What kind of shoes are best? When you go to a sports store, they only have tennis or basketball or running etc... shoes. What types are suitable to play badminton?

Gum rubber shoes

badminton/racquetball/squash (indoor) shoes will do.

Volleyball shoes are excellent too. And stay away from tennis and basketball shoes.

You might want to check out asics, head or hi-tec. I've had good experiences with these shoes in squash and badminton.

Volleyball?? Well, In my opinion, they don't give enough ankle support. Perhaps they may make better ones now.

I currently use the Yonex badminton shoes which are very light weight. Unfortunately, I think the new ones are not as good. My left foot hurts a lot more now when I used them. My older Yonex ones didn't give me problems.

i notice from watching live tournaments with players from china, they wear yonex shoes but not the kind shown in yy catalog or yy's current models. What they wears look very basic but yet look very sturdy with gum sole. I personally like these basic yonex kind but had never seen them in yonex catalogs and definitely not available in north america. I bet these non current yy shoes are cheaper in price too.


Can somebody comment on this?

But can you buy any of these raquetball, squash, volleyball shoes from American stores? It seems like they don't have such listings...

AM

I was watching a couple of China players in the 2001 Sudirman Cup finals and noticed they have the same one as I do. Not sure where you are located Cooler. I'm based in Manitoba, Canada. If they are the same ones as mine, well, I bought mine about 5 or 6 months ago. These ones have more bottom cushion and felt very different from my older ones.

Sure you can, AM.
I bought my squash shoes from one of the stores in town.

let me clarify further, 95% of the very top chinese players do wear the latest yy shoes, they have to as they r paid and sponsor by yy to wear them for marketing purposes. The less well known yy shoes that i'm referring to are those worn by less ranked chinese players like provincial and city champs. These fellas are not paid by yy and they wear the best what they can afford, like us :) and it is these shoes that i'm referring to.

Avoid running shoes also. I have seen 3 very good players hurt their ankles painfully trying to play in running shoes.

Eh? Not enough support from volleyball shoes? My ASICS volleyball shoes have more support than any badminton shoe ever made because they are mid-height shoes. The regular ones seemed like they had as much support as anything else I saw in an indoor court shoe.

Really, AM, basically any indoor (preferably with a non-marking, natural rubber sole) will do. Get something that feels good on your foot. Nike has several indoor models that are good, so does Adidas, Asics, etc etc.

Wow! Times have changed since I wore those volleyball shoes ;-) Anyhow, if it is mid height, that might also get in the way because of how movements are executed on the badminton court. Again, this is my opinion. I have tried using both types: normal and mid height and I find the mid height one very warm and uncomfortable to move around.

Honestly in my view, I would recommend a pair of shoes that will give you good support, good grip and comfortable feel for badminton. Note that the movement around the badminton court is very different from volleyball or even squash.

One mistake I made was to wear a pair of non-supportive shoes that got me many ankle injuries.

I've found that warm ankles are infinitely more comfortable than sprained ones. ;) (I've sprained my ankles quite a few times in the past, so I really need the extra support from a mid-height shoe).

Dan, please describe for me how squash movement differs so significantly from badminton movement that the shoes for the former wouldn't be well-suited for the latter sport. I've only played squash a half dozen times (my lame friend who taught me to play racquetball switched to squash when he could no longer beat me and then gave up squash after the first time I beat him in that game too) but the foot-related motions in the indoor racquet sports seem pretty similar to me. Of course, I may just be enough of a hack at all three sports to be missing some obviously different footwork standards for each.

You are correct Brett. It is better to be safe than sorry. Safety first right? ;-) I played quite a bit of squash but not anymore. Badminton is what I played mostly. From my point of view, badminton consists of a lot of stop and go movements which are harder on your knees and ankles. Although squash is a quick game, I don't feel it has so much strain on the ankles and not as fast compared with badminton. Again, this is my humble opinion. If you wish to know more, I would suggest that you consult a sports medicine expert.

Hi everyone try Adidas, Mizuno and MMOA. They're all cool and comfortable to wear with. Just visit there websites for product evaluation. Good luck guys.