ALL ABOUT STUDS (part 1)

This picture alone tells the story of one of the longest scientific opinion conflict when we speak about studded football shoes. Whats more efficient? Rounded stud or Bladed studs. This ever unresolved question rolled us for a long debate which, (can you believe?) lasted 50 years.

The first battle saw the victory of the Rounded studs Era. Here in picture, the last piece of art developed with an accurate eye of Adolf Dassler, the founder.

The second Battle defeated the Round studs and gave birth to the blade studs era from 1996 to 2010.

Some brands could not decide wether Round or Blades was the right answer. They implemented both of them in an hybrid functional manner: soft and firm ground. Lotto zhero gravity.

Ah The blades: if you are coming from another planet, and see Bladed shoes, you might imagine a sport where movements are generally made in a lateral motion, a bit like a Crossfit specialty on grass only......


But Football/Soccer is everything but only lateral motion. This is this functional context that Harald, Jürgen and I started to question in 2008.

Looking for a way to accelerate the game, I did a converged study in between soccer and track and field sprint discipline.

We looked at the stud placement in forefoot that compromise the two sports. from an exo-sourced document, some of you might recognize.

Once the position fixed, we declared the acceleration the cutting and the breaking zones. I analyzed the zones according to these two maps obtained from another exo-sourced document, in Google Patent, from the Mizuno stud study made available for all.

A new generation of stud is born, semi round at the top and triangular at the base for an increased 3 directional traxion pattern. 

In orange are the studs and shapes, fruits of our research, Adidas The Dassler Project,  the best ever recorded traxion at Adidas in history. 

In yellow is the modified pattern and shaped studs that characterize the new era of triangular studs at Adidas, the F50 limit launched in 2010.  no more Rounds, no more Blades.....but Deltas.

We kept our focus in improving the delta franchise with medical support in order to create in 2014, the Zonic system introduced the year of the world cup in Brazil and still implemented in 2015 in Messi's signature shoe and the late X Chaos line

I spotted different aficionados of the delta studs. I would love to hear or read what decided these 7 brands to opt for the deltas. Unfortunately the information is not public. But I can certify it, all of them came out after 2011.

Harald G, Harry K, Jürgen W, Stefan S, marco M, Dirk M, Helmut H, Bob K, Martin L, Jamal N Volker S, and few others became the devoted makers of the third generation of studs that are proven to reduce athletes injuries.

Sometimes, when I wonder why I am doing this job, this article looks like a good reminder.