Today I want to talk about a topic that some people bring up from time to time. I want to explain something for you all with my PERSONAL opinion. You don’t have to take this as from an expert (because I’m not), but I think my take on this should help you. So the topic is, do basketball shoes make you jump higher? Even sports shot camera can’t catch your jump.
We will be talking about the gear to make one’s jump higher, what it’s for, do your standard basketball shoes increase the jump and how you should actually develop your jump.
Let’s begin.
GEAR TO MAKE YOU JUMP HIGHER
Even if you’ve never heard about it, there are lots of athletic products out there claiming to increase your vetical jump. These are so called ‘Jump Soles’, ‘Strength’ Shoes’, special midsoles that make you leap higher etc. The athletic industry seems to have literally everything you can think of these days.
A brand called Athletic Propulsion Labs (APL in short) has created a baske
tball shoe with a special technology to help you “jump higher”.They say you would increase your vertical in about 2.5 inches. I really don’t want to go into detail about this, because I simply think it’s not worth my time and YOURS too. If you’d still like to find out more about their tech, head to their website.
All these products are proved by scientists that they provide what it is advertised about them. The gear is legit, but they do not do a thing that’s said in the title of this article – actually make YOU jump higher.
SO WHAT DO THESE PRODUCTS DO?
They HELP you in your jumps. They provide you the tools to assist your leap and make it easier to perform. On paper, they probably do make you jump higher compared to standard basketball shoes. While that’s not a bad thing, I strongly think it’s a waste of your time. Seriously.
You’re not going to be playing with shoes like these or gear like this. And if you are a professional basketball player, shoes like these are actually banned in some leagues. But that’s not the point. The only reason you would want stuff like this is either to work out or just play around casually. That’s it. Now, APL’s website probably states completely otherwise and they have their own reasons. But I don’t even care. If you’re just a person playing basketball, I really think you shouldn’t care too.
Proved by scientists or not, name me an NBA player or a Euroleague player, or a streetballer that wears these kind of shoes as their daily driver for basketball. You can’t, because there is none. Maybe a few. And that’s because they’re not practical, they’re very expensive ($300-$400), some leagues banned them AND they have a quite bad reputation among regular people.
Still think you should get them?
I don’t think so. But of course, at the end of the day, I don’t want to judge anyone. If you want to try them out and can easily afford them, go right ahead. I just know that I don’t want to spend my money on something I really don’t have faith in.
NOW FOR THE STANDARD SNEAKERS
So what about your standard basketball shoes: the LeBrons, the Currys, the Jordans etc. Do they increase you vertical? Well, I think you already know the answer.
No, they don’t. But they do what they’re supposed to do.
Standard basketball sneakers have the cushioning technologies that a
re focused on impact protection and responsiveness. That’s what all the tech (BOOST, BOUNCE, ZOOM AIR, FlightSpeed…) you see on their product descriptions (and my reviews) is about. Massive and respected brands like adidas, Nike, UA or Air Jordan focus on just that. If the stuff APL talks about would be really effective, game changing and actually practical, you would already see hundreds of ‘increase your vertical jump’ shoes by these adidas, Nike, Air Jordan, Under Armour and so on.
But you don’t. Your standard basketball shoes are made to provide a responsive and safe experience to the player. Obviously, it’s easier to jump with these shoes than bare-footed (captain obvious) because the cushion is made to be soft, springy and responsive. But it’s not made to make you jump inches and inches higher.
ABOUT THAT VERTICAL JUMP
If you are really dedicated to inceasing your vertical jump and stepping up your game, the things to look for shouldn’t include “shoes that make you jump higher”. Your legs have to do the hard work and shoes are there for making the experience responsive, safe and comfortable. Glad we got that out of the way.
There are simple leg exercises to make the leg muscles more explosive. Then there are full vertical leap training programs, tutorials and more. These things, I believe in.
I personally did a vertical workout program called “Air Alert 3” for 3 months and it really DID increase my jump. And not by 2.5 inches. By A LOT more. But you have to put in the hard work, have patience, decication and motivation. Magical shoes won’t help you there. If you’re interested in that particular program, just head here. It has the full thing there.
CONCLUSION
I hope you found my opinion on this helpful! Again, that was my take on this, someone else’s could be entirely different. I just personally don’t care or believe into these things. They’re like shortcuts for an athlete to me. The bottom line: just stick to regular shoes, work hard on your training and technique and you’ll get where you want to!
If you’re now interested in choosing the right basketball shoes for you, go check out my Shoe Reviews page. It contains a lot of reviews of the most popular and recent shoes right now.
So that sums up my take on “Do Basketball Shoes Make You Jump Higher“? One last thing, NO disrespect to all the company’s products I mentioned (APL or any other)! I really didn’t mean to smack them or spread out a bad word about them. I just said what I felt. It’s cool that the industry has all kinds of things that were impossible long ago. That’s what makes it interesting.