Where Do You Train?
One of the most important factors that I take into consideration when I’m choosing the best pair of shoes for martial arts is the surface I’m going to be training on.
Is it going to be on the mats, hardwood floors? Maybe you’re outside and your training on concrete, gravel, grass, or the dirt.
Below is the video review if you prefer to watch, or continue reading below the video.
Timestamps: Shoe For Mat Training – 0:32 / Shoe For Hardwood Floors – 0:55 / Shoe For Training Outdoors – 1:50 / Vibram 5 Finger Cross Trainer – 2:54 / Tai Chi/Kung Fu Shoes – 3:40
On The Mats
If you are in a training 
situation where you going to be needing a martial arts shoe for the mats, I recommend going with an Asics wrestling shoe.
Those are designed to have a really good grip on the mat, as well as a nice and flexible for your foot.
I know that they’re designed really well and they’ll last a long time. Asics is a really good brand.
Indoors
So when it comes to training
indoors on the hardwood floor, I wear the Asics GT 2000.
The only thing that I can say that I don’t like about wearing these on the hardwood floor is that if the floors a little dusty or a little dirty, then these don’t have that great of traction.
You kind of have to do the basketball move, you know, wipe your palm on the bottom of your shoe to get a little grip going on.
Especially if you’re doing a bunch of kicks, like I train Muay Thai as one of my arts and doing the kicks on a dusty floor with your foot slipping around, Isn’t a lot of fun, one thing to take into consideration.
Outdoors
When I’m training outdoors, I
prefer to wear the New Balance Nitrel.
It’s an all-terrain running shoe, and it works great from transitioning in between the different types of surfaces between a park where there’s concrete, there’s brick, grass, dirt.
This is a great shoe that allows me to transition between all those different environments while I’m training in martial arts.
I have had these for a couple of years now, and the only bad thing that I can say about them is that the material has a come loose and there’s a hole on the outside of where my pinky toe is.
But like I said, these have lasted me quite a while and they’re also one of the more comfortable shoes that I have. I would like to get a new pair of these.
However, because the material failed here on the outside, I will be looking for something different in the future.
Other Options
At one point I did own a pair
of the Vibram five fingers shoes.
My main art is Wing Chun. And when I owned those shoes, whenever I would do a closing step, my toes would catch and kind of bend back underneath briefly.
And with no cover on the toes, they can get smashed pretty easily, so that became super annoying.
That’s another benefit of having a fully covered shoe, is it protects your foot and your toes don’t catch.
Ultimately, what I wanted to highlight in this video was the best shoe for martial arts is whatever is comfortable and works for your specific training situation.
But of course, the number one thing is, if you do ever find yourself in a self defense situation, whatever you’re wearing at the time is going to have to do right?
That’s just one thing to keep in the back of your mind.
Take care,
Chuck