Soccer Shoes
A No-Slip Solution

Your Child Should Have Soccer Shoes

A bold statement. Let me qualify that assertion.

First of all, as I stated on the Equipment for Soccer Page, soccer cleats or shoes are not a requirement of FIFA. I recommend them because I have seen some bad spills on wet grass and muddy fields.

Tennis shoes simply don’t get the job done when your child is playing in less than perfect conditions.

Trust me. Your child will play on some very wet and muddy fields. Well, unless you are playing indoor soccer.

Of course you should refer to the local soccer league rules. They may require soccer cleats.

Second, my approach to this is as a frugal parent. I know you can't believe it but it's true.

You can’t play soccer in baseball cleats but you can play baseball in soccer cleats.

This is what I have done in the past with my son & what I recommend for U8 or younger players.

(Actually if you don’t mind cutting on a shoe you can make a baseball cleat acceptable by cutting off the toe cleat.)

Below are two picures.

The picture on the left is of soccer shoes and the one on the right is of baseball shoes. You can see the missing toe cleat on the soccer cleats.

Hopefully by the U10 or U12 level your child will be over the baseball fetish & will devote his/her time completely to soccer. Right?

A good pair of soccer cleats IS important, but not critical. After all, soccer is about using your foot, right? You should purchase a good, solid pair of shoes. Soccer cleats or shoes are also designed to give a person better feel and control of the ball whereas tennis shoes frequently have bulky laces and tongues.

As equipment for soccer goes, cleats can be relatively expensive. Check your local discount stores first (or use my soccer clearance page). There is no need to buy the best soccer shoes until your child can wear them for more than one year OR unless they will be getting serious use out of them on a travel team.

Here is a buying guide for soccer cleats.

If you want to window shop some nice, name-brand soccer cleats I advise starting with Soccer.com's Clearance Area before going to their footwear store.

Here is another good online source for shoes, sometimes cheaper than Soccer.com. You can shop TheSportsAuthority.com for footwear here!

Last, but certainly not least, is the online auction site, eBay!

So that you can see what eBay has to offer, I have put below current search results for "soccer shoes".