Flexibility

When it comes to the flexibility of the shoe, you want to look for a shoe that will bend through the soul of the foot, but also that will bend through the toes of the foot. Similar to tennis, in padel, you’ll be pivoting a lot, changing direction, and accelerating. Your shoe needs the flexibility to allow you to do this. Because you’re moving your feet around the ball, and you need to be able to bend your foot. If you can’t bend your toes or your feet, then you end up not being able to engage your calf muscle, and therefore it’s very difficult to accelerate on. Flexible shoes will help your acceleration. If a shoe doesn’t bend at all, then you know that’s probably not the right shoe for you.

Width
The second characteristic is the width of the shoe. There are some brands that make the shoes a bit narrower and some brands that make the shoes a bit wider. There are also some brands that they have a bit of both to suit both types. Since you’ll be doing a lot of lateral movement in padel, you’ll want to make sure that it’s a comfortable fit around your feet, and that there’s not too much space. If you feel like your foot is slipping inside the shoe, then that’s not the right shoe for you.

Grip
The third characteristic is the grip, and this is something that is the most important characteristic when it comes to the padel shoe. When it comes to the grip of the shoe, you’re really looking for a zigzag pattern on the bottom, and ideally with a nice, deep indentation. If you rub your hand over it, you’ll feel that it’s kind of rough and rigid, and that’s just the type of feeling you’re looking for. Because if you’ve got the shoe on and you want to change direction, you’ll get a nice grip on the ground so you can move away. Some of the padel shoes have different patterns, sometimes some will have zigzags in one direction or another direction, and they’ll have different sections of the shoe with different directions or different size zigzags.