Non-leather shoes

[TinyFish]

Hi,

Does anyone have a good recommendation for ladies fencing shoes that do not use leather? I prefer to avoid leather shoes. I think the Hi-Tec Scimitar are non leather, but I don't know if they are any good, and don't want to blindly buy shoes that cost more than any shoes I own! Am I the only woman in the world who doesn't like shopping for shoes? lol

-E!

[clonardo]

both the Scimitars and Blades are pretty nice. My teammates who have them say they're cut pretty wide, have nice grip, and love the looks.

also, I don't think there's anything resembling leather on the Adidas Adistar. It's more like a weird plastic, and rubber tread.

[CvilleFencer]

Both the Blades and the Scimitars are excellent shoes. The best on the market for me. The blades are fit and feel a little bit like a more traditional sneaker but still give excellent stability, keep your feet close to the ground and provide good rollover protection without being to stiff.

The Scimitars do pretty much all the same but with a tighter, thinner and more traditional fencing shoe feel. The Scims also have better rollover protection if you fence on grounded pistes a lot or roll/drag your foot on the lunge. Strictly personal preference but I prefer the blades to the Scims, although the Scims are my second favorite fencing shoe on the market. I am still on my first set of Blades even after fairly heavy fencing (rarely on metal pistes) for over a year now. I don't use the Scims as much, but they still look almost new and I got them right around last Sum Nats.

I have used Adidas Darts, Dart II's, Black Stripes and Asyms. The LP shoes for me are much better in terms of quality, price and feel/performance. I don't care much for the look, but I wear them to fencing, not out clubbing (unless I get talked into "fencing" saber. Then you could say I go "clubbing" in my fencing shoes...) so the look is not very important to me so long as they are not a glowing, bright color or anything...