Testing Soccer Cleats Designed to Reduce ACL Tears

Abstract

One of the most common lower extremity injuries in soccer are ACL tears which have a long recovery time of 6-13 months and have a high risk of reinjury. The majority of ACL tears are non-contact and the mechanism behind them has been explained to be related to landing flatfooted. This provides an opportunity for engineers to design cleats to reduce the risk of these injuries. The company HBN shoes designed a soccer cleat aimed at reducing ACL tears by increasing the flexibility of the cleat around the metatarsophalangeal joint. The idea behind this is that increased flexibility at this joint will decrease landing flat-footed while running, reducing injury risk. This study evaluated the ability of the shoe to decrease flat-foot running and flatfooted landing while passing the ball using Fscan pressure sensors and GoPro cameras. For the majority of the participants in the study, the HBN cleats had a reduced peak heel force during running compared to the test cleats. When passing the ball wearing the HBN cleats, the majority of participants had a lower percentage of the planting step in a flat-footed position compared to the control cleats. This indicates that the HBN cleats could be effective in reducing flat-footed running and landing in athletes.