by Pierre Bastien
Most Popular Squash Shoes of 2016
In the previous issue of Squash Magazine, we looked at the most popular squash rackets of last year. Now let’s round things out by looking at the most popular squash shoes of 2016. Just because a shoe is popular doesn’t mean it will be right for your foot, but sometimes the “wisdom of crowds” helps you narrow down all the choices out there.
Top-Selling Shoes
Here are the top-selling shoes based on number of sales referred from my website to the largest online retailer. This is a narrow way of looking at things but it gives us an idea of what’s popular.
The top five brands in terms of number of shoes sold—Asics, Adidas, Mizuno, Prince, and Harrow—made up 90% of the sales I tracked. The top-selling individual shoes are below.
1. Asics Gel Rocket 7
Price: $75
The top-selling shoe was the Asics Gel Rocket 7. I’m not surprised by this at all—these shoes are good quality, and they won’t break the bank. I’ve worn these myself and found them comfortable and durable. I’ve also seen at least a dozen pros, men and women, wearing the Gel Rocket 7’s.
2. Asics Gel Upcourt
Price: $55
The Asics Gel Upcourt are the least expensive court shoe in the Asics range. These don’t have much padding or foot protection but “the price is right”, as my friend Peter put it. They come in men’s and women’s versions.
3. Adidas Essence 12
Price: $79
Next up is the Adidas Essence 12. These are one of Adidas’s lower-priced court shoes. These have pretty good padding, but they felt a bit clunky to me. They come in men’s and women’s versions.
- Adidas Court Stabil 12
Price: $90
The Adidas Court Stabil 12 is the next shoe up from the Essence in the Adidas range. I’ve never tried these but several pros wear them, both men and women.
- Harrow Vortex
Price: $109
Harrow’s top-end shoe, the Vortex, is the only shoe over $100 in our list. These are light and comfortable and feel fast around the court. They only come in men’s sizes.
What Are the Pros Wearing?
The sales ranking above is a view into what regular club players are using. One theme seems to be the popularity of inexpensive shoes, with four of the top five models coming in under $100. To round things out, I also took a look at what the pros (men and women) were wearing at the recent World Championships / Wadi Degla tournament. Pros are more likely to wear high-end shoes, in part for the extra cushioning, and in part because they are often sponsored and get the shoes for free. The Asics Gel Rocket 7, impressively, tops the list again!
- Asics Gel Rocket 7
- Asics Gel Blade 5
- Salming Kobra
- Salming Viper
- Adidas Court Stabil 12
