Wine Country CrossFit

Hey Guys,

I have had quite a few people interested in purchasing a pair of Olympic weightlifting shoes recently and in turn have been sending out a lot of individual emails regarding my thoughts on them.  Because of the interest, I thought I’d post my take here.

First I would like to say that I think that Olympic lifting shoes are a good investment for just about anybody who is going to stick with CrossFit.  No doubt the first pair of CrossFit specific shoes you buy should be a pair of simple flat soled shoes.  Minimalist running shoes, like Innov-8’s F-Lite series, or a pair of Chuck Taylors will allow you to do everything that CrossFit requires.  But once you have a pair of those, your next specific shoe should be an Oly shoe.

Olympic weightlifting shoes do a couple of things very well.  # 1: their sole is made of either very hard rubber, or wood.  This provides a great stable platform for your foot to drive into while you are standing up that new 1 rep max front squat.  #2:  They have a heel that is elevated.  This allows the ankle to tilt forward to a more extreme angle allowing you to more easily get your butt to your ankles and keep a very upright torso in the front squat (catch of the clean) or the overhead squat (catch of the snatch) position, all while keeping your weight in your heels and keeping your heels down and connected to the floor.

On to “what to buy”

There are a lot of good olympic weightlifting shoes on the market today ranging from dirt cheap to Manolo Blahnik level.  Here are a few of my favorites:

#1 The VS Athletic Weightlifting Shoe

#1: The best bang for your buck comes from a company called VS Athletics.  They are located in San Luis Obispo and after Rodrigo called them and gave them a verbal beatdown, they agreed to give us special pricing on their shoes.  Rodrigo wears these and swears by them.  If you call VS Athletics, tell them you are a member of Wine Country CrossFit, and ask for “Affiliate pricing”  you can pick up a pair of these baby’s for $55.00.  Not too shabby.  You must call to receive the special price.  You can reach VS Athletics at 800-676-7463

#2 The Do-Win Shoe

These are a tried and tested solid shoe.  They have been around since long before mainstream shoe companies figured out that there was profit to be made in Oly shoes.  I wear these as does Beth, Marco, Alex, and now (in pretty pink) Emilie does as well.  The newest model is offered with a wood laminate heel, which because of stability I believe is the best option.  They have even gone fully mainstream now and offer all sorts of sweet colors.  On top of that, they are sold by our friends down at California Strength, so you can support the badass lifters who are kind enough to be coming to put on an Oly seminar for us next month.

#3 The Nike Romaleo

This is the absolute CrossFit, badass coolguy (coolchick) pair of Oly shoes.  Coach Scott wears them at home and claims that he does the dishes 15% faster!  If you’re looking for the cream of the crop, this is it.  I have not personally worn these shoes, nor tried them on (for fear of putting them on and having the magical Nike fairy lift another $200 from my wallet) however, they come with top marks from every lifter I have spoken to who wears them, including nationally competitive lifters.  I’m not sure why nike put the air in the heel, as it is not the most stable thing in the world, but I’m sure it helps them sell “technology” in shoes.

Sadly, there is nowhere to try on these shoes, and online is the only option for purchase.  That being said, I have yet to hear of anyone having sizing trouble with any of the above listed shoes.

One last word on the Reebok offering.  I would personally avoid the Reebok Olympic lifting shoes.  It is my opinion that they compromised their oly shoe to make it easier to do CrossFit in.  This defeats the purpose of a specialized shoe.  Sadly the shoe is too specific to be your only CrossFit shoe, but not specific enough to be a quality Oly shoe.  On top of all of that the heel has holes in it.  As I stated above, you want a good solid foundation to lift from, saving a few ounces in heel weight should not be of concern.  I know, I know, I know, Rich Froning wears them…. but he gets paid to.  So much for “unbuyable”

Let me know if you have any further questions

-Ryan

Finally I’ll leave you with this video from VS Athletics:

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Monday’s Benchmark WOD:

“Kelly”

5 Rounds:
400M Run
30 Box Jumps (24/20)
30 Wall Ball (20/14)

Compare to:
7/23/12
2/20/12
10/17/11
6/7/11