Footballers praise study looking at women's boots

Female footballers have praised a study which is looking at whether boots designed for women can reduce injuries.

Several leading sport brands have been releasing boots made specifically for women by catering to their feet, something that MPs had challenged manufacturers for neglecting.

The University of Essex (UoE) and Brunel University of London are assessing whether they actually work, by testing the difference in motion, weight distribution, and muscle activity while being worn.

Charlotte Kellett, who plays for Essex side Hashtag United, said it was "amazing" to know the research was happening.

The 26-year-old striker, from Colchester, is enduring almost two years on the sidelines after tearing her anterior cruciate ligament (ACL), her medial collateral ligament and her meniscus.

After her first ACL tear in 2017, she wrote a 35,000-word research paper on the topic as part of her studies in the United States.

She said it had taken 20 years to find a pair that "didn't hurt my feet".

In her experience, women often bought men's boots that ended up being "too wide" and felt "like your foot's moving in them".

In 2023, more than 80% of players from the top European leagues reported suffering regular discomfort because of their football boots.

Kellett, who is a teacher, pointed to other studies that showed how women were disproportionately affected by injuries, especially in the days leading to their periods.

"We become more lax at certain times in our cycles, and we're way more susceptible to injuries," she said.

"Unlike men, we don't move our hips properly, we don't open our hips.

"[We're] designed to have children and then we're asking our bodies to compete at such a high level.

"When I did [my ACL] the first time, there was not a lot of research to be honest. But now it's massive."

Kellett paid more than £10,000 to be treated privately and said the injuries could be more devastating for women who waited on the NHS.

Ellie Moore has also suffered multiple injuries, playing less than 12 months of football over a three-year period.

The Hashtag midfielder, from Langdon Hills near Basildon, suffered an ACL injury three years ago, and a meniscus tear on both knees at the start of the 2025-26 season.

"Every time I've had a big injury to my knee I've always been on my period, so I think that definitely has a big part to play," said the 20-year-old.

Moore said the injuries had affected her job, where she coaches children after school.

Hashtag United's first team compete in the National League Southern Premier Division - the third tier of women's football - and play home games at Parkside in Aveley.

The research is a collaboration between Dr Carla Harkness-Armstrong and Dr Alice Harkness-Armstrong, testing the claim made by top brands that wearing these boots can help reduce injury risk for players.

Alice said: "Whilst these claims make sense in theory, importantly we don't have any evidence to support this."

Carla also told BBC Essex presenter Ben Fryer: "Although [regular boots] are advertised as unisex, they've historically been designed around male foot anatomy, and we know that the morphology of the female foot is different, that the make-up of the foot is different, and so boots haven't been adequately designed for us as athletes."

Boots were just "one piece of the puzzle" in order to address injuries in the women's game, she added.

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