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Have you ever wondered why your football boots can be painful to wear? Why bruised toes and taping are part of the norm? Why as soon as one blister disappears another bigger, badder one bursts through to replace it?

The answer is simple - your boots were made for boys and men - and there is growing concern that wearing the wrong boots may be doing more damage than you realise.

Across the world, women are tearing their ACLs at five times the rate of their male counterparts, and there is growing evidence to suggest wearing the wrong footwear can be a factor.

A man’s foot is structurally different from a woman’s. Research shows that women have different lower-limb biomechanics compared to men, meaning that they run differently and have distinct injury patterns. They also have a different gait pattern.

When playing sports, wearing ill-fitting boots causes the heel to slip inside the shoe, leading to instability and blisters. The wrong boot for your feet can significantly increase the risk of foot and lower limb injuries, making it harder and more uncomfortable to play.

Women have long been expected to wear men’s boots, or squeeze into plastic boots made for kids, when their feet are a completely different shape and suffered the painful consequences.

Until now.

An Australian company called Ida Sports has launched their first football boot designed by a woman, for women.

The brainchild of founder Laura Youngson, a double world record holder and leading advocate for gender equality in sport, Ida Sports is a Melbourne startup dedicated to empowering women in sport. 

“As a committed amateur who has played around the world, I was pretty fed up having to buy boots that didn't fit me properly," she said. "It turns out I wasn’t the only one."

Laura has built an impressive group of podiatrists, biomechanists and physios that have worked on the design.

Former triathlete and podiatrist at Victoria Harbour Podiatry, Eleisha Lilley, stressed the need for a specifically designed football boot for women. She commented: "60% of the ACL injuries we’ve seen this year (in the AFLW) would have been in incorrect boots. Women are getting bigger and stronger, and are relying more on their boots to perform at their best."

Those to get a first look at the new boots are a group of their most passionate supporters - including some of the most powerful people in Australian football such as Perth Glory defender Natasha Rigby, Melbourne Victory's Gulcan Koca, former US national team and Canberra United player Lori Lindsay and FIFA Committee Member Moya Dodd.

“It's great to see Ida sports investing in research that is specific to women's sporting needs," said Moya, a staunch supporter of Women in Football.

"We know women's bodies and biomechanics are different, and they change in different ways over the course of our lives. Having boots made for our bodies is an important part of making sport more safe, accessible and inclusive.”

However, boots are just the first step for Ida Sports. Laura wanted to create a company that places women and diversity in leadership from the very beginning.

"This is about creating a company that actually listens to women and helps them be the best they can be, both on and off the pitch," she added.

To find out more about Ida Sports please click on the link here.

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