Cleat (shoe)

A cleat is an American term for a type of shoe

Shoe

A shoe is an item of footwear evolved at first to protect the human foot and later, additionally, as an item of decoration in itself. The foot contains more bones than any other single part of the body, and has evolved over hundreds of thousands of years in relation to vastly varied terrain and...

 designed especially for sports played on grass

Grass

Grasses, or more technically graminoids, are monocotyledonous, usually herbaceous plants with narrow leaves growing from the base. They include the "true grasses", of the Poaceae family, as well as the sedges and the rushes . The true grasses include cereals, bamboo and the grasses of lawns...

 or dirt, such as soccer

Football (soccer)

Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of eleven players using a spherical ball...

 or American football

American football

American football, known in the United States and Canada simply as football, and often as Gridiron or Tackle football outside North America, is a competitive team sport known for combining strategy with physical play. The objective of the game is to score points by advancing the ball into the...

. It may also refer to a type of shoe designed especially for, and only worn in, wet weather.

Unlike "spikes

Track shoe

Track spikes are shoes used at most track and field events. They are lightweight shoes with spikes screwed into their bottom, or spike plate, in order to maximize traction when running, throwing or jumping.- Design :...

" for sports such as track and field and golf, the shoes generally have large studs on the bottom to assist in gripping the surface, preventing sliding and assisting in rapid changes of direction.

A cleat is an American term for a type of shoe

Shoe

A shoe is an item of footwear evolved at first to protect the human foot and later, additionally, as an item of decoration in itself. The foot contains more bones than any other single part of the body, and has evolved over hundreds of thousands of years in relation to vastly varied terrain and...

 designed especially for sports played on grass

Grass

Grasses, or more technically graminoids, are monocotyledonous, usually herbaceous plants with narrow leaves growing from the base. They include the "true grasses", of the Poaceae family, as well as the sedges and the rushes . The true grasses include cereals, bamboo and the grasses of lawns...

 or dirt, such as soccer

Football (soccer)

Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of eleven players using a spherical ball...

 or American football

American football

American football, known in the United States and Canada simply as football, and often as Gridiron or Tackle football outside North America, is a competitive team sport known for combining strategy with physical play. The objective of the game is to score points by advancing the ball into the...

. It may also refer to a type of shoe designed especially for, and only worn in, wet weather.

Unlike "spikes

Track shoe

Track spikes are shoes used at most track and field events. They are lightweight shoes with spikes screwed into their bottom, or spike plate, in order to maximize traction when running, throwing or jumping.- Design :...

" for sports such as track and field and golf, the shoes generally have large studs on the bottom to assist in gripping the surface, preventing sliding and assisting in rapid changes of direction. The stud itself is often called a cleat. A metal or plastic piece that attaches to the bottom of a shoe is also called a cleat, especially a cycling shoe

Cycling shoe

Cycling shoes are shoes designed for cycling. They come in a variety of designs depending on the type and intensity of the cycling for which they are intended. Key features include: rigidity, for more-efficient transfer of power from the cyclist to the pedals; weight; a method of attaching the shoe...

 that interfaces with a clipless pedal system. Because of these studs or cleats, soccer cleats mainly (but any shoe with a large stud) have been banned to wear inside public buildings such as schools because they can damage floors.

In football (soccer), where the shoes themselves are known as football boots, there are three different cleat types. There are soft ground cleats which are made for wet weather. The soft ground cleats are always replaceable, and are almost always metal, so when they wear down they are easy to replace. There are firm ground cleats which are made for firm natural surfaces. Also there are hard ground cleats which are made for hard natural surfaces.

In the United States, College football

College football

College football is American football played by teams of student athletes fielded by American universities, colleges, and military academies. It was the venue through which American football first gained popularity in the United States...

 coach Joseph Pipal

Joseph Pipal

Joseph A. Pipal was an American college football and track & field coach. Pipal was credited with devising lateral pass and mud cleats for football shoes and in 1934 wrote a book titled The lateral pass technique and strategy. He died in 1955....

has been credited as one of the creators of "mud cleats" for football shoes.

The term originated before the manufacture of dedicated sports shoes, when sportsplayers would nail strips of leather to the soles of their ordinary shoes to assist with grip.