Category: Pickleball shoes

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Men’s Pickleball Shoes

Men's Pickleball Shoes
Men’s Pickleball Shoes

Racquet Network carries a large selection of men’s pickleball shoes in all sizes in our southwest Calgary store. We offer both indoor and outdoor shoes at all price points.

In our experience more than half of all male pickleball players are playing in the wrong shoes. Even when they are wearing the right shoes — court shoes — most of their shoes are too short or too narrow, which can lead to foot pain, blackened toe nails, arthritis and other health issues.

Come in and see us. Our experts will size your feet correctly and make sure that your shoes are contributing to your on court performance, not detracting from it.

Why Shoes Matter

In order to excel at pickleball, players must be able to stop and change direction quickly. For example, a player who goes out wide to make shot must be able to push off while making that shot in order to get back to the center quickly. In running shoes, which are designed for forward movement will work against the player in this situation. Court shoes, which are designed for this movement, will work with the player and assist in his recovery back to the center.

Why Court Shoes are Different

Running shoes are built for movement in one direction — forward. They are also designed for constant forward motion, not for sudden stops or sudden changes of direction. Court shoes are designed for movement in all four directions — forward, backward, left and right. They are also designed to keep players balanced during sudden stops and sudden changes of direction. In other words, court shoes are designed for pickleball, while running shoes are not.

Players who try to play pickleball in running shoes are more likely to trip, roll their ankles or bust through the sides of their shoes than those who wear court shoes. This is because running shoes are designed to be lightweight and forward moving while court shoes are designed to support athletic movements in all directions.

How to Choose Pickleball Shoes

Racquet Network retail staff are trained to ask customers a series of questions in order to help them narrow down our large selection to the best possible options for pickleball. First, they will ask what sport the customer will be using them for. Then they will ask some questions about pain, injuries and orthotics. Finally, they will ask questions about where and how the shoes will be used.

Once they have this information, they will fit the customer to ensure proper length and width. This fitting process helps narrow down our large selection even further. At the end of the process, our goal is to ensure that the customer is leaving our store with the best fit in the best shoes for their chosen sport.

How Long Do Pickleball Shoes Last?

Racquet Network has spent a considerable amount of time tracking pickleball players at all levels to determine how far they move while playing pickleball. On average, most players move about three kilometres during an hour of pickleball. Beginners will move a bit less. Experts will more a bit more. And since most players play about two hours per session, we can safely say that most players move about six kilometres every time they play pickleball.

Why does this matter? It matters because the average life of an athletic shoes is about 500 km. By this point in the shoe’s life, the padding inside the shoe is pounded flat, the walls of the shoes have lost their structural integrity and the overall comfort level is severely depreciated. As a result, players experience post-match soreness on the soles of their feet radiating up their legs and possibly into their knees. This is the player’s body telling them that it is time to replace their shoes.

In order to anticipate when this will begin happen, we will need to do some math. If you are an average player who plays pickleball three times a week, you will surpass 500 km in about 27 weeks, which is about six months. So, in other words, you will be buying new shoes every six months or so. Of course, 500 km is just an average. Cheap shoes may start to give out at 300 km while high performance shoes can last 800 km, because like everything else in life, you tend to get what you pay for.

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Ladies Pickleball Shoes

YONEX ECLIPSION LADIES ALL COURT SHOE GRAY

Racquet Network carries a large selection of ladies pickleball shoes in all sizes in our southwest Calgary store. We offer both indoor and outdoor shoes at all price points.

In our experience more than half of all female pickleball players are playing in shoes that are too short and/or too narrow. This can lead to foot pain, blackened toe nails, arthritis and other health issues.

Come in and see us. Our experts will size you correctly and make sure that your shoes are contributing to a positive playing experience, not detracting from it.

Why Shoes Matter

The most common serious injury in pickleball is the sprained wrist, which is often caused when players trip while moving back and to the side. While falling, players instinctively stick out their hands to break their fall and end up spraining or breaking their wrist.

Serious wrist injuries can be devastating to older female players. Many of them never recover full use of their wrists. Therefore Racquet Network strongly recommends that pickleball players equip themselves with the correct shoes in order to help minimize the chances of accidental injury.

Why Court Shoes are Different

Running shoes are built for movement in one direction — forward. They are also designed for constant forward motion, not for sudden stops or sudden changes of direction. Court shoes are designed for movement in all four directions — forward, backward, left and right. They are also designed to keep players balanced during sudden stops and sudden changes of direction. In other words, court shoes are designed for pickleball, while running shoes are not.

Players who try to play pickleball in running shoes are more likely to trip, roll their ankles or bust through the sides of their shoes than those who wear court shoes. This is because running shoes are designed to be lightweight and forward moving while court shoes are designed to support athletic movements in all directions.

How to Choose Pickleball Shoes

Racquet Network retail staff are trained to ask customers a series of questions in order to help them narrow down our large selection to the best possible options for pickleball. First, they will ask what sport the customer intends to play. Then they will ask some questions about pain, injuries and orthotics. Finally, they will ask questions about where and how the shoes will be used.

Once they have this information, they will fit the customer to ensure proper length and width. This fitting process helps narrow down our large selection even further. At the end of the process, our goal is to ensure that the customer is leaving our store with the best fit in the best shoes for their chosen sport.

How Long Do Pickleball Shoes Last?

Racquet Network has spent a considerable amount of time tracking pickleball players at all levels to determine how far they move while playing pickleball. On average, most players move about three kilometres during an hour of pickleball. Beginners will move a bit less. Experts will more a bit more. And since most players play about two hours per session, we can safely say that most players move about six kilometres every time they play pickleball.

Why does this matter? It matters because the average life of an athletic shoes is about 500 km. By this point in the shoe’s life, the padding inside the shoe is pounded flat, the walls of the shoes have lost their structural integrity and the overall comfort level is severely depreciated. As a result, players experience post-match soreness on the soles of their feet radiating up their legs and possibly into their knees. This is the player’s body telling them that it is time to replace their shoes.

In order to anticipate when this will begin happen, we will need to do some math. If you are an average player who plays pickleball three times a week, you will surpass 500 km in about 27 weeks, which is about six months. So, in other words, you will be buying new shoes every six months or so. Of course, 500 km is just an average. Cheap shoes may start to give out at 300 km while high performance shoes can last 800 km, because like everything else in life, you tend to get what you pay for.

Come in and See Us

Whether you play indoor or outdoor, lots or little, at the advanced level or the beginner level, Racquet Network staff are trained to help. All you need to do is come in and see us. We will help you pick the best shoes at the best value for your game.

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Asics Court Shoes

Racquet Network carries Calgary’s largest selection of ™ court shoes for men, women and juniors. In fact, we have the largest selection of court shoes of all kinds. Come in for a fitting with our experts and leave with the perfect fit for your feet. We are open 7 days a week. Monday to Friday 11:00am to 8:00pm. Saturday and Sunday 11:00am to 5:00pm.

Shoe Selector For a full list of shoes in this category, please check out our ONLINE SHOE SELECTOR. You can sort by sport, gender, brand, size, width and price.

Asics Court Shoes

Shoe Selector For a full list of shoes in this category, please check out our ONLINE SHOE SELECTOR. You can sort by sport, gender, brand, size, width and price.
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Help! My Toenails are Turning Black

Are one or more of your toenails turning black? Yes. Then your shoes are too small. Specifically, your shoes are too short for court sports.

Here at Racquet Network, our expert staff are constantly astonished at the number of stubborn people who come into our store to buy new shoes because the shoes they are wearing are damaging their feet and who end up buying exactly the same size, expecting a different result.

Here is how a typical conversation with one of these customer’s goes …

Staff: “Hi there. How can I help you?”

Customer: “I need some new shoes. The shoes I have are too small. They are making my toenails turn black.”

Staff: “Oh no. That’s not good. What size are they?”

Customer: “They are size 9.”

Staff: “OK. So would you like to try on something in a size 10?”

Customer: “No. Size 10 is too big. I wear a size 9.”

Staff: “I’m sorry. I must have misunderstood. I thought you said your size 9 shoes were causing your toenails to turn black.”

Customer: “Well these ones are. But I just need a different size 9. I am always a size 9.”

It is never good when a fitting starts this way, but this is exactly the way many fittings start. The customer has a number in their head and no amount of expert advice or actual evidence will sway them. So, they end up leaving with the wrong size in spite of our best efforts to convince them otherwise.

Fathers of teen-aged daughters can be especially frustrating for our shoe experts. Some of them seem to think that their daughters are less attractive if they wear shoes that actually fit, so they buy shoes that are too small and that end up causing injuries.

This not a joke. It’s not just a story we tell. This actually happens. We have seen teenaged girls leave our store in tears because they know that the shoes their fathers are buying for them are too small and will make their toenails fall off. We have had angry fathers storm out of the store because we demonstrated to them that their daughter’s feet are a size and half bigger than they used to be.

We’re not sure why but men in general rarely seem to know their shoe size. “What size are you?” we will often ask. “Size 10,” guys will say. “What size are those?” we ask, pointing at the shoes on their feet. When we check, we usually find out they are not even close to what they thought they were wearing.

Racquet Network staff are trained to fit people for court shoes. Our staff know that court shoes have to be longer than walking-around-shoes because players have to stop suddenly and change direction. When shoes are too short for this, toes bang against the end of the shoe causing toenails to blacken and fall off.

Our staff also understand that width is important. When a player’s feet are wider than the platform of the shoes they are wearing, they are prone to specific types of injuries that can lead to arthritis later in life.

Our experts want to see all customers leave our store with shoes that fit. They don’t have any preconceived ideas about that size the customer should wear or what size the customer (or their father) might want to wear. They only thing they are concerned about is what actually fits. For that to happen, the shoe must be long enough and it must be wide enough.

At the end of the day, though, they can’t force anybody to buy the right size. So they will always have to deal with the disappointment of customers who stubbornly resist their best advice and insist on buying shoes that are too short or too narrow just because that is the size they always buy.

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We Sell Wide Court Shoes

YONEX SHB 65 ALPHA WIDE RED
Yonex Power Cushion 65 Alpa Wide

If you do a quick internet search, you will see that there are a lot of brands offering “wide” court shoes. However, if you have wide feet and if you have ever ordered any of these “wide” shoes, you will already know that very few of these “wide” shoes are actually wide.

So what should you do if you either know or suspect that you have wide feet?

The very best thing you can do is to come into our store and allow our experts to fit you properly. In our experience, most players — especially guys — are wearing the wrong shoe size. They think that court shoes should fit either like their walking-around-shoes or, worse yet, like their hockey skates.

Court shoes are neither. If you are a normal person, you don’t suddenly stop and change direction at high speed in your walking-around-shoes. You also don’t turn your feet sideways to stop in your court shoes like you do when you are stopping on skates.

Many of the customers we fit on a daily basis suffer from blackened toe nails. This is a sure sign their court shoes are too short. Many more deal with chronic foot pain, which is often a sign of shoes that are too narrow or long past worn out.

How can you tell which of these two is causing your pain? Start with some simple math.

Competition grade shoes today are designed to last about 500 kilometers. On average, racquet sports players cover approximately four kilometers per hour. So a competition grade court shoe will last a maximum of 125 hours of court time — less for recreational grade shoes and much less for budget grade shoes.

If you play once a week for two hours, competition grade shoes may last a year. If you play twice a week, they will last about half a year. But if you are buying recreation grade or budget grade shoes and playing frequently, you are looking at replacing your shoes every two to four months.

The grade of the shoe makes a difference, too, of course. Competition grade shoes are designed to take maximum abuse. Recreational grade shoes don’t last as long as competition grade shoes, but are generally more comfortable. Budget shoes are neither. They are not designed for comfort or durability. Budget shoes are intended for teenagers who will outgrown their shoes before they wear them out.

So in determining what might be causing your foot pain, you must consider both the grade of shoes you are wearing and the amount of game time you have been wearing them. But if you have good shoes that are reasonably new and you are still experiencing foot pain (without blackened toenails), there is a good chance that your shoes are too narrow for your feet.

How wide is wide and what is actually available?

Athletic shoes for men come in a variety of standard widths. B is for narrow feet. D is a standard fit. 2E is wide. 4E is extra wide. Not all athletic shoes are suitable for court sports, though. So while it is possible to find running shoes in all four of these widths, options in court shoes are severely limited and none of the major sporting goods stores even offer them.

Forget about B in men’s court shoes. There is no such animal. If you are genuinely a B width male, you will have to look into women’s court shoes. We have never seen a men’s court shoe available in a B width.

Unlike B width, 2E is not impossible to find. Some brands, like Victor, offer unisex shoes in 2E width. In women’s shoes, 2E is extra wide while for men 2E is just wide. However, in our experience there just aren’t very men who fit comfortably into 2E shoes. More than 90% of the men we help with wide feet are actually 4E.

The good news? Of all the non-standard width court shoes, 4E are the most widely available. That being said, nobody should imagine that 4E shoes are commonly available. They are not. In fact, they are very far from common and you will almost certainly have to go to a specialty store to find some.

Yonex Canada typically offers one model in 4E per season. Other court shoe brands are less committed but may offer a 4E every once in awhile. Asics, for example, offers running shoes and a couple of lines of cross trainers in that width but nothing specifically 4E in a court shoe. Victor offers some unisex shoes in 2E, but rarely stocks an actual 4E. Everybody else offers either standard D width or D in a relaxed fit, which can be forced onto a 2E foot, if nothing else is available.

Here in Calgary, every racquet sports player knows that Racquet Network is the best place to go for court shoes. We carry the most models in the most sizes. We carry more colours and more wide shoes than anybody else. So if we don’t have it, you can assume that it probably isn’t available. For players with genuinely wide feet, this statement is even truer than for people with standard feet.