Lone Wolf’s Guide to Paintball Shoes and Footwear
Paintball is an exciting game that requires good equipment, especially shoes. You need comfortable shoes that help you move quickly and easily, since players engage in a lot of running, jumping, and walking. Good shoes not only help you move better, but also protect your feet from things like rocks and sticks. Wearing great shoes can even give you an advantage over other players. It can be hard to choose the right paintball shoes because there are so many options out there.
Things to Consider When Choosing Paintball Shoes
Regardless of the sport or outdoor activity you're participating in, the footwear you choose has a significant and crucial impact. Regardless of that activity, selecting the right pair is essential, but this is especially true with paintball. There are several different factors you should take into account when making a choice of paintball footwear. To help you decide, we've made a guide for you. Here are the things to look for when buying paintball shoes.
Fitting
Ensuring a proper fit for your paintball shoes is straightforward. Similar to regular footwear, it's crucial to find the “goldilocks” size that isn't too big or small. Wearing shoes that fit correctly can enhance your gameplay by allowing you to focus on the game rather than discomfort from your toes being cramped or the shoe slipping off. Shoes with improper fitting can cause distractions and irritation, while overly tight ones can result in pain. Either are a distraction or even potentially dangerous and may result in losing a game.
Quality
Since paintballing primarily takes place outdoors, it's crucial to have footwear that can withstand harsh environmental conditions and the rugged terrain of woodsball fields. These may include water, sand, stones, and other natural obstacles such as broken branches. If you plan on playing paintball regularly, it's essential to invest in durable, resilient shoes that can endure rough terrain and last a long time. After all, nobody wants to replace their footwear every couple of months.
Traction
Ultimately, paintball is a physically demanding sport that involves running and sliding into various positions. With this in mind, it's crucial to have paintball shoes that provide exceptional traction. When selecting shoes, make sure they have cleats, especially for speedball, and solid treads for woodsball. This will help your foot grip the ground firmly, regardless of how quickly or in which direction you move.
Fastening
The fastening mechanism–laces, tension string, velcro–is very important when it comes to comfort and reliability. Whether you prefer lace-up or slip-on shoes depends on personal preference. However, if you're concerned about your shoes slipping off, it's best to choose shoes with laces, allowing you to tie strong and secure knots for added support.
Speedball Vs Woodsball Shoes
Your selection of footwear will ultimately depend on the type of paintball scenario you’re playing. Speedball shoes will require cleats to better grip on the turf when sprinting. In speedball, players are often sprinting from bunker to bunker so having enough grip is crucial for speedball shoes. Woodsball on the other hand can require lots of walking and much less sprinting than speedball. In this case, boots are a much better footwear option than speedball cleats are. Players should look for hiking boots or even military boots that have strong ankle support and protect you from roots, downed branches and more. These boots should also be comfortable for walking over long distances. Woodsball fields often cover tens and sometimes hundreds of acres of land which requires players to walk long distances.
Lone Wolf Recommendations
To help players make the best paintball shoe choices, we’ve put together a small list of our favorites.
LT Diggerz X1
The LT Diggerz X1 and LT Diggerz X1.5 High Top cleats are an excellent option for speedball paintball shoes and are our personal favorites! These amazing cleats are designed specifically for competitive paintball and offer compression ankle support on both the high ankle and low ankle versions. The cleats were created to maximize traction while playing on synthetic turf, natural grass, and muddy surfaces. Each cleat offers 15 traction points so slipping and sliding will never be a problem.
These amazing cleats feature:
- Excellent ankle support
- Memory foam insole
- High-performance construction
- Flexibility for full range of motion
- Zipper mesh bag
Under Armour Men's Sportlight Lux Mc 2.0 Football Shoe
Beyond purpose-made paintball cleats, nearly any sporting cleat will do whether it’s soccer or football cleats. Our favorites is the Under Armour Men's Sportlight Lux Mc 2.0 Football Shoe. This is an excellent choice for players because of the amount of grip and ankle support given by the shoe. It was built with an ultra lightweight composite material and really locks your ankle into the shoe for increased stability and zero slippage.
Merrell Moab 2 8” Tactical Waterproof
The Merrell Moab 2 8” Tactical Waterpoof boots are some of the best outdoor/all-purpose boots on the market and are ideal for woodsball players. Merrell is one of the most highly regarded outdoor footwear brands and is guaranteed to deal with the wear and tear of nearly any woodsball field. The tactical boots are waterproof but also lightweight and extremely comfortable. Merrell made these boots to last and withstand the content beating caused by hiking, paintballing, and other rugged outdoor activities.
Conclusion
Finding the right footwear for paintball is crucial to enjoying the sport and, more importantly, winning as much as you can. To make sure you’re properly outfitted to win at paintball, Lone Wolf has collected the broadest selection of different paintball equipment on the internet. For any paintball needs, whether it’s footwear, ammunition, markers, or protective gear, take a look at Lone Wolf’s online store for the best equipment on the market.