So, you are going to a parkour competition and you have not been supplied with the correct shoes for parkour. Where do you start? Should you take the advice of your instructor? Or should you simply ignore them and try to get away with wearing whatever you want because parkour shoes don’t really matter?
Well, the fact is that parkour shoes are very important to a parkour performance. If you don’t have the correct shoes then you can have a lot of problems when carrying out your training. They will affect your performance and also limit your free running movements.
Parkour footwear is now readily available on the market. There is also a wide range of different types of materials which can be used for parkour footwear. However, one of the most popular and commonly used materials is leather. Leather has a number of advantages when used for parkour shoes. It is highly durable and strong, it allows for the free movement of your feet whilst keeping the fit of the shoe perfect, it provides excellent grip thanks to the material and there are several different styles to choose from.
However, there are disadvantages as well with leather. Firstly, they are very expensive, meaning that only the most able-bodied people will have a chance of having one. Secondly, they are heavy and clunky that makes them uncomfortable in terms of parkour footwear and this limits their use. Finally, they are not particularly breathable meaning that sweat is trapped within the shoe, which can lead to a number of skin infections.
So, what to wear for parkour footwear? As mentioned, there are a lot of different materials and styles to choose from. However, one of the most popular materials is rubber. This is because it is lightweight, extremely durable and also has the added bonus of being flexible and shock absorption in all at once. The two benefits which rubber comes up against are that it is comfortable to wear and it is not too rigid meaning that you can still enjoy free running and jumping.
One of the problems with rubber parkour shoes is that they don’t give the free running and jumping that is required by most parkour enthusiasts. They are stiff and constrictive and do not allow free movement. This means that instead of being able to develop their natural abilities, they end up limiting themselves. To make things worse, wearing rubber in these circumstances makes jumping a lot more difficult meaning that it makes training sessions much harder to manage.
One of the reasons that rubber is so popular is that it does not suffer from this problem. If a shoe is constricting then it can hold the wearer’s foot in place and prevent free running and jumping. However, when you are walking then it is much easier to move around. If you wear a shoe that is not constricting then you can be very mobile and jump more freely. This is what makes these shoes so useful for parkour. The other benefit is that they are often lightweight, which means that you don’t feel like you are carrying anything around.
The second area is the grip and the best parkour shoes will have extra grip on the soles. This means that you can grip surfaces that you would not normally be able to on bare feet. The reason why this is important is because this allows you to use your muscles to guide yourself and to control surfaces which otherwise would be very hard to handle without having extra grip.
Finally, polyester filament is also used on many shoes nowadays. Parkour is a sport where you need to be able to jump and climb at high speeds and when you are doing parkour this is especially important. However, if you are wearing shoes that do not have the right grip, then you might end up tripping over the filament and this could severely injure you. Although there are some cases where the injuries resulting from this are minor, polyester filament is definitely one that is worth considering when you are looking for parkour shoes.
Lastly, the best shoes make sure that you have adequate shock absorption. Shock absorption is the ability of the shoe to absorb shock while you are being propelled about on the ground. There are various parts of the shoe that allow you to absorb shock such as the outsole and the upper. However, the uppers and the outsole are typically the ones that are most important because these are the areas that will take the most impact when you are doing parkour moves.
Most people will agree that it is very important that you get the most comfortable shoes you can find. This means that they are lightweight and that they offer you lots of breathability. It also means that they have good shock absorption and that you are able to wear them for a long time without any problems. The best parkour shoes can all do these things, but only a select few will do them well. The two above factors are what makes the Nike Ollie and the Adidas Amna really popular.