Boxing Shoes vs. Wrestling Shoes – What is the difference?

First of all, why do people look for wrestling shoes instead of boxing shoes? Well many bad things can happen during boxing and many schools don’t want to have that risk, so they generally don’t have boxing classes or tournaments. However many of them have wrestling courses, classes etc. Because of that there are many wrestling shoes. Secondly people may not have online shopping opportunities and they have to buy it from some sport shop. And that sport shop may have only wrestling shoes. This is just an example however I have witnessed this example many times in many countries.

 

Let’s start boxing shoes vs. wrestling shoes with the most vital difference…

First of all both of these shoes need to provide traction however wrestling shoes provide traction for every direction whereas boxing shoes gives only vertical traction. The reason is simply the basic of the sports. Boxers need to move and dodge to the sides and boxing shoe should provide minimum traction except vertical axis.

With that wrestlers don’t want to be thrown away so wrestling shoes provide a lot of traction for every direction. This is why you see circular lines at the sole. Whereas boxing shoes have horizontal lines at the sole. And thanks to that you can pivot easier with boxing shoes. This also allows you to pivot from more angles and it truly has vital importance for punching precision.

With that there are also people who can lose their balance to the sides quite easily and if you fall in this category wrestling shoes can actually be a better choice for you. Because as you know these provide traction for every direction and when it is the case, it is way harder to lose your balance.

 

Durability

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Durability obviously depends on material quality. However when you use boxing shoes for wrestling these won’t last much. The reason is the ankle part. These do not have the flexibility of wrestling shoes. If boxing shoes are used for wrestling, construction of shoe’s ankle part will get worse and eventually its ankle support will become useless. And let’s not forget that the ankle part of boxing shoes gives a lot of discomfort during wrestling. However if you consider only durability, wrestling shoes can be used for any boxing training with no issues whatsoever. This is the another reason why wrestling shoes are widely used for boxing.

Price

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Well this depends on nothing but company’s policy. I have seen bad boxing shoes with a very expensive price tag and I also saw the opposite of it. This also applies for wrestling shoes as well. However based on my experiences and researches, quality wrestling shoes are generally cheaper than quality boxing shoes.

 

Style

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Both boxing shoes and wrestling shoes have different length of cuts. Some are mid, some are low and some are high. Low top shoes give less ankle support and high tops give you more ankle support. Also the sides of wrestling shoes are bulkier.

 

Flexibility

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Due to the nature of the wrestling, wrestling shoes are much more flexible than boxing shoes. Because you need to
move your foot in a lot of different angles. Because of the flexibility sometimes you may not move “sharp” with wrestling shoes. Whereas boxing shoes are built for you to do “sharp” movements. Even though it is a small detail, this is another thing to consider if you plan on doing boxing training with wrestling shoes.

What about boxing shoes for wrestling? Boxing shoe’s flexibility is not much like wrestling shoes. So boxing shoes aren’t comfortable like them and even some boxing shoes can hurt your ankle during wrestling. Considering these I highly suggest you to stay away from boxing shoes for wrestling.

 

Size

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Based on my researches on company sites and forums the size of shoes depends on materials but wrestling shoes are generally bulkier, bigger than boxing shoes.

Lastly I want to say that even floor type changes one sport to another and boxing shoes are meant to be used on boxing ring floors which are easier to move. Same goes for wrestling shoes. So wear your shoes and do your training on floors which are suitable for your sport type 🙂 Also durability of these lowers significantly when these are used outdoors. For example walking with these in rain just ruins them. Both wrestling and boxing shoes are not durable to water at all.

Considering all of these qualities I think that boxing shoes should not be used for wrestling. This can hurt your ankles and you can lose your balance quite easily during wrestling. With that you can do the opposite. Many people including professional boxers use wrestling shoes even in matches. For example I remember that Timothy Bradley wore wrestling shoes in many matches including the match with Manny Pacquiao and there are actually many examples like that. Based on my researches and experiences if you can’t get boxing shoes for some reason, wrestling shoe is the best option.

As a side note the most popular wrestling shoe brand for boxing is Asics. I have seen that many people spar with this brand’s shoes.

If you lose your balance to the sides very easily during boxing then you can go with wrestling shoes for your boxing routine. Other than that I highly suggest you to get a shoe for your own sport type. In that way you will get used to it more and show better training performance and let’s face it you will eventually want to get shoes which are made for your own sport type.

If you will do boxing training, then you might want to check out these best boxing shoes. These shoes are best in their categories and get very good feedback from forums. Also all of them have sizing information in product pages as well.

I hope you enjoyed reading differences of boxing and wrestling shoes and if you have anything to share just leave a comment below.

 

Media Courtesy of Jeff Pape, Chris Hunkeler, Thomas M (Flickr) via Creative Commons License, Some Rights Reserved