How we pick

Most gear sites describe a testing process. We are not going to, because we do not have one, and pretending otherwise would be the easiest claim on this site for anyone to falsify. Here is what we genuinely do instead.

What we do

Start from real questions, organized by level

Every page on this site exists because parents actually search for it. We harvested real search queries rather than writing from a product catalog, and we organize every recommendation around the child’s age and level — because that is how the decision actually works. A size 3 ball is right for a U8 and wrong for a U10, and no amount of spec comparison surfaces that.

That structure is the site: six gear-by-level pages cutting across six gear categories.

Read the manufacturer’s published specifications

For every product we list, we read what the manufacturer says about it — the upper material, the plate and surface rating, the bladder type, the construction. When we repeat one of those claims, we attribute it to the manufacturer rather than presenting it as an independent finding, because that is what it is.

Verify each product is currently sold

All 62 products in our registry were confirmed as real, currently-available models at build time by checking manufacturer and retailer listings. Nothing was recalled from memory, and nothing was copied from a competitor’s roundup. The verification URLs are cited on the pages that use each product.

Check how the sizing behaves on a growing foot

This is the part that matters most for our reader and gets the least attention elsewhere. Does a line run narrow or wide? Does it run short? Does going up a size fix a width problem — it does not — and what should you do instead? Those questions decide whether a cleat works for a child, and they are answerable from how each brand builds its lasts.

Say who a product is NOT for

Every product entry names at least one real limitation, drawn from the published specs or the product’s own description. A recommendation with no downside reads as an advert, and it is less useful — knowing that a cleat runs narrow is exactly what a parent with a wide-footed kid needs to hear.

Cite external facts to sources we fetched

Ball sizes, field dimensions, safety guidance, medical context — all cited to a real source retrieved at build time, listed at the bottom of the page that uses it. If a source could not be retrieved, the claim was cut rather than softened into a vague assertion.

What we do NOT do

Stated plainly rather than buried, because these are the limits of what this site is:

• We do not lab-test or field-test products. We have not worn, kicked, dived in or measured anything on this site. Where a page describes how something performs, it is describing what the construction is designed to do, not a result we produced.
• We do not publish star ratings or review scores. We hold no aggregate review data of our own, so a number out of ten would be an opinion dressed as a measurement. There are no ratings anywhere on this site, and none in our structured data either.
• We do not publish testimonials. We have no reviews of our own business, so there is no testimonials section on any page.
• We do not publish prices we cannot verify. We hold no live pricing, so every buy button opens the current retailer listing rather than quoting a number that would be out of date. Our price data file is dated September 27, 2026. If that ever changes, prices will appear with an “as of” date attached and will disappear automatically once they go stale.
• We do not accept free products in exchange for coverage.
• We do not let commission rates decide the ranking. The pick that is right for the child wins. See our affiliate disclosure for how the site is funded.
• We do not invent search-volume claims. You will not find “thousands of parents search for this” anywhere, because we have no volume data.

Why this is the position rather than a disclaimer

A new publisher has two options. It can imitate the established sites — invent a testing narrative, publish scores, fill in a price — and hope nobody checks. Or it can be specific about what it actually knows and useful within those limits.

We think the second is both more honest and more useful. The genuine expertise on offer here is organizational: knowing that a U8 needs a size 3 ball and a U10 needs a size 4, that cleats should be bought with a thumb’s width and never a size up, that heel pain in an eight-to-fourteen-year-old soccer player is often a growth-plate issue worth seeing a doctor about. That is real, checkable, and it is what a parent in a hurry actually needs.

How pages get updated

Each page carries a visible published and last-updated date. We re-check product availability and sizing guidance on a rolling basis, and a page that recommends something no longer sold gets fixed rather than quietly left. Our editorial policy covers the cadence and how we handle corrections.

Found something wrong?

Tell us and we will fix it. Corrections are genuinely welcome — a product that has been discontinued, a size chart that has changed, a league rule we have described wrongly. Email contact@cleatandcone.com or use the contact form.

Written by Ryder M..