How many pairs of football boots is too many?
I say you can never have too many. Growing up, I was never really into anything other than football and footwear. All I wanted to do was play football and buy new football boots and runners.
Image from soccercleats101.com
I remember begging my dad to buy me the latest Nike R9 Mercurial or the newest Adidas Predator mania. Back then football boots were very expensive, as they still are now today. So I didn't always get my way. I saw my big sister was making money from babysitting, and I decided I wanted a piece of that pie! So I began minding kids and saving up to feed my little boot addiction. I remember buying the Champagne Predator mania after a few weeks of saving and they were my pride and joy. I took such pride in the boots that I wore, cleaning them in the garden after every game, to keep them looking and smelling good (I have some boot cleaning tips here if you want to find the best way to clean your boots - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLX5twTO9DjsLSeYKAprmbDPhboJhBtjbz )
It wasn't always that easy, and over time, my boots would become old, worn and of course smelly (way beyond my boot cleaning skills). I never left it too long before I bought another pair - giving my older pairs to the local charity shops. My friends would always talk about my boots and how I always had a fresh new pair.
Picture by Matt Gordon
A few years on I joined Instagram and I started posting pictures of my football boots (as if people wanted to see). Instagram was quite new, I didn't really have many followers or anything just old school friends and stuff. To my surprise, my followers began to grow. People seemed to want me to share more about my football boots, or to share my opinions on them. Soon enough, I hit 1 thousand followers, all boot heads and football lovers just like me. I then decided I would buy more football boots and instead of getting rid of my old ones, I started to keep them.
After some months of me posting pictures of me playing football, I was contacted by a huge company called Pro:Direct Soccer, (who I was a big fan of) who wanted to send me something for me to test and review. I will never forget the excitement. This company had hundreds of thousands of followers and they followed me. That was just the start!! I began to be contacted by companies who wanted to send me football boots to test and review, for me to share my opinions on my social media pages.
At this stage, my following started to grow much bigger now, I was near 10,000, and I was getting noticed by Sport retailers & other boots brands too.
I knew I was onto something here. The fact that me, a girl from Ireland, posting about my hobby and passion, attracted so many people, it blew my mind. I enjoyed posting online and I loved the fact that the content that I was creating was so interesting for other people around the world who share the same passion. I met so many amazing people too.
Years of buying football boots had suddenly started to pay off. I was getting the latest releases sent out to me for free (nothing is free though). People use to asked me how I was so lucky to get all this stuff for free, not realizing the years, money and effort I put in to make this happen. I never planned this, I just wanted to post boot pics and connect with others.
Getting free boots was great, but again, you have to put in work. Companies want you to share your opinions and pretty shots of the latest colorway's. This is incredibly time consuming. You've got to plan, you need good weather most of the time (which is hard to get in Ireland), you need a good camera and accessories, another set of hands wouldn't go a miss either. So, getting "free" boots is not actually free. It is work. Work that I thoroughly enjoyed. It seemed like a dream, young Me would have been proud of.
I cut down on buying my own boots, unless of course I found an epic bargain I could not pass, or gifts for others. I was collaborating with Adidas, New Balance, Puma, Concave and other retailers too. Which kept me very busy. Right now I have 70+ pairs, much to the annoyance of my other half. Ops.
Sometimes I wonder how many pairs I would have had today if I didn't give so many away. But it is nice to know I am giving to a good cause. I have donated to fundraisers, done many giveaways, gifted pairs to kids who I want to help inspire, heck I even gave my local postman a pair for his son after he was questioning why I was getting so many shoes boxes delivered regularly LOL.
One piece of advice I would give to anyone is - If you love something, don't be afraid to let everyone know! You may be surprised at who wants to hear about it.
Check out my YouTube video below to see my full collection - don't forget to let me know your favorite pair!
Thanks for reading,
Noelle aka. The Football Boot Queen
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