Whether you are a junior-level baseball player or a seasoned golf pro, you need special cleats to play on a turf or natural grass. Such specialized footwear will provide you with required stability, support, traction, and durability thereby helping you perform at your best. Obviously, it wouldn’t be a good idea to wear the same cleats for baseball, soccer or football. This could compromise your safety and comfort in the field. What do you need to know before you buy?

As in baseball, where your feet have to counterbalance four to six times your body weight or even higher, you need specialized baseball cleats. Unlike soccer or football cleats, baseball cleats are shorter and wider to allow maximum control and stability while running on dirt or grass.

There are mainly two types of baseball cleats: metal and plastic. For safety reasons, metal baseball cleats are not allowed in many junior-level baseball associations. But they are widely used in hard fields in college, high school, and pro levels where better grip is required. Quality cleats generally include leather for maximum flexibility and breathability.

It is important to choose a pair which fit you comfortably without giving you blisters or other injuries. Moreover, such cleats need to be lightweight as you need free movements while running. You can opt for higher or mid-cut cleats as they are known to provide optimal ankle support and traction (better grip) on the field.

Baseball cleats are sold by various top brands of the world. One such brand is Mizuno baseball cleats whose 9 Spike design is creating quite a buzz worldwide.  These shoes sport three additional cleats at the front to prevent tilting and ensure the players with more stability on the field.

Lastly, you wouldn’t want to expose your cleats to a heater as this could damage the cleats by making it stiff. To dry your cleats, I would suggest you to stuff your cleats with newspapers and leave them for few hours or overnight, according to your need.

Guest Blogger: Nina Ghosh Konar