Clyde Bruckman is the credited director, but most of the film was actually directed by Harold Lloyd due to Bruckman's often being incapacitated due to his alcoholism.
The final climax of the picture on board of the ship between Harold and Vance was basically reworked from Harold Lloyd's The Kid Brother (1927). The film was also shot with a silent film camera to re-create the Lloyd silent technique and the sound effects and dialogue were recorded in post-production.
A movie industry Trade Paper item in August 1930 announced that after Feet First (1930), Harold Lloyd's next talking picture comedy feature for Paramount will be a football comedy. This eventually was never made - his next feature was Movie Crazy (1932).
Leila Hyams was originally cast in the Constance Cummings role and can be seen in some surviving stills at the Margaret Herrick Library.