I am a shoe fanatic, and started my quest for the perfect pickleball shoe, so my first pair (of many) that I tested were Adidas Barricade pickleball shoes.
Unfortunately, these were not my favorite by any stretch of the imagination and even ranked in the best pickleball shoes for men in my opinion.
What’s crazy is that these were also my most expensive pickleball shoes as well as the shoes currently retail around $160.
These shoes created so many blisters on both feet that I ended up continuing to play with my Steph Curry basketball shoes for pickleball.
Let’s cover what I liked and didn’t like about the Adidas Barricade pickleball shoes.
First Impressions
From the first impressions, I thought that the Adidas Barricade shoe appears well made. It is a really beautiful shoe, which is probably why I was so excited to get on the courts with the shoe.
Firstly, these shoes are made with a ton of technology including geofit sensepods (which I have no idea what that means), repetitor midsoles, a torsion system, Adiwear outsoles, and at least 20% recycle content.
One thing that I didn’t really love is the weight. The specification say that these shoes are 14.8 ounces as you can see below,. When I weighed these shoes, I found that the shoes weighed 15.6 ounces which may be my heaviest pickleball shoes.
Let’s talk about how these shoes played on the court as that’s what really matters the most.
On the Court
Unfortunately, everything started going down hill when I started playing with the Adidas Barricade.
Grip
While the Adidas pickleball shoes have really solid grip, I first noticed how uncomfortable the shoes are.
Near the ankles on both shoes, I could feel something piercing both sides of my ankles. In addition, the back of the shoe is extremely uncomfortable, so I immediately felt pain in the back of my foot.
I thought the issue may be that I needed to break the shoe in, but I had blisters in additional games. I had to actually add extra padding and wear longer socks to avoid blisters.
Speed
After testing multiple shoes, I realized that the Adidas Baricade pickleball shoes did not provide the speed of other shoes.
While the shoes provide ample grip, I was not able to move nearly as quickly on the pickleball court with these shoes, even compared to basketball shoes.
So, these shoes lacked both speed and comfort, but let’s talk durability.
Durability
Thankfully, the Adidas pickleball shoes do appear very durable. From my research, the material used is a mesh with synthetic overlays with the outsole made of non-marking rubber.
That said, I do not ever see that I will be able to test the long term durability given how uncomfortable these shoes are.
I wanted to see if my review was similar to any other review out there. I found that reviews on the Pickleball Warehouse also showed an incredible 3.6 rating, which I find quite low.
Specifications
Here are the specifications of the Adidas Barricade. My shoe size is an 11.5 mens and I felt that it was an accurate shoe based on my fit.
- Length: Short (If in between sizes we recommend going a half size up for a comfortable fit)
- Width: Medium
- Arch: Medium
- Break-in: Slight
- Weight: 14.8 ounces (size 10.5)
- Durability Guarantee: Yes
- Surface: Hard (All Court)
Conclusion
I would not purchase the Adidas Barricade shoes again nor would I say that these are the best pickleball shoes for men.
Unfortunately, I found that the blisters the shoes provided and the lack of fast movement plagued these shoes for me from the beginning.
Leave a Reply