Sunday 11 August 2013

Babolat Propulse 4 Review - My New Tennis Shoes

For the past 5 years I have been a loyal user of Nike Air Court Ballistics but decided to try a different shoe and my choice was Babolat.
The reason for my change was down to the parent of another competitor at a tennis competition who quoted to my mum that 'they are heavy and slow players down' referring to the Court Ballistics. I did like my Court Ballistics they were comfortable, looked great (possibly the best looking tennis shoe out there), were very durable but I needed all the help I could get with speed and agility.
My Dad and I started to look at different shoes and realised that Nike do a lighter shoe for speed, but we could not find it in my size, there was also Adidas Barricade which had very good reviews but the long break-in time put me off, and that left the Babolat Propulse 4.
Comfort - Its great they did not require breaking in and after hours of playing are still comfortable.
Speed/Agility - They have definitely sped me up and there is no issue with support even though they are light-weight. My only complaint is grip in the wet. I play on outdoor courts in all weathers and never really had an issue with slipping, last week I slipped over 4 times in an hour when it was raining. This could be the grip on the sole or it could have been due to the improvement in my speed, thanks to the shoe.
Looks - When I ordered them the only option was the black and I would have preferred white, but since ordering have discovered that they do a white version (not sure if they do them in a junior size). They look good but not the best, but its not how they look its how they perform.
Overall the Babolat Propulse 4's are fantastic and I will definitely buy then again, just not from Decathlon. They do not stock them in-store so we had to order them over the internet and the delivery took 10 days. There are other companies with better customer service that I will use in the future.