A nine-year-old footie-mad girl has started a campaign for sports stores to label football boots as unisex. It comes after Summer Hoofe made a video for social media slamming Sports Direct for labelling boots for boys.
The schoolgirl, from Bolton, has started with a TikTok video and hopes to force a change across the sector. Summer says it's unfair that boots are marked for boys.
Sports Direct said it was "committed to updating" the labelling.
Summer told the M.E.N: "It’s annoying that whenever I get new boots they always say boys on them. It’s not fair because lots of girls play football too, they shouldn’t say they are for boys, why are they boys' boots?
"It shouldn’t matter what colour or make they are, they should say unisex or just kids boots. Girls' feet are no different to boys' feet, feet are just feet aren’t they, they are all different shapes and boys' boots are no different to girls' boots, but you can’t even find any in Sports Direct that even say girls on them."
Summer, a pupil at Claypool Primary School in Horwich, is a keen footballer who plays for Wigan Junior Latics Blues boys team on a Saturday, Tiki Taka girls team on a Sunday and also plays for Bolton Futsal Club. She lives with parents Charlene and Mark and is the youngest of six siblings - she has three brothers, Blayden, 20, Toby 14, Ewan 12, and two sisters Rubie, 18, and Fearne, 17.
Charlene said: "She only started playing football two years ago and futsal four months ago, but she absolutely loves it and constantly has a ball at her feet. She’s following in her big sister Rubie's footsteps as she’s an avid footballer too. Summer is a massive Liverpool FC fan and she also loves Manchester United Women and Blackburn Rovers Women too."
She added: "Summer said all shops, not just Sports Direct, shouldn’t be being sexist and should all change what it says on their boots that are for kids. She may only be nine, but she really wants them to change this, she’s a very outspoken child and let’s her feeling be known."
A Sports Direct spokesperson said: “Sports Direct’s mission is to use the powers of sports to champion the legend in everybody. We aim to make sport and fitness accessible to all, which includes launching our long-term initiative ‘Equal Play’, which addresses female inequality in sport.
"Alongside this, we continue to offer unique in-store experiences, such as the world’s first bra studio, and offer design-led products with the female consumer in mind. Sport Direct acknowledges the store signage in question and is committed to updating these across the estate.”
