Salming Rival 2 Unisex Badminton Shoes - Navy Nectarine

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Badminton Shoes – there's loads to choose from, what are the key things to look for when choosing?

• Shoe Support
• Comfort & Fitting
• Weight
• Player Level
• Shoe Durability
• Looks 

1. Shoe Support

In our opinion probably the most underappreciated aspect of choosing badminton shoes. Look at the amount of players our there that need knee supports later on in life! Why is this often the case....well usually its because of either bad technique or poor footwear.

Health and well being must come first.....so don't try and save money by going for shoes that doesn't have good cushioning and shoe structural strength. Go for a respected Badminton or Shoes brand that really know what they're doing.

You can see on all our Badminton Shoe pages, the level of support the shoe offers is graded, use this as a guide.

A number of shoes will also reference support technology such as graphite plates and power cushion shock absorbers. Look out for these are they're designed to release pressure of your bodyweight when moving.

2. Comfort & Fitting

These are technically 2 aspects but effectively they cover the same thing. We list all shoes stating how true the fit of the shoe is, both in terms of length and width. This is particularly key for players with narrow or wider feet than the normal person.

Pretty much all Badminton shoes these days are designed “ergoshape” for stability, which provides flexibility around the toes area. This shape enables more explosive movement when moving forwards and backwards.

In addition to this, look out for the “Designed For” Feature shown in our description section, this will sometimes say “Comfort”. Where this is the case, it means when we've checked the shoes out, and the main strength/focus on the shoes is to provide comfort to the foot when playing.

Good fitting shoes will minimise the risk of ankle injures or foot blisters. That said, it's sometimes worth purchasing insoles to help with fit further or ankle supports to stop yourself rolling your ankles if you have done it before playing. 

It's best to allow for a small amount of room in the front of the shoe so that the toe is not pressured when lunging and stopping sharply. 

One final point, remember to allow your shoes to “wear in”. We recommend to wear your new shoes around the house for a week to allow them to soften and stretch a little. Don't wear your court shoes outside however - this will degrade the grip and bring dirt and dust onto the court.

3. How Lightweight they are

So firstly, the brands annoyingly don't provide weight measurements for their shoes. A lightweight shoe is great for players who need fast movement, however this often comes at a cost in reduced shoe support. A lightweight shoe generally offers less durability too, as it's often not as substantially made as shoes with strong support.

On our product pages for Badminton Shoes you can see under the “Designed for” feature if it says “Lightweight”.

Lightweight shoes generally are suited to smaller or lighter players on their feet, who have excellent technique in their movement.

4. What Player level the badminton shoes are intended for

We list below each shoe the player level from 0-100, in a graph bar. Obviously if you're a lower level as a player you can still go for a higher level shoe. It simply shoes up to what level of player the badminton shoes can be used for.

Typically some of the shoes we sell are even used by the world's very top players.

5. Shoe Durability

This is infinitely difficult to measure as it's so subjective to how often the shoes are used, the quality of movement for the specific badminton player and the surfaces as well as the way the shoes are treated.

Typically, it's the more you spend....the most durable the shoe is likely to be. Also shoes that are “Designed For” “Strong Support”, will be more durable than a lightweight slimmer lined shoe.

6. How it looks

Obviously everyone wants to look good when playing.....this one is down to personal preference!

Our most popular brand for Shoes with our players presently are the Yonex Badminton Shoes.