Armory & Equipment Care #12 (What Makes a Good Fencing Shoe) | Coach Michael McTigue

[@stencetheboss]

Great video, agree wholeheartedly with everything that was said! Couple of small additions mostly for the other viewers of this video: the red adidas shoe shown at the beginning is an adipower not a d'artagnan. The adipowers have been entirely out of production for years now except for one limited edition reprint at the wuxi world champs in 2018. Outside of those there have not been real asymmetric fencing shoes with the raised inner wall for quite some time. Also of note: Adidas stepped out of the fencing industry entirely a number of years ago so if you are looking into adidas fencing shoes either try on and buy a couple pairs that fit you quickly or don't bother even looking into them in general. Worth mentioning as well for those that DO roll their back foot when they lunge (again its better not to, but if you must): many fencing shoes and good fencing shoe alternatives have reinforcement on the side of the shoe next to where the ball of your foot is. Without that reinforcement you can easily wear a hole there and could be ruining an otherwise good pair of shoes. If you have this habit remember to look for that extra thickness/reinforcement at that spot. You can see an example of this on the PBT shoe where it is a grey leather strip with a tiny bit of wear in exactly the correct spot just over Coach Michael's index finger at 1:24 . Another example is the nike air zooms' sole extends up the side of the foot into that spot as well. Rolling of the foot this way is extremely common in tennis players so those shoes would be a good place to start. Finally the ONLY time you should ever go a half size up for shoes is to accommodate your own aftermarket or custom orthotic/insole. Many people will buy something like a sofsole gel insole or have custom orthotics for medical reasons. Typically those are thicker and can crowd your toes in the toe box/forefoot of the shoe. If at all possible bring those insoles with you when your try shoes on. As a personal recommendation just because it wasn't explicitly mentioned but alluded to: squash is very similar to badminton and racquetball so those are also a good alternative. I found salming to be a great brand there, but on average a bit pricey.

[@northwestfencingcenter6351]

Thank you for all these additional details :)

[@sportsmen4569]

My favorites so far ASICS gel blade 8 Extremely Light weight a bit protection, flexible Cheap enough

[@andrewcotlar6374]

After 40 years of fencing, I've discovered Babolat badminton shoes. They are wonderful: rounded heel, traction, great support and relatively light. Also good for surviving those epee toe touches. And cool looking.

[@Shelinatorable]

I recently invested in a pair of volleyball shoes and, though I hadn’t seen this video with the specifics in mind (the advice I’d been told was look for something like an indoor sports court shoe w/lateral movement stability/support) it ended up being a good fit for most of the points mentioned! It doesn’t have a rounded heel but it does have a grippy base, relatively thin sole, strong heel cup, and lightweight but stable uppers. It helped I was able to try on a few pairs to find ones that fit my orthotics (as the comment above mentions, sizing can be tricky with those), and I found swapping out the laces to a flat rather than rounded style helped to get a tighter/more secure lacing up. I’ve found it’s helpful to tie a knot at the end of the lace near the aglet, as then you can pull/loosen the laces easily further down the shoe & not have to worry about rethreading up your shoelace when you accidentally pull it out. Plus loosening/tightening the shoelace lower allows you to pull the entire lace more securely when putting them on, which is handy! Great video, learned a lot from it, thank you!

[@417hemaspringfieldmo]

What about wrestling shoes?

[@Axowaffel]

There populair in HEMA (historical 😂european martial arts)longsword saber rapier for exempel. And most of the wrestling/boxing shoes have a heel cup and most of the have an rounded heel.