UPDATE
I met a woman at our local pickleball club who bought a pair of the “dinkshot” shoes (in pink). She said she suffered from neuropathy in one of her feet. I have to admit that I didn’t know what that was, so I had to look it up. It is technically called peripheral neuropathy, which is damage to the nerves located outside of the brain and spinal cord (peripheral nerves). It often causes weakness, numbness and pain, usually in the hands and feet. People with peripheral neuropathy generally describe the pain as stabbing, burning or tingling. Sounds like Morton’s Neuroma to me! Anyway, she said the wide toe area of the dinkshot relieved the pressure she felt in her toes because they were not crammed together. If you are a pickleball player with this condition, it may pay for you to check out these shoes.
ORIGINAL POST
I’m going to start out describing my history of trying to find pickleball shoes, and then compare my Skechers shoes to my Acacia shoes.
If, after reading this, you are interested in purchasing any shoe off the Acacia website, use this code for 10% off—Boomer490.
Here is the website address: https://acacia-sports.myshopify.com/discount/boomer490
Note that Acacia makes shoes for other sports, including soccer, so you may want to look at the website for other products.
MY ADVENTURES SEARCHING FOR PICKLEBALL SHOES
When I first started playing pickleball eight years ago, I was also playing a lot of tennis, so I simply used my tennis shoes for pickleball. Specifically, I used my Nike tennis shoes. The problem with that is that tennis shoes are made for a lot of running, so there is a great deal of heel support. Pickleball requires that you be on your toes a lot, so my tennis shoes weren’t cutting it. I wound up giving 3 pairs of new shoes to a charity.
I did a lot of searching and decided to buy a pair of the Brooks Addiction Walker shoes and the Brooks PureFlow 7 shoes. I like to wear socks with toe padding and found that Thorlos had just released socks designed for pickleball. Since I played tennis with Thorlos, I ordered numerous pairs of those socks. The Brooks shoes worked out okay because they had wide fronts, and I didn’t feel cramped in the toe area. As great as these shoes are for walking/running, they were not necessarily great for pickleball.
When the Brooks shoes wore out, I purchased these shoes: Skechers Glide-Step Sport, Skechers Glide-Step Trail, and Glide-Step. Again, these were great for walking/running, but not suitable for pickleball, so I bought another pair of Brooks Pureflow.
Unfortunately, about four years ago I developed a physical condition called Morton’s Neuroma, a thickening of the tissue that surrounds the digital nerve leading to the toes. This thickening can lead to various levels of pain or discomfort in the forefoot. Sometimes the pain got so great that I could barely walk back to my car off the pickleball courts. I receive treatment for the condition, but it does not get eliminated altogether, so I amped up my search for suitable shoes (and socks).
Thankfully, because of the popularity of pickleball, companies are starting to manufacture shoes specifically for the sport. Other companies claim to have pickleball shoes, but when you go to their website, you are shown tennis shoes. An example is Nike, who say that the best shoe for pickleball is their Nike Zoom Air Tennis Shoes.
Anyway, I learned about Skechers pickleball shoes at a Tyson McGuffin camp. I’m a big fan of Skechers for walking and wearing around the house, so I recently bought the Skechers Viper Court Pro shoes. These are nice, lightweight shoes that have, in my opinion, a major flaw—they are narrow at the toe, so I could not wear thicker socks. So, while they are good shoes, my Morton’s Neuroma acts up pretty quickly.
I then heard of Acacia, a company that makes shoes for various sports, and got a pair of their DINKSHOT II shoes. The very first thing I noticed was that there was much more support in the toes than in the Skechers shoes, and they were a bit wider in the toe area.
Believing that pictures are better than words, let me show a comparison of the two shoes (an Acacia shoe is on the left, and Skechers on the right).
The difference in width isn’t huge, but it makes a difference to me.
This picture will also show how the Acacia shoe promotes “being on your toes.” Note that the Skechers shoes are flat on the bottom, but the Acacia shoes have an indentation in the middle that helps you get onto your toes quickly, as does the slightly elevated heel.
MY TESTING
Taking a shoe out of the box and looking at it, however, is not much of a test. So, on three successive days, I did the following drills with the shoes, each time wearing a different pair of socks. The drills were:
Dinking, straight on, cross court, and moving (windshield wiper drill).
Volleying
Slinky (one player drifts back and hits third shot drops, then comes forward until at the NVZ and the other player drops back).
Dink, drive, block.
Dink, dink, dink, dink play it out.
Three games of skinny singles.
If you think this isn’t much of a test, think again. Back-to-back to back, these are very intense. I had to move a lot and stay on my toes a lot. Also, skinny-singles requires a lot of rushing the net and split-stepping, thereby putting pressure on your toes. Personally, I think skinny singles is more physically taxing than regular singles because, in regular singles, I can hang back, play down the middle and wait to set up a point before rushing the net. That’s just my opinion, though, and I know that it is different at the pro level.
The first day I did the drills with Nike trainer socks (a slightly thicker sock with no toe support), the second day I wore my Throlos (I was not cramped in the shoe), and the third day I wore a pair of SMARTWOOL Run Targeted Cushion Ankle Socks (they have some toe support). The shoes worked great in every instance with no Morton’s flareup.
I have ordered socks from Acacia and when they come, I’ll test them as well and blog about them. If you are looking for pickleball shoes, and are not satisfied with tennis shoes (you shouldn’t be), then you owe it to yourself to try the Acacia shoes.
Again, use this code for 10% off—Boomer490.
Here is the website address: https://acacia-sports.myshopify.com/discount/boomer490
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