Skateboard Planet

Well, technically, you can skateboard in any shoe. Just like with any other sport, you can play in just about anything, but a professional football player would never dream of stepping on a muddy football field with basketball shoes and a basketball player would never dream of stepping on the court in golf shoes. Virtually every sport relies on good footwork and skateboarding is not different. Without the proper skateboarding shoes, you will never be able to control the skateboard and your body the way you want to. To make it worse, you could get hurt for no good reason.

What is so special about skateboarding shoes?

First a skateboarding shoe has flat, grippy soles that are usually wider than normal shoes. Sometimes, skateboarding shoes will have extra padding on the side and on the tongue to protect your feet when you are doing tricks. Sometimes, skateboarding shoes will be thin and flexible to allow you to have better feel with your feet. This type of skateboarding shoe will still have a flat bottom to give you maximum area to control the board with. Some other features that skaters might want like include reinforced sides to protect the shoes when doing ollies or extra padding on the heels to protect your foot and cushion the impact of landing after a jump. While it may not seem like it, there is a lot of research and design that goes into making a skateboarding shoe.

There are a lot of companies that make skateboarding shoes. Some of them are the professional skateboarding teams and companies. Some shoes are made by the big name shoe companies like Nike. No one shoe or one company is best for everybody. Once you get the basic features you need like a flat bottom and the amount of support and padding you want, go with a shoe that feels good. Every foot is different and many times, the shoes from one company or the other will fit your specific foot and feel much better than shoes that are more expensive with a different company. Sometimes, the best fit is the most expensive too, but when a shoe is expensive it will probably last longer than cheaper shoes and feel better too. One last thing to consider is image. Make sure you will be proud to wear the shoe you choose and look good wearing it.

Regardless of what type of skateboarding shoes you want, make sure you try on several different types and find the one that fits you best. There is nothing worse than having bad shoes making you sore and keeping you off your skateboard. Don’t forget to make sure they fit your style as you also don’t want to be embarrassed to wear them.

Skateboarding has become an extremely popular sport. ESPN has immortalized skaters and other extreme sports athletes with the X-Games and many people are getting into the sport because of this. More people than ever are looking for places to get skateboarding equipment at great prices.  Before you run down to Walmart or K-Mart, you should do a little research because there are a lot of places where you can get great deals on skateboarding equipment.  You can get top of the line skateboarding equipment on shoe string budget.  There are a bunch of things you may be looking for.  Some are required, some are optional.  Really, everything other than the skateboard is optional so you should probably start there.

When purchasing your first skateboard, you will most likely want to purchase a complete skateboard.  There really is no reason to buy the components one at a time unless you really want to put together a unique skateboard.  If you check out one of the online skateboarding equipment websites we recommend you should be able to save a bunch of money and get a professional quality board for the price of a K-Mart special.

Skateboard shoes are the next thing most skaters buy.  Heck, many non skaters buy them just because they look cool.  While many non-skaters choose to wear skate shoes, the design of the skate shoe includes many features designed for use in skating. These features almost invariably include a flat sole made of rubber or polyurethane, a suede or leather composition, and double or triple stitching.

While you might not think it is cool, most skaters really need to have pads and a helmet.  In fact, unless you are just skating around in your driveway, I can’t really think of a good reason to not wear pads and a helmet.  The better a skater gets, the harder the tricks are that they will try.  As you try harder moves, you will crash and burn.  It is a fact.  Hitting the concrete without pads can have you laid up inside nursing your wounds instead of skating so don’t cut your skateboarding time short just because you think it is cool not to wear safety equipment.  Pads are one type of skateboarding equipment you don’t want to do without.

Now that you have a list of some of the key skateboarding equipment, check out some of the great online resources for skateboarding equipment like www.SkateboardPlanet.net to save a bunch of money.