Category: Tennis Shoes

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Laser Engrave Your Shoes

Product Detail

Laser engraving your court shoes is one way to protect your property.

If you’ve ever had a racquet bag stolen from your car, you know how frustrating it is.

If you’re a parent, you know how frustrating it can be when somebody steals your kid’s brand new shoes.

In both of these instances, laser engraving can lead to a happy ending.

Laser engraving marks your property in a very inconspicuous way. In most cases, the thieves don’t even notice that it is marked.

But you know. So you can easily identify what is yours. which means that you have an opportunity to recover your property.

Racquet Network offers free laser engraving on many premium products including shoes and racquets.

Shoes are engraved on a back outer face so that the engraving can be seen from behind.

So if a player from your school or club swipes your shoes, they are easy to spot, identify, and recover.

Racquets, meanwhile, are engraved on their shafts making identification simple for players and racquet stringers.

By laser engraving racquets, shoes, bags and other items, we make it easy for police monitoring Kijiji and crooked pawn shops to tie car prowlers to specific crimes and lay charges.

We also make it possible to return property to its owners once it’s recovered.

All you have to do is file a police report telling police how your property is marked.

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Who is Responsible for Sore Feet, Ladies?

Yonex Aerus Ladies Badminton Shoe

There is a constant refrain in the shoe business about the evils of major shoe brands and how their decisions are damaging women’s feet.

The narrative says that generations of women have suffered immeasurable foot damage due to shoe designs that promote style and beauty over health. These decisions, the narrative holds, have caused millions of older women to suffer from hammertoes, bunions, crooked toes, flat feet, corns, callouses and many other maladies of the feet.

To some extent, that is true. Poor shoe design does lead to preventable injuries and painful chronic conditions. But at some point women have to take responsibility for the choices they make.

Yonex Ladies Court Shoes

A random sample of five Yonex ladies court shoes from our online store.

In our store for example, we help hundreds of women try on shoes every month. Many of these women suffer from one or more of these maladies, so we do not hesitate to offer healthier options. Only a small percentage, however, even consider what we are telling them.

Almost every day of the week we have women in our store who insist on buying court shoes that are too short and too narrow. “But my heel is slipping,” is the most common sign that a woman is about to insist on buying a shoe that is too small.

We advise them that a little bit of movement in the heel of an athletic shoe is normal and healthy. We explain that the only way to get an athletic shoe in which there is no heel movement is to choose a shoe that is too short.

Asics Ladies Court Shoes

A random sample of five Asics ladies court shoes from our online store.

Shoes that have no heel movement — in other words, shoes that are too short — lead to hammertoes, bunions, crooked toes, flat feet, corns, callouses and many other maladies of the feet.

“But I am always a size 7,” some women state emphatically. “I have been a size 7 my whole life.”

In fact, from birth to death, the human foot is in a constant state of change. Our feet change grow longer and wider through childhood. For some people, feet continue growing well into adulthood.

Asics Ladies Court Shoes

A random sample of Babolat ladies court shoes from our online store.

Change continues even for those whose feet do stop growing in their teens. As we age, our feet tend to widen and our arches tend to fall. So nobody can ever truly say that their feet are the same size now as they were more than 20 years ago.

We offer expert fittings in our store for exactly this reason. We want to give all athletes, including female athletes of all ages, an opportunity to buy shoes that will not damage (or further damage) their feet.

Unfortunately, we often feel like our good advice is falling on deaf ears. Many women, it seems, are accustomed to the pain and want to continue experiencing it, even into their golden years, in spite of the fact that there are many healthier options right in front of them.

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Where to find WIDE tennis shoes in Calgary

BABOLAT SFX 2 ALL COURT BLACK-BLUE
We carry wide tennis shoes for players with wide feet.
Racquet Network always has an awesome selection of tennis shoes at a variety of price points. Below is just a small sample of our selection.

We carry budget shoes, recreational shoes and high performance shoes for men, women and children.

We also offer wide tennis shoes for players who need them.

Customers can count on our experts to determine which shoe is best for the surface they will be playing on.

We also help customers with expert fittings that help to minimize foot pain caused by a variety of factors.

Come in for a tennis shoe fitting with our experts and leave with the perfect fit for your feet — even if those feet are wider than normal.

We are open 7 days a week. Monday to Friday 11:00am to 8:00pm. Saturday and Sunday 11:00am to 5:00pm. We are closed for all statutory holidays.

Men’s Tennis Shoes

A small sample of our men’s tennis 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.

Ladies Tennis Shoes

A small sample of our ladies tennis 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.

Junior Tennis Shoes

A small sample of our junior tennis 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 Feet are Blistering

For a shoe fitting expert, information about blistering is excellent because it sends a clear signal about what is wrong with the fit of the shoe.

Unfortunately, this awesome information is often tied to equally bad information firmly planted it the customer’s mind about what is causing the blistering. When this happens, it can make it a difficult issue to correct.

Here is the truth about blistering.

Where your feet are blistering will usually indicate what is causing the blisters.

Blistering on the heel, for example, is caused by shoes that are too short. Court shoes that are the correct length will be loose enough in the back not to cause blistering on the heel.

Blistering on the outside of the foot or the side of either the big toe or the little toe is usually caused by shoes that are too narrow.

If blistering in these places is also accompanied by bruised or blackened toenails, then the shoe is to short as well as too narrow.

Blistering on the sole of the foot can be caused by shoes that are too big, but it is most often caused by damp cotton.

Wet skin is weak skin. Weak skin tears. So if you developed a large blister on your forefoot that splits open late in a match, the first thing you should check is your socks.

Wet socks weaken your skin and make it susceptible to tearing.

Either buy some polyester socks or change your cotton socks frequently during your match. Keeping your feet dry is the first step in avoiding skin tears.

We strongly recommend that players with friction issues carry a tube of Body Glide and a tube of Anbesol. The glide can be applied to areas of known friction. The Anbesol can take the sting out of blisters that are starting to develop.

Yonex Men’s Badminton Shoes

A small random selected of our Yonex men’s badminton shoes

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I Keep Busting Through My Tennis Shoes

T22 Lite Mens
Compared to running shoes, tennis shoes look clunky. But there is a reason for that.
“Help,” says Mark on the phone. “I keep busting through my tennis shoes.”

“OK,” we reply. “Come into the store and we’ll see what we can do to help you.”

Two days later he brings his shoes in for a look and we immediately see the problem. Mark is playing tennis in running shoes, not tennis shoes.

“The reason you keep busting through the sides of your shoes,” we explain to him, “is they are not tennis shoes.”

You see, Mark went to a big box store and told the staff that he wanted a super light tennis shoe. From what he told us, it sounds like he tried on the only tennis shoe they had, but he thought it was too clunky. He said he wanted something more like his running shoes. So they sold him exactly what he asked for. They sold him a running shoe.

That’s when Mark’s problems started. Running shoes are not designed for side to side movement. They are designed for forward movement only. So when Mark goes out wide to return a ball and has to push off sideways back to the center of the court, he eventually rips the seams on the outside of his running shoes.

It’s not the shoe’s fault. It is a running shoe. Running shoes are not designed for side-to-side movement. They are designed for forward movement only. Therefore Mark can’t make a warranty claim because he is using the shoes in way that they should not be used. In other words, the manufacturer is not at fault.

Part of the fault lies with the box store employee who sold Mark running shoes. But most of the fault lies with Mark.

You see, Mark is a bit of a princess. He is more concerned with the colour and the look of his shoe than he is with the shoe’s performance. He thinks that the most important characteristic of a tennis shoe is that it matches his outfit. He also thinks that tennis shoes are too “clunky looking.” He wants a tennis shoe that looks like a running shoe.

What Mark is learning, though, is that compared to running shoes, tennis shoes are clunky looking for a reason. He is learning that tennis shoes are subject to much higher stresses than running shoes. Therefore they have to be reinforced on the sides, on the toe and on the sole.

Mark is also learning that tennis shoes are typically both cheaper than and more durable than running shoes. For example, the Asics ™ Nimbus 20s that he keeps busting through retail for $200.00 a pair while the Prince ™ T22s that he should be playing in are just $140.00. When used for tennis, his expensive running shoes will last four or five weeks at most while the tennis shoes would last an entire season.

Unfortunately, it’s an expensive lesson that Mark is insisting on learning the hard way. We expect that he will eventually realize that playing tennis in tennis shoes will not only save him money, it will also make him a better tennis player. But today is not that day.

Men’s Tennis Shoes

A small sample of our mens tennis 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.