Baliston Fencing Shoe

I was intrigued when I dug this shoe up on a site on the 'net and was curious if it was a good fencing shoe to rival the adidas or diadoras of old, or if this was another Chinese copy of a good design.



I contacted the company and these shoes retail in the $80 range and are made by a company in France. They are focused more on the soccer market (I wonder why, you think there's money in doing soccer stuff?) but have a fencing shoe.



This shoe looks great and I couldn't wait to try them on.



Compared to the Adidas d'art. shoe, these are a little wide. Fencers with flat feet will like that. The fit is okay and they felt good to fence in.



After a night of fencing a few 15 touch bouts I checked the shoes out. If you look at the attachement photo you'll see a section circled in green. This part of the sole had already begun to peel away from the shoe - something that is seen mainly in running shoes used as fencing shoes.



I was disappointed in that result, as it makes for a very short life for a fencing shoe.



These are great shoes for walking around, but I'll pass on them for serious fencing.