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Craig Johnstone
Craig Johnston Interview
Andy Greeves
The adidas Predator is widely considered to be one of the greatest advancements in football equipment technology. The boot, currently worn by the likes of Steven Gerrard, David Beckham, Robin Van Persie and Michael Ballack, comes from humble beginnings though, as Soccerphile's Andy Greeves finds out from its creator - former Middlesbrough and Liverpool star Craig Johnston.
Craig Johnston can be considered an innovator in many ways. At the age of just 15, he wrote a letter to every football league side in England to get a trial and just months later signed for the only club who replied - Middlesbrough FC. In doing so, he became one of the very first overseas players to join an English club and is widely regarded as the first Australian footballer to make a major impact in European football.
He signed for Liverpool in 1981 and won every trophy imaginable - five league titles, two League Cups, one European Cup and one FA Cup. Not content with being one of the forefathers of the great overseas invasion of English football that occurred decades later, Johnston embarked on a number of major projects that would chance the global game for the better after his retirement in 1988.
It was in the role as a kids football coach in Australia one day in the early 1990's that the idea of a new football boot dawned on him.
"I was teaching the kids how to cross one day," Johnston recalls. "I was telling them to swerve the ball as they were sending it in to the box to make it more difficult for the defender to deal with and better for the attacker to score. I told the kids to think of a table tennis bat and the way you angle it over a ball to swerve and get back spin on it. One of the kids said, ‘that's fine Mr Johnston, but our boots are made of leather.
"My brain kicked into gear. I went home and ripped the rubber off a table tennis bat, got elastic bands and put it on my football boots. I went outside and kicked a ball in the rain and it squealed as the rubber engaged with the ball and swerved exactly as I wanted it to. I knew I had a great idea.
"I spent a fortune and between three and four years developing patents for the boot before a sports manufacture finally purchased the idea from me. All the top brands knocked me back but I perserved and took my idea some former pros who worked for adidas - Franz Beckenbar and Karl-Heinze Rumminger and asked them to test it. I filmed them give their feedback in German, then I took that tape to some top individuals at adidas. They said there and then they wanted the idea.
"I initially called the boot the 'Supa Boot'. The name Predator came from a brain storming session between myself and some marketers at adidas in Denmark. We all put names on to a black board and someone said Predator. I instantly loved that name. As we were looking to bring the product to the market, the boot needed and identity and a personality and that name was a strong title to spread the word.
"I also developed a product called the 'Headator' and the common sense of the product was undeniable. It was a headband covered in the type of material on the predator boot, which was designed to give the player protection and greater control. If you collide head on ball or skull on skull with another layer, you are doing so without protection. The power in which players collide with one another… having something like the Headator could give you a physiological advantage going into a challenge as you are less worried about getting injured. And the protection the rubber gives you can also reduce the seriousness of head to head, or elbow to head injuries.
"Before a League Cup Final one year, The Sun ran an April Fools Day feature with Neil Ruddock wearing the Headator and saying he was going to use it in the final. I couldn't believe that my serious market proposition had slipped through a PR company somewhere in Europe to be ridiculed. I thought then and still to this day feel the Headator has great relevance and that kind of coverage made a mockery of something that could make a positive difference to professional athletes.
"Having worked for and with adidas for a number of years, I gained a really good understanding of the evolution of football boots and the kind of advancement that was needed to make them even better. I came up with the idea for the PIG or the Patented Interactive Grip.
"The Predator was revolutionary as you were moving away from the use of leather to rubber. The PIG was even more revolutionary as it used rubber spikes. We also applied rubber strips in the exact opposite places as the Predator. That was after scientific tests showed that rubber was a successful material for doing what we wanted it do. In contrast to what we had initially thought though, the best place to put the rubber was not on the so-called 'sweet spots' where you hit to ball but actually on the areas actually perceived to be less active. The areas between these 'sweet spots' are actually where most swerve and purchase is produced.
"I've recently developed a sole system which helps to produce metatarsal injuries. The problem with modern boots is that in many instances, the player is too well protected. Their foot is so tightly packed and held in one position, that there is now allowance for movement. The fact there is no give in either the studs or boot material is why so many metatarsal injuries are happening. The pitches are not so giving these days either, especially when you have a synthetic weaving in the grass, as is the case with a number of surfaces. When a player decides to turn at speed, these is when we have problems as the pressure is so great on the foot, something has to give. Invariably this is a bone."
Life after retirement from football is a difficult time for your average player, who often struggles to find an occupation to fulfil them in same way. There's no danger of that for Craig Johnston though, who continues to come up with ideas to change the future of the beautiful game for all the right reasons.
© Andy Greeves & Soccerphile.com
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