This user has no status.
Active Member
Whilst my movement is not great on slippy floors I cant play a shot as when my upper body rotates my feet slide on the floor which screws me right up.
There is a difference between saying: "these shoes work for me." and: "try these, they are the best thin soled shoes for table tennis."
A tennis shoe, a basketball shoe, that would be fine. An indoor soccer shoe, a badminton shoe, a volleyball shoe, those would be fine.
If Mog likes the MERRELL BAREFOOT TRAIL RUNNING shoe for himself it is fine. If you watch him play, you can sort out why they actually might be fine. I know a guy who is quite a good player who used to play in a different version of barefoot shoes. They were fine for him too. But shoes like that would likely not be good for anyone who moves more.
Here is a line from the description of the Merrell shoe: "This barefoot shoe has a sock-like feel for a locked-down fit,"
It is meant for "barefoot" running outdoors, on trails.
All I will say is think about it.
And understand the difference between saying, "these work for me," and "these are good for table tennis."
"General purpose textile sneakers" would probably work better for TT for most people than those Merrell barefoot trail running sneakers.
This is an old thread but if you haven't solved your problem, you might want to consider shoes intended for volleyball players, especially if you are tall. Many of these have grip on the bottom similar to TT shoes (good ones are made by Asics and Adidas). They may protect your feet from impact a bit better than TT shoes, although they are a little bit heavier. Here in the US Jimmy Butler uses them. He is very tall and a bit injury prone and can't wear TT shoes. I have a pair and they seem really durable. I can use TT shoes without hurting myself (I like Stiga Instinct) but at the first sign of foot problems would switch to the volleyball shoes.