First socks, then your shoes. This is the conventional wisdom most people follow when getting dressed in the morning. If you’re a football player, however, you may find yourself slipping an extra pair of sock-like spats around the outside of your cleats before heading out for a game.
What’s the purpose of this compressive, cleat-covering cloth? Why do football players wear spats in the first place?
Let’s slide into the world of football cleat sleeves, uncover their purpose, and explore how they can elevate your game—and your swag—when you’re on the gridiron.
What Are Cleat Spats For?
Football cleat spats, also known as cleat sleeves, are just that: sleeves that slide over your shoes and up your legs. They’re used to:
- Protect your shoes from the elements and excessive wear
- Keep your cleats securely fastened to your feet
- Elevate your style and complete your outfit with complementary colors
Athletes use spats in a variety of sports—from baseball to soccer, basketball, competitive fighting, and beyond. Football spats, however, are unique to the gridiron and come in a variety of designs to suit the playing style of the game.
Types of Cleat Spats
When searching for spats to elevate your drip and enhance your performance on the field, you’ll notice there are three major kinds to choose from. The traditional trio of football spats includes:
- Low-cut – These rise slightly above your ankle to lock your laces in and provide support.
- High-cut – High-cut spats reach up your calves to compress and activate your muscles.
- Custom spats – Spats with custom colors, logos, and personalized designs show off your team spirit as you outpace the opposition.
Whether you decide on low-cut, high-cut, or custom spats, they’ll all serve the same function once you slip them over your cleats and hit the field.
The Key Reasons Football Players Wear Spats
Previously, football players applied multiple layers of athletic tape or turf tape to their shoes to support their ankles.1 These days, taping is often foregone in favor of cloth spats which offer more benefits to players.
Ankle Protection and Injury Prevention
Spats offer superior ankle stability over standard cleats alone and other forms of ankle support as well. In fact, recent studies compared them to three other common ways of wearing cleats2:
- On their own
- With braces
- Taped up
Spats were found to significantly decrease ankle movement in comparison to these other methods. But that doesn’t mean players couldn’t use their ankles to run, jump, and deke out the other team. Instead, reduced ankle movement lowers your chances of rolls, sprains, and other potentially sidelining injuries.2
Improved Cleat Durability
Cleats are costly. The longer you can prolong their life spans, the more you'll have to spend on other football gear to max out your style.
Spats give your cleats an added layer of protection in rough, dirty playing conditions. Unlike a shoe, which is difficult to clean and can be damaged by your washer, spats slip right off your cleats and can be laundered like normal clothing. This makes them the ultimate guard against mud, grass, dirt, and other debris that could muck up and damage your footwear.
Enhanced Stability and Performance
Quick movements on the field can lead to ankle rolling and twisting—which can, in turn, cause severe ankle sprains.3 Spats, however, reduce the possibility of injuring your ankles and enhance your on-field performance.
With the added confidence and security of spats, you’ll be able to make quick cuts, split-second directional changes, leaps, and more to secure the ball and show off your swagger.
Weatherproofing and Field Conditions
Spats add extra padding to keep you warm during rainy running plays and ice-cold fourth quarters. Since they stretch under your cleats, they also offer added traction in comparison to standard studs alone.
Similarly, the additional hold of spats can keep your cleats securely fastened to your feet when wet conditions cause everything (including your socks and shoes) to become slippery.
Style and Aesthetic Benefits of Wearing Spats
Besides the practical and performance benefits of spats, players also wear them for football drip purposes. For fashion-forward footballers, spats offer:
- A unique, recognizable flair to their kit
- A touch of color as, in many leagues, cleats must be predominantly black or white1
- The opportunity to change their aesthetic—even if it’s just their accessories—from game to game
When jerseys, pant colors, and more are decided for you, you’re left with only a few ways to customize your look. Spats offer this freedom, so players have been using them for things like:
Creating a Uniform Look
When every player on your squad wears matching cleat sleeves, it creates a sense of comradery, oneness, and intimidation (for the opposing team). It also allows you to identify your teammates at a glance—even if you’re hunched down at the line waiting for the center to snap the pigskin.
Making a Personal Style Statement
Spats are one of the only aspects of your jersey you have true control over. They’re your opportunity to express your character with custom colors, patterns, designs, logos, sayings, and more. In comparison to helmets, pads, pants, and other portions of your kit, they’re pretty much the only space for personalization.
Explore Battle Sports Football Spats—and Other Accessories—Today
Spats keep your ankles secure and supported, your cleats fresh and clean, and your personality out on full display. At Battle Sports, we’ve got the football cleat sleeves you need to enhance your performance and your style—plus a locker room full of other essential equipment.
From the stickiest football gloves in the game to the drippiest apparel you can wear streetside, our football gear is hotter than Travis Kelce’s 113-game streak with three or more receptions.4
Shop Battle Sports today to become the envy of your teammates and the scourge of your opponents.
Sources:
- Entertainment and Sports Programming Network. It’s All About Spats. https://www.espn.com/
- National Library of Medicine. Ankle Spatting Compared to Bracing or Taping during Maximal-Effort Sprint Drills. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Ankle & Foot Centers of America. Ankle Injuries in Sports. https://ankleandfootcenters.com/
- Microsoft Start. Travis Kelce Streak Snapped. https://www.msn.com/
