The author’s Jordans after ~500 games.
By Stacy Huen
Pairing an activity to the right pair of shoes is incredibly important. It is so important that I wish I had taken it more seriously when I first started playing dodgeball.
When you go to a shoe store and tell them you need shoes for dodgeball, they often recommend trainers, or tennis-style shoes. Depending on your type of play, I really do not recommend this. Don’t be an idiot (like I was) and wear skateboarding shoes, this will not end well – I now have a permanent injury on my right foot (big toe) after landing awkwardly from a jump in improper shoes.
Once I recovered from the initial injury where I had a toe severely bruised and wrecked tendon on the top of my big toe, I went to a friend who is a sneaker-head and asked for his advice. He said I should be wearing basketball shoes. They have grip, ankle support for lateral movements, and cushioning for jumps. Despite their high cost (~$160 CAD back in 2013) I bought my first pair of Jordans. I got the Melo M9 edition, and they were the best shoes I ever owned.
Those shoes stood up to nearly 500 games of dodgeball (3 games/week for 2 years and 5 games/week for a year) and only started to show wear 3 years of abuse later. They were the only shoes I could wear that did not hurt my toe, and they allowed me to play aggressively and pain-free.
When I started considering replacing my M9s, it struck me – I had a bond with those shoes. They had picked me up off the bench of injuries and allowed me to play harder, longer, and more times per week. They saw me progress from having the weakest throw on my team to the strongest. They were there with me before I started Dodgeball Winnipeg! But once they started to squeak, were fully scuffed, and had a deep groove in the sole from where I dug in my toes, I knew it was time to look at finding their successors.
It is funny to remember how hard it was to replace such a great pair of shoes, but it was important too that I kept my feet in prime shape so I could continue to play and grow as an athlete. I did some preliminary scouting, tried on some Lebrons, and Jordan Melo M11s and M12s, but none of them felt quite right. And I saw a lot of people complaining about going through shoes at an astounding rate (~50 games per pair) but their shoes were less than $50/pair. I quickly realized you really do get what you pay for with shoes, and I cannot stress enough that you get proper footwear.
In my opinion, if you want to succeed at playing dodgeball, you should be buying the best quality basketball shoes you can afford. The cost per game is dramatically lower and your body will thank you. This was true when I had to replace those original Jordans, and it is still true today.
Stacy Huen was the founder and managing director of Dodgeball Winnipeg (dodgeballwinnipeg.com), which runs local/regional dodgeball leagues, tournaments, and drop-in events and serves as organizing bodies for the sport in Canada. Huen had to retire from dodgeball in 2021 due to complications from another injury. This article is an update of his original blog post from March 2016 titled, “Wargear Wednesdays: Shoes,” which can be found at https://dodgeballwinnipeg.com/2016/03/09/wargear-wednesday-shoes/
