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Laces Add Colour to Bland Shoe Options

Female racquet sports players in Canada are often frustrated by the lack of selection available in court shoes. In Canada, it seems, you can have any colour you want — as long as it’s white.

In the United States, where tennis is a major sport with millions of frequent players, shoe buyers are able to bring in lots of shoes in lots of different styles and colours. Here in Canada, however, where tennis is not a major sport and where wholesalers are in jeopardy of getting stuck with unsold inventory at the end of the season, the buyers are more conservative.

In contrast to American buyers, Canadian buyers bring in lots of white, a little black and very little of anything else FOR MEN. In the case of women’s shoes, they offer even fewer options. White or white with a small splash of pink, a hint of baby blue or a touch of coral is often the full extent of colour options for Canadian women.

Truth be told, the same is true for racquet sports apparel. More than 70% of the ladies apparel offered to our buyers by Canadian wholesalers is white, while 20% is black and the remaining 10% — at most — is another colour, usually one colour per season. The guys get more colour options than the women, primarily because male racquet sports players outnumber female players by about 10 to one. But white and black still dominate the men’s apparel category, too.

So Canadians who enjoy a bit of colour in their racquet sports wardrobe have learned to accessorize. Coloured laces, for example, add some colour to all white tennis or pickleball shoes. Add a matching sock increases colour intensity. Wristbands, headbands, hairbands, visors, racquet grips, overgrips, strings and other accessories can also provide accessorizing colour on top of a base coat of white.

“Some tennis players are sensitive to colour options,” says Genevieve Johner at Racquet Network’s southwest Calgary store. “but pickleball players, especially ladies, are obsessed with it. If their shoes don’t match their pickleball paddle, they aren’t interested.”

Fortunately, Racquet Network now carries laces and other colourful accessories that make this possible for pickleball players and everyone else.

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Reduce Foot Fatigue with EZ Laces

Most Canadian men tie their court shoes too tight. In doing so, they cut off some of the circulation to the veins and arteries running across the tops of their feet. This leads to premature foot fatigue.

In order to reduce foot fatigue, most Canadian men need to learn a couple of new things about tying their shoes. First, court shoes are not hockey skates. They should not be tied like skates because tying court shoes as tight as skates hampers blood flow which leads to foot fatigue. Court shoes should be tied so that they stay on your feet, no tighter.

The second thing most men need to learn is that oval laces are better for blood circulation than flat laces and elastic laces are even better than oval laces. Why? Because flat laces flex the least. Oval laces flex more and elastic laces flex the most. So when a shoe is laced with elastic laces, stopping and changing direction rapidly does not momentarily strangle the blood vessels across the tops of the feet.

These two small but important details explain why we have fallen in love with EZ Laces at Racquet Network. First, installing EZ Laces on court shoes virtually assures that they will never be tied so tight as to be unhealthy. Second, even under the highest levels of athletic stess, the laces across the top of the feet will always flex with the athlete’s movement.

Once they are correctly installed, EZ Laces immediately turn tie-on shoes into slip on shoes. They also make it virtually impossible to step on a lace and pull it loose in the middle of a point. As an added bonus for parents and coaches, installing EZ Laces onto children’s shoes means that nobody will have to stop practice so that somebody can tie their shoes.

The only downside to EZ Laces is that, until you have done it a few times, they can be difficult to install. While the company that manufacturers them offers step-by-step instructions supported by video tutorials, it rarely goes as smoothly in person as it does in the video tutorial.

No worries. When you buy EZ Laces in our southwest Calgary store, our technicians will install them for you at no extra charge. All you have to do is choose from 15 lace colours and eight lock colours. We will do the rest. It takes about 15 minutes and you are good to go.

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More Pickleball Shoes Than Ever

Soft Soled Pickleball Shoe
Soft Soled Pickleball Shoe
Racquet Network’s southwest Calgary store is famous for offering a larger selection of pickleball shoes than any other store in Alberta.

The good news is that beginning October 10, 2017, that selection will be even larger because that is the day our new store opens at the west end of Woodbine Square shopping centre.

Our new store, located at 310 2525 Woodview Dr SW, will be twice as big as our current store. Most importantly for shoe customers though is that our storage capacity for shoes will be eight times larger than our old store in Oakridge.

“We are very excited about the new store,” admits Racquet Network’s owner and founder. “We have been trying to expand for five years. Now it is finally happening. We have signed a five year lease in Woodbine Square with an option of taking five more when it ends. This will allow us to expand our inventory, add new models and bring in some fresh new brands.”

Racquet Network has been serving Canadian pickleball players longer than any sporting goods store in Canada. Owner Brent Johner started the very first pickleball programs in Calgary at the West Hillhurst Community Centre and the Cedarbrae Community Centre. Johner was also the driving force behind the construction of 14 pickleball courts in the community of Oakridge.

“We were deep into pickleball before most people even heard of it,” says Johner. Expanding our store means that we will be able to serve the pickleball community better than ever before.”

Racquet Network currently stocks more than 50 models of pickleball shoes in-store while offering another 100 or so models online. Top selling brands include Yonex ™, Victor ™, Babolat ™, Asics ™, Wilson ™ and Salming. Expanding to the new store means that Adida ™s and Mizuno will be added immediately with additional brands being added down the road.

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Indoor vs Outdoor Pickleball Shoes

YONEX SHB 46 MENS SHOE
Soft-soled Pickleball Shoes

Most pickleball shoe stores offer two types of court shoes: indoor and outdoor. This is because, until recently, all indoor courts were made of hardwood and all outdoor courts were made of acrylic. Unfortunately, that is no longer true. So these two categories are no longer very useful.

Today, indoor courts may be made of hardwood or any of a dozen different synthetic materials. Some are even covered in outdoor acrylic, which means that they are actually outdoor courts even though they are under a roof and surrounded by walls. Some facilities go even further and cover their floors with mats. So you can see why the terms indoor and outdoor no longer have much meaning.

Complicating matters further is the fact that virtually all of the shoe manufacturers now use a blend of organic and synthetic rubbers in their outer soles. Ten years ago, the soles of indoor shoes were made entirely of organic gum rubber while outdoor shoes were made of high abrasion synthetic rubber. So it was easy to tell them apart.

These days, however, every manufacturer uses a blend of synthetic and organic rubbers on their “indoor shoes”. Some even blend small amounts of organic rubber into the soles of their “outdoor shoes”. So it is not as easy to tell “indoor shoes” from “outdoor shoes” as it used to be.

A more useful way to categorize shoes today is to put them on a gradient with soft soled shoes on one end and hard soled shoes on the opposite end. Soft soled shoes can be used on hardwood floors and badminton mats while hard soled shoes can be used on most synthetic floors and on acrylic covered tennis courts.

Racquet Network stopped using the terms indoor and outdoor a few years ago. Instead, we now focus on figuring out which surface our customers will be playing on before we help them pick out shoes. Here in Calgary where we are familiar with virtually every facility, it is a rather simple proposition. If the customer can tell us where they will be playing pickleball, we will be able to tell them which shoe is most suitable.

Customers from out of town are advised to take a picture of the floors in their facility before coming in to see us. The further away from Calgary you live, the more likely our staff will need that photo in order to give you the best possible advice regarding shoe selection.

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Men’s Squash Shoes – Size 13, 14 & 15

YONEX SHB 55 WHITE ORANGE
Men’s Squash Shoes – Sizes 12-15
Racquet Network offers Calgary’s largest selection of court shoes for all racquet sports, including squash. With more than 2000 cubic feet of dedicated shoe storage, our customers know that it makes sense to start here first.

In addition to common adult sizes for men and women, Racquet Network carries a full range of junior court shoes as well as extra large men’s sizes including sizes 12, 12½, 13, 14 and 15.

Racquet Network also works hard to ensure that we have wide court shoes in stock at all times. In addition to men’s standard widths, we do our best to offer wide and extra wide shoes for men, which is why it is not unusual to see current and former CFL players in our southwest Calgary store.

Wide Court Shoes

Since we opened our first retail store in 2012, Calgarians have come to trust us as the place to go for court shoes of all kinds. This is especially true for customers with wide feet. They know that our shoe buyer works hard to ensure that we have a steady supply of wide court shoes for men and women.

Unfortunately, customers with wide feet have also learned that the overall selection of genuinely wide court shoes is extremely limited in Canada. While people with standard width feet can choose from a panoply of colours and styles, people with wide feet have very few options. And since the sporting goods giants do not offer wide shoes, they can spend a lot of time running around looking for something that only Racquet Network is likely to carry.

Find Out if You Have Wide Feet

Racquet Network experts are trained to fit people correctly. If you have wide feet, we can help you. If you think you might have wide feet, we can help you too. Come and see us. Our experts will help you figure out your true size and width.