Tips on getting cleats/boots for Ultimate Frisbee

Hello Ultimate Frisbee Players!

For some of you, you might be deciding on your first purchase of boots/cleats for the upcoming Ultimate Frisbee season, or to simply replace your shoes for a pair of boots to begin playing Ultimate seriously on a regular basis.

Here are some tips on choosing the boots/cleats such that you won't be spoilt for choices when buying them

Do take note that this is a guide that I generally use and people might have different way in choosing the boots they want. With that, let us begin!

1) Soccer boots? American Football boots?

There's many debates on whether to purchase soccer or american football boots. American football boots are made in a way to cater to the needs of an american football player and there are many fakes and receiving during a game of american football, which is pretty similar to Ultimate Frisbee.

In order to cater to this, the front part of the boots usually have more studs (toe studs) to allow people to drive harder to accelerate for a long pass or to provide enough grip on the ground to execute a fake.

Moreover, they come in different versions that provide support for ankles if you require so.

Soccer, on the other hand, caters to enhance the shooting, passing and dribbling abilities of the player.

Hence, more would be focused on the surface of the soccer boot, which is something that an Ultimate Frisbee player might not require, unless you're doing this, which is very rare in a competition:

However, in Singapore, soccer boots are more widely available, and soccer boots still ultimately cater to acceleration and speed, which speedier players could still go for. Hence it would depend whether you are going for speed or support/more traction. For american football boots, purchases can be done online, through various online websites such as Amazon or Ebay. I personally do my purchases through Eastbay, as it sometimes comes with pretty decent perks such as free shipping or discounts.

2) Bladed or rounded studs?

Bladed studs apply more point of contacts, which might result on a greater acceleration/drive to catch up to your defenders or to catch a long pass. Rounded studs might provide more traction for fakes or pivots. It also depends on the surface that you are playing too. For us in Singapore, we are usually place with soft to hard grounds, often changing due to the weather. Here's a good video describing the type of studs for each type of surface.

3) Size to purchase?

In Ultimate Frisbee, you tend to do lots of cuts and fakes during the game. Getting a size that is too big causes your feet to shift inside the boots, causing abrasions and blisters. In addition, sometimes the inertia from the shifting might cause you to lose your balance and not be able to execute your cuts/fakes effectively.

On the other hand, getting a size that is too tight would be very uncomfortable for your feet, especially prolonged wearing for tournaments that last a good 10 - 12 hours.

a barometer which i used would be when I can still wiggle your toes freely and my feet would not slide back and forth when I apply pressure too the front of my feet when trying the cleats on.

There are many boots around that might suit you for a game of Ultimate Frisbee. Hope that this helps you in finding the pair of boots that would win you games!