on Baseball Cleats     

Baseball cleats are clearly the oddest of all the cleats because of the shape and style of the cleats/spikes/studs. First of all, parents must confirm with the child’s league what type of cleats are allowed. Even today, there is a growing movement amongst high school and college sports to eliminate the use of metal spikes. Metal spikes are banned in most under-14 leagues. Metal spikes, simply based on their shape, are of course very dangerous during a slide into base and can injure an infielder or catcher trying to tag a sliding runner.

Like football cleats, baseball/softball cleats often have the toe stud that soccer often does not allow. It is unclear what the advantage is for a large flat, non-studded cleat, but many of the baseball and softball cleats feature this style. Again, be leery of heel spike position and most importantly avoid a cleat that only features two heel studs.  

Don’t get fooled: there is no difference in baseball, softball, or Tee-Ball cleats. Companies do advertise Tee-Ball-specific cleats that run over $50—for 6-year-olds. This is completely unnecessary.

Ins and Outs of Buying Turf Cleats

By far turf cleats are the most versatile cleats you can buy; thus I will promote amongst my patients. Be careful—turf cleats can be just as worthless as buying Tee-Ball cleats. You have to pay attention to the stud size and shape. Otherwise you are just buying a glorified golf shoe for soccer that won’t provide the traction that the child needs. The advantage of utilizing a multi-studded turf cleat is simply better support, better traction and less force per stud. These studs are usually no more than 1cm long and will protect the entire forefoot and heel. The studs cover every part of the foot and heel leaving a uniform pattern of studs, which can better distribute the weight-bearing forces.  

No referee can or should deny their use for any field sport. The only caveat is weather. Shorter studs will not provide much traction on a wet field, but how many 8-year-olds are playing on wet fields or playing in a rainstorm? Hopefully, none.   

Answering Questions on Cleat Selection

The problem is, do kids really need sport-specific cleats? I think once a teenager has progressed to a travel-caliber team, they do. For the local sports league, absolutely not. Parents and coaches must be practical and fiscally responsible.  

For many of you who have children playing sports, coach your child’s soccer team or volunteer to do sideline coverage, we all have to be the voice of reason. We have to weigh the cost of athletic footwear with functionality. You can’t play hockey without skates. We surely aren’t going to use figure skates for hockey. Well, we aren’t going to wear running shoes to play soccer, right? But kids often do because families simply can’t afford the exorbitant cost of buying sport-specific cleats.    

I encourage all of you to promote cleat recycling. Donate cleats to underprivileged areas in your town. Go to Goodwill and buy up every pair of cleats you can find. Create a donation bin in your hospital or clinic. Sponsor a child and outfit that child with equipment. Help your own patients, perhaps. Making a difference in a child’s first year of baseball can catapult them through years of fun and I find starting out with the right equipment helps with their self-esteem and confidence. Especially with the economy today, sports are a luxury for many families and will often be the first thing eliminated when a family is struggling.

Anything we can do to help our community will pay dividends going forward. It has for me. Nothing has given me more joy than treating children who have gone on to become Division I collegiate athletes. We must encourage children to try as many sports as possible and not let our own interest or bias sway kids towards, or worse, away from a specific sport.

A. Douglas Spitalny, DPM is a Staff Podiatrist at General Leonard Wood Army Hospital in Ft. Leonard Wood, MO.

Reference
1. Spitalny AD. Key considerations in treating teenage athletes. Podiatry Today. 2022; 35(6):20–22.