Plantar fasciitis is a problem with the thick band of tissue that runs from your heel to your toes. When overloaded, it hurts most at the heel, and worst with the first steps of the morning. Tennis loads it constantly: hard stops, lunges, split-steps, and serve landings all pull on the same tissue. That is why this list was built on measured heel cushioning, drop, and support, … [Read more...]

A bunion changes how a tennis shoe has to fit. The joint at the base of your big toe juts outward, the toe itself drifts toward its neighbours, and every push-off, plant and slide presses that bump against the inside of the shoe. A shoe that is merely wide can still hurt if its toe box curves inward, stands too low over the joint, or covers the bump with a rigid guard. What … [Read more...]

If the balls of your feet and your heels take a pounding every session, your outsoles wear down the outside edge first, and your ankles feel one bad plant away from rolling outward, your arches are probably doing less work than they should. A high arch is a rigid arch: it does not flatten to absorb impact, so the shock a normal foot spreads across the whole sole lands on two … [Read more...]

If your feet are wide, tennis shoe shopping usually goes one of two ways. The shoe squeezes the ball of your foot until it goes numb by the second set, or you size up, slide around inside a longer shoe, and jam your toes on every hard stop. Most court shoes are built on a standard D last, and a wide foot in a narrow last hurts exactly where tennis loads hardest. We built this … [Read more...]

Flat feet change how tennis feels. With little or no arch, the foot rolls inward under load, and a sport built on sideways movement exposes that fast: arch ache by the second set, sore shins, and knees that take the twist your midfoot should have absorbed. A shoe that feels fine for walking can fold the first time you plant and cut. Most roundups ignore that. They relabel soft … [Read more...]