- The American Cheerleading Association believes that properly tying your cheer shoes ensures safety, comfort, and support.
- If you want to get the best fit, more comfort, and better grip out of your shoes, you need to tie them the right way.
- Learn the best way to tie your cheer shoes from the experts at Omni Cheer for comfort, safety, and performance.
Learn How to Lace Your Cheer Shoes!
Appropriately tied cheer shoes have been shown to improve performance and comfort, even preventing injury! There are a few factors in cheer shoes that can contribute to your performance, comfort, and safety, including shoe design, fit, and lacing technique. Once you have the appropriate cheer shoes, as recommended by your coach, you can learn the best ways to tie them.
Interested in getting the best performance out of your cheer shoes? Follow along as we cover the benefits of appropriate shoes, how to fit yourself for cheer shoes, and how to tie cheer shoes here.
Why Cheer-Specific Shoes?
Like most athletes, cheerleaders require specialized shoes to support their specific activities. With cheer shoes, product engineers consider flexibility, comfort, support, and traction to deliver the right functionality for stunts and tumbling. Here are a few of the features you may find in the best cheer shoes:
- Lightweight Materials: Cheer shoes are typically made with ultra-light materials, including mesh, EVA rubber, and sateen. All of these materials can provide support without weighing you down while doing your cheer routine.
- Snug Fit: You don’t want to be slipping and sliding inside your shoes while doing a backflip! With a snug fit, you can expect more control and support from competition cheer shoes than from most other athletic sneakers.
- Traction: The bottom of any type of cheer shoe will have a ton of grip. With better traction, you can control take-off and landing for jumps and flips without worrying about slipping and falling.
- Uniformity: You want to match with your entire team, so most coaches order matching cheer shoes in bulk for the entire squad. Uniformity is even more important when learning how to tie cheer shoes. Your entire team should be tying their shoes in the same way!
Now that you know why you should opt for cheer-specific shoes, it’s time to talk about how to find the right fit for your shoes.
Fitting Yourself for Cheer Shoes
Each cheer shoe delivers a unique fit and feel. The safest way to get the best fit is to determine whether you prefer Chasse, GK, or Ion. Then, you can order a shoe sizer for your entire team. A shoe sizer takes the guesswork out of finding the right fit with literal shoe soles that your squad can try. Once you find the right size for each person, you can place an accurate order.
If it’s your first time ordering cheer shoes or learning how to tie cheer shoes, review the fit recommendations for each product. Some recommend sizing down one or two sizes from your normal street size. Once you receive your shoes (or if you have a chance to try them on in store), make sure you feel these key attributes to determine the fit:
- Comfort: The shoe should be snug, not tight. If you’re feeling chafing in any areas, you may need to consider a thinner sock, a wider shoe size, or a size larger. Determine where, if any, places are chafing to decide on the correct solution.
- Support: Cheer shoes have pronounced arch and ankle support structures to help prevent injuries during high-impact moves. Do the supports in this shoe fit in the right area of your foot?
- Heel Fit: Your shoes should never be sliding off your heel when you’re walking, let alone performing. Jump, run, and bounce around to ensure your shoe doesn’t budge in the heel.
Now you’re ready to learn how to tie cheer shoes!
How to Tie Cheer Shoes: Your Best Fit
There are several methods for how to lace cheer shoes. For example, the classic criss-cross lace is how you tie cheer shoes for heel slipping, while the parallel lace design is for people who feel like their shoes are too tight on top. Here are a few different techniques for how to tie cheer shoes based on the support you need:
- High Arches: Lace your shoe from the bottom with one criss-cross, then thread the lace through the side for two holes. Complete the rest of the lacing with the criss-cross pattern to the top.
- Toe Pain: Thread the lace by your toe from the bottom diagonally to the top without passing through any other holes. Thread the other lace through each hole diagonally, running it parallel all the way to the top.
- Wide Foot: Thread your lace only up the side of the shoe on each side, leaving an open space in the middle for the first three holes. Lace the rest of the way in the classic criss-cross pattern.
How you lace your cheer shoes can change how the shoe feels completely! Which method do you think will work best for you?
Test Your Laces
Now that you know a few techniques for how to tie cheer shoes, you can find the one that ensures you feel most comfortable and secure. Just make sure to talk to your cheer coach about changing your laces so they understand that you’re not changing the uniform, you’re just getting more support from your unique lacing style.
