Inequality for female rugby players as 89 per cent have discomfort from boots

Eighty-nine per cent of female rugby players who took part in a new study experience pain or discomfort from the boots they’re wearing.

With the Women’s Rugby World Cup currently taking place in England – including games at Sandy Park in Exeter – new research from the University of Exeter, in partnership with IDA Sports and backed by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), found many female athletes still face inequality in footwear, which can lead to injuries.

The findings have been used to develop the first ever soft ground boot specifically for female players. The boot is built for women’s foot form and structure, and its first iteration was tested during the Women’s Six Nations earlier this year. Feedback from the trial has been used to finetune the fit and comfort of the boot for the World Cup.

Associate Professor Sharon Dixon of the University of Exeter Medical School led the research and said: “For the first time, we’ve put the needs of female athletes at the forefront of boot design. Until recently, research on studded football and rugby boots focused on male players, resulting in designs being based on optimising performance and minimising injury risk for men. We’ve focused on the requirements for female players and used biomechanical testing and 3D foot scanning to design the first ever soft ground boot specifically for women.”

Over the last three years, nearly 1,000 detailed 3D foot scans have been collected from amateur and professional players from Premiership Women’s Rugby, the National Women’s Soccer League and top English professional leagues. Alongside foot scanning, 330 rugby players across all levels of the sport were surveyed, including participation from eight of the nine Premiership teams.

The survey data concluded that 78 per cent of female rugby players listed comfort as a top priority when selecting footwear, yet 89 per cent experience pain or discomfort in the boots they are wearing. Specifically, 45 per cent of pain and discomfort was identified under the first metatarsal (big toe), a primary location for a stud on standard, non-female specific boots. Other top priorities included fit (68 per cent), price (62 per cent) and traction (60 per cent).

Abby Middlebrooke plays for Exeter Chiefs and is studying Exercise and Sport Sciences at the University of Exeter. Abby took part in the survey and said: “Most boots I try don’t fit me and are quite uncomfortable. You know from the minute you step onto the pitch for the warm-up if your boots are going to be comfy or not and it definitely has a negative impact on your performance. Inside a female changing room we’re constantly taking out or putting in studs just to try and make a boot practical and a lot of the girls are having to see foot specialists just from running around in a way that’s injuring them. So, research like this is really important to try and understand what boots we need to try and prevent those injuries.”

In both the 2022-23 and 2023-24 Premiership Women’s Rugby seasons, the highest percentage of injuries occurred in the knee and ankle and were primarily ligamental injuries, according to the Women’s Rugby Injury Surveillance and Prevention Project led by Dr Sean Williams. Through research and product development, IDA aims to address this issue with their soft ground boot.

Laura Youngson, co-founder and CEO of IDA Sports, said: “On the heels of the Lionesses’ Euros win and attention turning to the 2025 Women’s Rugby World Cup in England, we are excited to release the findings of our many years of research and development, which illustrate inequities that women athletes face when it comes to footwear.

“Since 2018 it has been IDA’s mission to address the bias and create world-class, high-quality boots for female athletes of all ages and skill levels. We hope that the findings of this study will not only draw attention to the impactful data, but that more brands will invest in the women athletes as we have proudly done over the last seven years.”

Additional data analysis is ongoing with the University of Exeter, with complete research papers on the study to be published at a later date.