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JulianC

Skydiving footwear!?

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Hey everyone,

We're doing some research into trends and opinions about footwear for skydiving!

What footwear do you wear for skydiving? Why? What features are important? Should skydiving have brands of its own?...

If you have a few moments spare, it'd be great if you could complete the following questionnaire. It only takes a couple of minutes...

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1RunU6vVraTpV4sVuOzmcyIkvmKm4eXrcFZjlyk4iZ64/viewform

If you don't have time for that, any comments on here would be welcome!

It'll be interesting to hear what people have to say...

Thanks!
Blue skies!

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>What footwear do you wear for skydiving?

Some cheap no-brand sneakers from the local super market.

>Why?

I jump mainly from C-182, and working with students (SL/Tdm) they tend to wear out in one season. plus the landing area tends to be wet/muddy so they get in bad shape quickly. So using some overpriced fancy shoes would be wasteful.

>What features are important?

Good impact absorption on the heel.

>Should skydiving have brands of its own?

Theres bound to be people who would fall for that, I wouldn't.
Your rights end where my feelings begin.

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The person you should really ask is Roger Ponce de Leon.



:D:D:D I have some awesome pictures of sequential RW with him and every time a whuffo looks at them, they ALWAYS notice the bare feet. ;)
"Mediocre people don't like high achievers, and high achievers don't like mediocre people." - SIX TIME National Champion coach Nick Saban

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Anybody remember wearing flip flops with a rubber band attached? Always made my big toes turn purple. Pre-sport sandals. Teva improved on the concept considerably :P



My AFF instructor had a horror story about landing on concrete with an split-toe sandal of some sort and near about ripping his big toe off. It's kind of put me off trying to jump with the ninja boots I wear for just about everything else. I just use a plain ol' pair of $20 sneakers from Target.
I'm trying to teach myself how to set things on fire with my mind. Hey... is it hot in here?

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Skateboard shoes. They're sturdy and slide pretty well when I'm turf surfing. :)



This.

I used to have a custom made pair of Etnies that were black with camo accents and "SWOOP" was embroidered on the side.
--"When I die, may I be surrounded by scattered chrome and burning gasoline."

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The person you should really ask is Roger Ponce de Leon.




We were doing the 'Century of Flight' demo into Kitty Hawk...patches of snow all over the ground.

Going through the high security gates to get in and walk the landing area prior to the jump, a guard points to Rogers feet and the 1.00 flipflops he had on.

"hope you don't wear THOSE when you jump" said the guard.

NOPE...answered Roger!

:ph34r:










~ If you choke a Smurf, what color does it turn? ~

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Anybody remember wearing flip flops with a rubber band attached? Always made my big toes turn purple. Pre-sport sandals. Teva improved on the concept considerably :P



Until the sweat made the Teva's smell bad. :|

After getting a shoe stripped off by someone behind giving me a flat tire on exit, I always carried another cheap pair of shoes in the car. Sucks walking back to the packing area, over rocks, without a shoe on! And of course, videoing CReW, I saw many a shoe being lost. :D

Don't tell me the sky's the limit when there are footprints on the moon

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My AFF instructor had a horror story about landing on concrete with an split-toe sandal of some sort and near about ripping his big toe off..



Hard to believe that for a while back then most of us seemed to favour Tevas (or Strops, which were a copy of them). In my photos from the nineties at least half the people are jumping in them, and I wore the split-toe version all the time and never gave it a second thought. Like so many dubious trends in skydiving, it was mainly about being cool...

These days I just wear trainers. And since the legs of my current FS suit have always been fractionally too long, I favour the ones with the chunky soles!

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I wear a color that matches my gear, because looking cute is way more important than form or function. :P

She is Da Man, and you better not mess with Da Man,
because she will lay some keepdown on you faster than, well, really fast. ~Billvon

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When I first started out used to wear high end cross trainers.

Well learned real quick those got ate up pretty quickly, so switched to cheapie skate boarder slip ons



Bry
--------------------------------------------------
Growing old is mandatory.Growing up is optional!!

D.S.#13(Dudeist Skdiver)

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I wear a color that matches my gear, because looking cute is way more important than form or function. :P



well duh... everything has to be matchy-matchy!

:$i wear a semi-high top skater shoe that matches my stuff.


to the op, the main points in footwear selection would have to be no hooks, light to no tread (hard to slide in hikers) and that they match your colour scheme.B|
"Hang on a sec, the young'uns are throwin' beer cans at a golf cart."
MB4252 TDS699
killing threads since 2001

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Skateboard shoes is what I wear when jumping even though I'd never publicly where them off of the DZB|

Reason being is that they have a flat sole (any shoe like this would be fine).

I saw an injury last year where a TI was wearing boots (was around September) and he was landing with a student. The student had his legs up so the TI was going to butt slide. Well while he was sliding on the ground to a halt the heel of his boot hit a knook in the ground and flipped it under his leg completely breaking his ankle. Put him out of action for the rest of the season.

I don't think there is a market for skydiving shoes.

"Better to have a short life that is full of what you like doing than a long life spent in a miserable way." -Alan Watts

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Anybody remember wearing flip flops with a rubber band attached? Always made my big toes turn purple. Pre-sport sandals. Teva improved on the concept considerably :P



Until the sweat made the Teva's smell bad. :|

After getting a shoe stripped off by someone behind giving me a flat tire on exit, I always carried another cheap pair of shoes in the car. Sucks walking back to the packing area, over rocks, without a shoe on! And of course, videoing CReW, I saw many a shoe being lost. :D


Don't I know it! I remember one gnarly 9 way diamond that saw 5 shoes lost within 5 seconds. :o Not me though, mine stayed on. :ph34r:
"Mediocre people don't like high achievers, and high achievers don't like mediocre people." - SIX TIME National Champion coach Nick Saban

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I don't think there is a market for skydiving shoes.



Not true. http://i.ebayimg.com/00/s/NzUwWDEwMDA=/$%28KGrHqZHJFcFDS+5-m!UBQ6JIcMsig~~48_35.JPG


Now THOSE have STYLE written all over 'em! ;)

I still have a pair of the 'rw' type with the thinner soles that are in great condition, used for night pyro jumps only.


These daze I use leather Nike basketball shoes...smooth sole & ankle support...been doing that for 100 years, in fact that's where 'AirTwardo' came from. Somebody painted it on a pair of Air Jordans in my gear bag one drunken night! :D

Back in the Teva times I had a friend catch a snag at Elsinore and mangle/break all 5 toes on his right foot...lost a lot of work and limped around for 6 months almost ending his skydiving 'career'...big price to look cool IMHO. :ph34r:










~ If you choke a Smurf, what color does it turn? ~

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Now THOSE have STYLE written all over 'em! ;)


We were backstage of a hip hop show in the 80's after doing a demo in. All the fly girls were wearing French paraboots. I thought "OMG, those things are cool now!?":D

The Tevas, yeah, we wore those to tropical boogies a few times, no injuries but realized your toes are really hanging out there. We switched to closed toe river sandals for our jumping-in-paradise shoes. ;)

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Now THOSE have STYLE written all over 'em! ;)


We were backstage of a hip hop show in the 80's after doing a demo in. All the fly girls were wearing French paraboots. I thought "OMG, those things are cool now!?":D

The Tevas, yeah, we wore those to tropical boogies a few times, no injuries but realized your toes are really hanging out there. We switched to closed toe river sandals for our jumping-in-paradise shoes. ;)


I have generally worn my Tevas in the summer months with the jump suit booties over them, but yeah, you can still fuck the toes up if shit goes south. I actually prefer my sneakers, they just give me better support especially when my landing skills are a bit rusty and don't get those nice tippy-toe or slide-in-on-your-soles landings.
"Mediocre people don't like high achievers, and high achievers don't like mediocre people." - SIX TIME National Champion coach Nick Saban

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With booties, having your toes open isn't nearly as much fun. It was way more fun to have my feet in sandals before then. I loved my rubber-banded flipflops. Of course, in those days you didn't turf-surf, either -- running out a landing only happened if you were going downwind.

Wendy P.
There is nothing more dangerous than breaking a basic safety rule and getting away with it. It removes fear of the consequences and builds false confidence. (tbrown)

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