Hi guys! This is my first post. I have been playing badminton casually for the past two years without any shoes. It was such a nice feeling - great care had to be given to feet placement to not get blisters but I did feel super comfortable with it. Obviously, I have now joined a club where I play once a week. This implied that i had to start playing with real badminton shoes to keep up with the 'pros'. I kid you not, it doesn't feel that natural for some reason (a lady beat me 3 times on my first day). My problem is that I have naturally flatter feet that are quite wide. My Yonex Power cushion 36 have a kind of structure inside of them that when i transfer my weight onto my toes in the shoes, the nail impacted the roof protrushion and got beaten up blue. It is now red and my feet are more blistered that they have ever been from playing barefoot. EVER. I kindly ask for advice on which new shoes to acquire. I am looking for some shoes that will give my feet and toes some freedom of motion, as I am currently not using my toes for any kind of weight transfer. The laces have possibly been too tight. I have looked into the wider models and have heard good things about the brand New Balance. I am thinking about buying one of the wieder Mizunos which I have read good things about. If you have any suggestions or have heard something from someone with similar problems, I would love to know. (I cannot believe you people don't play this sport barefooted!!!)
Victor labels their shoes V & U for the shape, so if you have wider feet go for the U shape models such as: A670CR/A670F, A362II AB/A362II BI/ A362FII AQ, these are wider still A555 BA/ A555 CH etc. Sent from my SM-N9750 using Tapatalk
You must not jump a lot, or sideways. I can't imagine what would happen if I landed a fast sideward jump barefooted. The impact from the jumping on the knees, on the heels. The force of changing directions, even reversing momentum completely. It would tear the skin apart. If you mistime any part of your footwork, the punishment would be so much more severe on the ligaments and muscles down there. It's one thing if you keep the pace at a comfortable level, but when you push yourself to the limit, something is going to go wrong. Yonex is known to have narrow models and to run a bit small. The best thing to do if you have unusual feet is to go to the store and try on shoes. There really is no good alternative for finding shoes that fit well. They don't specifically need to be badminton shoes (which might be hard to find depending on where in the world you are), They can be any shoe made for indoor sports. Usually they are classified as court shoes. Really, please don't gamble by ordering online. Your feet need to feel the shoe to know for certain if they are going to be a good fit. A shoe should be snug but not restricting. It should be like an extension of your feet. Too big and you move inside the shoe which leads to inefficient footwork and blisters. Too small and it will hurt to play with the shoe and damage your foot as well. Cats and dogs have natural padding on their paws because explosive movement is part of their evolutionary blueprint. Think of shoes as a human attempt to recreate that grip and cushioning to facilitate our own explosive movement (in badminton for example).
Yonex also produces 'wider' models, if you are interested. Momota's POWER CUSHION 65Z, for example, has a wide 4E version (SHB65Z3W). Other 4E models include POWER CUSHION COMFORT Z 2 WIDE MID, POWER CUSHION 88 DIAL WIDE and the less expensive POWER CUSHION COMFORT3 WIDE. But as written above, it is probably best not to gamble on online purchases. I am a big fan of the POWER CUSHION AERUS Z series, basically because this particular shoe is extremely lightweight. But here, despite being a female, I have opted for the men's version (3E), because I feel the women's counterpart to be too narrow.
