Anyone seen or wore these badminton shoes before? It looks weird to me, because the front of the shoes are cut out. Is there any particular purpose in doing this?

here is the pic:

Interesting design! Could it somehow help "standing on your toes", literally? Or maybe it somehow reduces stress on the achilles tendon when landing after a big jump?

I thought of that too, but i think it is kinda hard to move around with that kinda design since we normally move around the court on our toes. Also, it is hard to balance with that when you landed on the ground after a jump smash. Dont you think so? :D

it feels unusual that something is missing underneath your foot.

Nic,

here is the same image, gamma corrected:

Ooo, lol, stupid me!

The picture on the web site is misleading too, haha
Gosen (http://www.badmintonalley.com/product_shoes_gosen_sb330.php)