Every sprint, turn and sudden stop on a football pitch depends partly on the small studs beneath a player’s boots. Their design has changed considerably since the early days of the game, moving from nailed leather blocks to replaceable studs and modern moulded traction systems.

Early football boots were heavy, ankle-high leather footwear rather than the lightweight shoes worn today. To improve grip on wet and muddy pitches, bootmakers attached leather studs to the thick soles with nails. Adidas records show that the Dassler brothers were producing leather football boots with nailed studs by 1925.These studs provided useful traction, but they had several disadvantages. They wore down, absorbed water and could loosen from the sole. Repeatedly replacing them also weakened the leather. More importantly, a fixed set of studs could not be adapted when the condition of the pitch changed.

The development of removable studs solved this problem, although their invention is more complicated than is often suggested. Screw-in studs are closely associated with Adi Dassler and West Germany’s victory in the 1954 World Cup final. However, the German Patent and Trade Mark Office records that master shoemaker Alexander Salot applied for a patent for replaceable football studs in August 1949. His system used threaded fittings in the sole, allowing studs of different shapes and lengths to be fitted according to the condition of the pitch. The patent was granted in 1951. Earlier experiments with removable studs may also have existed, although the surviving evidence is less definite.

Dassler’s major contribution was to develop lightweight football boots with a practical interchangeable stud system and demonstrate their value at the highest level of the game. During the 1954 World Cup final in Bern, heavy rain left the pitch wet and soft. The West German players could change their studs to suit the conditions, giving them a practical advantage as the surface deteriorated. They recovered from two goals down to defeat Hungary 3–2 in what became known as the “Miracle of Bern”. The victory brought worldwide attention to adidas and helped establish replaceable studs as an important development in football footwear.

It is sometimes claimed that the studs used in 1954 were stainless steel, but there is not enough reliable evidence to state this as fact. Contemporary screw-in systems used metal fittings in the sole, while the replaceable stud itself could be made from leather, rubber or other materials. The significant innovation was the ability to alter the length of the studs, rather than the use of stainless steel.

Metal remained important in the threaded fittings and supporting structure of many replaceable stud systems. It offered the strength needed to hold the stud securely while resisting the forces created as a player accelerated, turned or tackled. Football regulations specifically recognised screw-in studs with metal seating, provided that the metal fitting was safely embedded within the sole. One of the clearest documented uses of stainless steel came decades later with the original Nike Mercurial, developed for Brazilian striker Ronaldo Nazário before the 1998 World Cup. Nike designed the Mercurial as a lightweight speed boot at a time when most professional football boots were still made primarily from leather. It used a synthetic upper and stainless-steel studs, producing a boot that was light, visually distinctive and suited to Ronaldo’s fast, direct style of play. Nike identifies the stainless-steel studs as one of the boot’s principal engineering features. Stainless steel was well suited to the job. It offered high strength, resisted corrosion from wet grass and mud, and allowed relatively slim studs to cope with repeated high loads. It was not necessarily the lightest possible material, but it provided a useful combination of rigidity, durability and weather resistance.

Modern football boots still use metal studs, particularly on soft natural grass, but stainless steel is no longer the obvious first choice. Aluminium is now widely used for replaceable studs because it provides adequate strength at a lower weight. Adidas, for example, currently describes its screw-in replacement studs as being made from lightweight aluminium. Most firm-ground boots now use moulded plastic studs formed as part of a lightweight soleplate. These may be conical, bladed or chevron-shaped and are positioned to control grip during acceleration, braking and changes of direction. On wet or muddy natural grass, players can still use longer metal or plastic studs, often in a mixed configuration combining replaceable metal studs with moulded plastic ones.

Metal studs have therefore not disappeared from football. They remain useful on soft ground, where their narrow shape and additional length allow them to penetrate the surface. They are generally unsuitable for artificial pitches, where the wrong footwear can damage the playing surface or create excessive grip. The correct choice depends on the pitch, the weather and the competition’s safety requirements.

The history of the football stud is not a simple progression from leather to stainless steel and then plastic. Different materials have been used alongside one another, each selected for a particular purpose. Leather provided the earliest practical grip, screw-in fittings allowed players to adapt to changing pitches, stainless steel delivered strength and corrosion resistance, and aluminium and modern polymers reduced weight. Stainless steel may never have dominated football boot production, but it played a notable part in the development of high-performance footwear. Most famously, it helped Nike create the Mercurial worn by Ronaldo at the 1998 World Cup - a boot that influenced how modern football footwear looked, felt and performed.

At DSM Stainless Products, we cannot promise that stainless steel will improve your finishing, passing or penalty-taking. We can, however, supply durable stainless-steel products that are far less likely to let you down when conditions become difficult.

For more stainless steel sports stories on our website have a look at these past articles: