Best Fencing Shoes?

[ra2000a]

hmm i think i ordered my shoes from physical chess but it was through a club price so it was supposibly cheaper. my shoes are good. i like them a lot. this is actually the first time im fencing with shoes that r for fencing soo i cant compare them to anything but they are very comfy and i like them. they help me with longer lunges, i think. overall i would recomend them to anyone who needs shoes.

[Craig]

Originally posted by wflaschka
I have to recommend shoes to novice and intermediate fencers, but I don't want to break their budgets.

Does anybody have an opinion about the cheapest fencing shoes available, that aren't completely worthless?

I've had good experiences with Blue Gauntlet's shoe. The soles last a decent amount of time for training on them and the uppers hold up very well. They stretch out a little more than Adidas, but they're pretty good.

What gets them a 3 or 4 instead of a 5 is that the insoles are bad. I always get the "sofsol" inserts with a heel strike and a hard heel cup and that solves the shock problem. (Of course, I also put inserts into my Adidas as well.)

Craig

[InsaneEpeeist]

Hello everyone,
I am looking for some new shoes. I currently use white Nike walking shoes and I thought that the Akrid Boxing Shoes would be better. 2 of my male friends have them and they say they're great.. but when I went to the website they only had sizes 10 and up and I'm a 8 1/2 - 9 in ladies. I was wondering if they had the same type of shoe but one that would fit me. Thanks!

Prudence
-- Epee & Foil Fencer

[CvilleFencer]

Originally posted by InsaneEpeeist
Hello everyone,
I am looking for some new shoes. I currently use white Nike walking shoes and I thought that the Akrid Boxing Shoes would be better. 2 of my male friends have them and they say they're great.. but when I went to the website they only had sizes 10 and up and I'm a 8 1/2 - 9 in ladies. I was wondering if they had the same type of shoe but one that would fit me. Thanks!

Prudence
-- Epee & Foil Fencer

I love my akrids, but you will have to invest in a good sport insole or you legs will fall off at the knees! To find your size you might want to check out ringside.com They are more expensive than title/boxingshoes.com, but I think they have your size. You might also want to check out the sports authority web site. I have heard that as good as the Akrids are for fencing (with an extra insole) the Adidas Ferox boxing/wrestling shoe is even better. A little more padding and a better toe for fencing. The way the Akrids are cut big toe on my lead for gets a good rubbing if I am not careful.

If you have to go with ringside.com you should probably go ahead and just get the D'arts from the Fencing Post for a hundred bones, but the Akrids are a good choice if you can get the right deal and find them in your size!

Good luck, and let us know how they work. Especially if you try the Ferox!

[CvilleFencer]

InsaneEpeeist, you might want to take a look at fencesmart.com. They have hightop starfighters for 25.00. I would not cosider them a great shoe, but for 25 bones they are worth it! They have 7's in mens, but I am not sure of the conversion for womens shoes.

Might want to check it out!

[Enoch]

Would those Blue Gauntlet shoes mentioned be the Napoleons? I've ordered a pair, and I like them, but I haven't had them long.

[JAySE SUiCiDE]

I had a pair of Blue Gauntlet's Victory shoes, then find that i would either fall/stumble (quite embarrasing ) at the club or twist my back ancle when retrating fast...my coach gave me his pair of Li-ning fencing shoes, put in an extra insole (as i do with all my shoes ) and i so far have had no problems...after 3 months fencing with the victory shoes, i saw wear in the big toe side and heel of my front foot, and wear in the big toe area on my back foot...so far, with 3-4 months of the Li-Ning fencing shoes, there's been a small bit of wear on the heel of my front foot...my coach also said he liked the shoes better than his Adidas Asymetrics....(yes i plan on buying him a pair of Li-Ning's ).

available at:
http://www.amfence.com/html/feet_legs.html

picture at:
http://www.angelfire.com/nb/jayse/Fencing_Shoes.jpg

hope i could be of help
~JAySE

[InsaneEpeeist]

Thanks you guys for helping me out. I was wondering if I could buy some akrids at my local Academy store? Buying something online wouldn't be safe for me because they don't have my size in womens. But if I could try it on at the store then I would have a better idea if it's a good shoe for me or not. Thanks you guys!

God bless,

Prudence

[Nusy]

I best like my old Hungarian "Tisza" - unfortunetly it's not produced any more... I will have either an Adidias D'Artangnan or an Adidas Asymmertrical. I hope they will be as good as my old was. I used it for 4(?) years.

[achilleus]

Has anyone ever heard of this brand? They make fencing shoes, although, I've never seen them.

www.balistonusa.com/fencing.htm

[InsaneEpeeist]

No I have never seen those before. Well, I might have and not known it. I don't really notice people's shoes unless they're wearing socks that really stand out. I looked up the locations where they sale those type of shoes and they don't have anything in Texas listed.

[earlie]

Cheap and effective fencing shoes - nothing can beat a pair of old worn-in tennis shoes. You don't get no blisters and you don't get get a pair of shin splints.
A pair of shin splints is the thing with new purpose-built fencing sir shoes, so just use old tennis shoes, not new, but slightly worn or very worn and not too rigid.
They stil have most of the rubber sole on the undersides of the tennis shoes are a good bet.
Squash shoes are also good, and they is better than is tennis sir shoes because the squash shoes is a indoor shoes. Yes it is a indoor shoes.
And that is the reason why squash shoes it is a good cost-effective alternative to a full-blown fencing shoes.
Full-blown , in-your-face fencing shoes.
Victoria and the dartagnan are an it thing in good fencing sir shoes.
The better shoes sir for fencing.

[jesup]

I've used volleyball shoes in the past and they do work well. ASICS in particular, with gum-rubber soles. I mostly fence on linoleum, and the grip of the gum-rubber is great. They're also fairly light, and don't constrict the movement of the rear ankle the way running and basketball shoes do (so you can keep your foot from rolling over).

I've also been using Starfighters from BG I got years ago which now need replacement. Definitely lighter, definitely less padding. Grip not as good as volleyball shoes. Since I'm now starting to have problems with metatarsal pain (at the ball of the foot), I'm thinking strongly of switching back to volleyball shoes for the extra padding. (The pain isn't from fencing - I haven't been fencing for a couple of years and am starting again), but it's accentuated by hard floors and lack of padding.)

[oiuyt]

Originally posted by Nusy
I best like my old Hungarian "Tisza" - unfortunetly it's not produced any more...:cry: I will have either an Adidias D'Artangnan or an Adidas Asymmertrical. I hope they will be as good as my old was. I used it for 4(?) years.

I used Tisza's from 2/98 to 7/00. They wore fairly quickly right at the beginning, appeared to stop aging until the last couple of month of that time frame, and then fell apart REALLY quickly. I was told that they were made by FL, just under a different name. I replaced them with a pair of FL shoes that lasted about 4 months before going with adidas asymmetrics. Those lasted from fall 2000 to 7/03. I've just replaced them with a pair of old stock adidas adistars (black stripe). Prior to the Tisza's I used a pair of Asics volleyball shoes.

I don't really remember my opinions of the Tisza's in detail, but I remember liking them both as a) my first "real" fencing shoes, and b) much better than the volleyball shoes. The FL shoes were crap. I liked the assymetrics and was sorry to see them go. Adjusting back to "normal" fencing shoes took a little bit. I never felt the assymetrics were heavy until I switched out of them. Well, not heavy so much as bulky. The arch support in my adistars is significantly different. Not worse, not better, just different. It feels different on my feet. Meh, I'm used to them now.

I'd have to say that I can recommend any of the above except for the FL shoes (not an issue, they're out of business) and the volleyball shoes. While court shoes (such as volleyball) make a cheap alternative, I'd rather go with fencing shoes. They work better in my experience.

-B :)

[kcelticwarrior]

[font=Arial][size=2][color=Black]Okay so a lot of opinions on fencing shoes. A lot of you seem to like the Adidas D'artagnan. But what about finding a good pair for a size 11 1/2 or 12 foot. all these really low priced jobs end a round size 11. I've only been in the sport about a month and don't want to spend a fortune on gear til I decide to compete or not.

So any ideas?

[JAySE SUiCiDE]

man, that skeletons lunge is horrible..he doesnt straighten out his front leg at all, and he beats *in* the lunge..unless hes a sabre fencer with the wrong guard doing a *really* low head cut....


~Jes

[kcelticwarrior]

Yes he has a poor lunge. Maybe that's why he's a skeleton instead of a living fencer? Who knows?

[Tomas N]

Just go to the local discount shoe store, try on a bunch of shoes, do some footwork in all of them, and buy the most comfortable pair. I bought a pair of Adidas fencing shoes last year. They provided no support for me, my knees hurt after fencing, and I had blisters on the bottom of my feet. So I reverted back to a pair of very cheap Nike tennis sneakers (an extremely light shoe) that fit the bill perfectly. Of course, I'm taller and older, so having extra support is more important than a light shoe.

Tomas

[kcelticwarrior]

That's what I've been hearing a lot of. Probably a hell of a lot cheaper too since I'm not competeing yet.

[Artisan]

An important consideration is to note the construction of the shoe and see if the tread may delaminate from the sole at the heel of the front foot or the inside toe of the back foot. This often happens to running type shoes, less so with court shoes (basketball, racketball, volleyball)