Custom Wrestling Shoes – A Beginner’s Guide
Pic credit to: https://www.instagram.com/drewrestler_shoes/
Custom wrestling shoes are exactly what they sound like, they're shoes that are customized by the owners or professionals who specialize in this art to be unique to the person ordering them. This could be swapping out an old sole on a shoe with a new sole from another shoe after your shoe had blown out. It could also be something as simple as painting a school's logo onto the shoe or stitching it into place. On the other hand, nowadays you can get entirely customized wrestling shoes.
For example, in the picture at the top of this post, you aren't looking at a pair of Adidas made wrestling shoes in the normal sense. These were one knee-high boxing shoes that were custom tailored down to wrestling shoes. The sole was also replaced with a sole that came from a new pair of combat speeds. To the average collector, these look like authentic 1988 West German Combat Speeds.
Where to Get Custom Wrestling Shoes
There are many places to get custom shoes done nowadays. Where you go should really depend on what you're looking to do.
For completely custom shoes, I personally recommend Cronin Customs, who can be found on instagram at https://www.instagram.com/cronincustoms/. The work speaks for itself, as shown below.
Final Thoughts On Custom Shoes
In recent years, a TON of big-name wrestlers have turned to him for custom wrestling shoes. It seems to be a growing trend at the NCAA tournament. Bryce Meredith, Austin Desanto, Darian Cruz, Kevin Jack, and Zahid Valencia have all worn customized shoes at the NCAA tournament. Other names I've seen where custom shoes include Mark Hall and Roman Bravo-Young. Heck even legends of the sport such as Olympic Champions Kendall Cross and Jordan Burroughs have rocked custom shoes.
What To Consider About Custom Wrestling Shoes
If you plan on reselling a pair of wrestling shoes, customizations may not be the right route. Especially for rare shoes, I never recommend customizations. Even things like cutting off the lace covers can influence the resell value. As with anything, a general rule of thumb is that the more original it is, the more it's ultimately worth.
If you plan on getting something such as your school logo or high school mascot embroidered, keep in mind likely nobody is going to want them after the customizations are done. Unless of course you wrestle for a big name university, then they may be.
Other customizations, such as sole swapping a pair of shoes with blown out soles, will make the shoe wearable again, which most of the time will increase their resale value. That said, unless the soles of the shoes are blown out, the original sole will be worth more than the sole swapped version.
What Types of Wrestling Shoes Can Be Customized?
I've seen numerous styles of wrestling shoes customized, however, the most common shoes to customize are:
- Adidas Varner IIs
- Nike Inflicts 3s
- Nike Freeks
- Adidas Combat Speed 4s and 5s
- Asics JB Elite 3s
Other shoes, that are less commonly customized, but are often customized after they have sole blowouts and need repairs are:
- Nike "OG" Inflicts
- Nike Kolat Speeds
- Kolat 2000s
- Nike Kolat 2k4s
- Original Combat Speeds
- 1995 and 96 Nike Takedown Supremes
- Nike Footsweeps
Most rare shoes that are customized are generally custom because the soles had major flaws. This is a way to make them wearable again. For example, in the image below you'll see before and after shot of a pair of PSU Nike Kolat's. They were unwearable due to blowouts in both soles. The professional sole swap brought them back to life.
Questions About Custom Wrestling Shoes?
Custom wrestling shoes are by no means my area of expertise. If you have questions about custom wrestling shoes, I suggest contacting someone who specializes in them, especially if you're looking to have a pair of shoes customized. At times, I do purchase custom wrestling shoes. If you're looking to find a pair, there may be some in my inventory of shoes, which can be found here.
Meet The Author
Nolan Barger
A wrestling shoe expert with over 10 years of shoe collecting under his belt, Nolan is the owner of Rare Wrestling Shoes Co. He's owned over 1000 pair of wrestling shoes. Day to day, Nolan works for a Digital Marketing Agency. In his wrestling career, he was a PA state medalist and a 3x D3 NCAA All-American.
4 Comments
Leave a Comment
We're Social. Give Us A Follow!
About Rare Wrestling Shoes Co:
As a wrestling shoe collector for over 15 years, I'm constantly trying to buy new shoes and learn the history behind them. If you have questions about old-school wrestling shoes, shoot me a message.
Sign Up For New Posts:
Hi. Do you customize to size? My son wants to wrestle, but I cannot find his size (18). The largest I have come across is 16.
Hi Mary!
I recommmend reading through the blog in some more detail. I do not do customs, but many people mentioned in here do. ToughSoleSwaps I have seen post size 18s in the past.
hi my daughter is a senior in high school this year and she just got accepted to North Central College to wrestle. She has only been wrestling for 2.5 yrs and this year she qualified for the state tournament. about a year and a half ago her older brother died of an accident overdose at the age of 20 and I believe that her dedication to wrestling is the only way that she makes it through the day. She also maintains a 4.0 grade point while training like a beast daily. the soft season she was wrestling at the askern askren academy to hone her skills. as you can tell I am a very proud father that is her number one fan. I will do anything to help my daughter reach her potential but as a gift for all her hard work I would like to get her a custom pair of wrestling shoes. could you please help me as to the steps I need to take to make this a reality. sorry for the rambling and thank you for your time
Hi Jeremy,
Sorry for your family’s loss.
Definitely reach out to Tough Sole Swaps or Cronin Customs for these (both are on instagram and linked on the post). I’ve worked with both of them to get pairs made and I’m very pleased with their work.
I don’t make custom shoes, but those are my go-tos when I do have them done every once in a while!
Best of luck to your daughter in her wrestling endeavors.
-Nolan