Do wrestling shoes
run true to size?

Three different rulers

When a page says "size up half a size," the obvious question is: up from what? There are three possible answers, and the advice only makes sense once you know which one is meant.

• Your women's street shoe size. What you buy in sneakers.
• A unisex wrestling chart. Most wrestling shoes are built on one last and sold in men's numbering. Women's numbering on the same shoe is roughly 1.5 higher.
• A brand's own women's chart. Only a couple of shoes have one.

"Size down 1.5" and "size up half" can both be correct advice for the same foot, because one is converting from a unisex chart and the other from a women's one. That is the entire confusion.

How to size wrestling shoes, step by step

1. Start from your women's street size, the number on the sneakers that fit you now.
2. Find out which scale the shoe is sold in. Read the size list, not the colorway. At WrestlingMart, a women's model such as the ASICS Matblazer lists women's sizes only, and a unisex shoe lists two numbers for every size, like M6 / W7.5.
3. On a unisex shoe, go by the W number. WrestlingMart prints the women's number 1.5 above the men's on every unisex shoe it sells, at every size below a men's 14: M6 / W7.5, M8 / W9.5. RUDIS numbers the Hildebrandt the same way, 9W / 7.5M. So a women's 9 is a men's 7.5.
4. Then apply that shoe's fit advice from the table below. It counts from the size step 3 landed on, the one whose W number is your street size, never from the men's number a second time. A half size up on a unisex shoe is the next size on the list: a women's 9 is M7.5 / W9, and a half up is M8 / W9.5. Order that, and take nothing more off. Where the sources disagree, the row says so and names each one.
5. Try them on in the socks you compete in, indoors, before the first practice. Some shops will not take back a worn shoe; Suplay says so outright.

What to order

Three of these shoes are sold on a women's scale, so there is nothing to convert: start at your street size and apply the fit advice. On the unisex shoes the conversion in step 3 already did the big move, and the fit advice adds a half or a whole size at most. That is why one guide says go down and another says go up. They start counting from a different place.

Do ASICS wrestling shoes run small?

Yes, by half a size, say two wrestling retailers, BlueChip Wrestling and Suplay. ASICS does not tell us directly: its website blocks the automated reads this site checks sources with, so we could not read its own size guide. BlueChip Wrestling says ASICS fit “one half size larger than your normal size,” and Suplay says ASICS “recommends that you add a 1/2 size to your regular street shoe size for most of their shoes.”

For a woman, that half size matters less than the scale it is counted on. Most ASICS wrestling shoes, the Matflex, the Snapdown and the Dan Gable EVO among them, are unisex and numbered in men's sizes with the women's beside it. BlueChip puts the whole conversion in one example: “if you typically wear a 7 in women's shoes, you'd want to start with a size 5.5 or a six.” Those are men's numbers, 1 to 1.5 below her women's size. In the W numbers printed beside them they are M5.5 / W7 and M6 / W7.5: her own size, or the half up that the ASICS rows in the table above give. The same page says every wrestling shoe is unisex, which the Hildebrandt and the Matblazer contradict. The Matblazer is sold in women's sizes only, so there is nothing to convert on it.

How tight should wrestling shoes be?

Snugger than a normal athletic shoe. BlueChip's guide says “a little more snug than a typical athletic shoe,” so that your foot does not move much inside it while you look for grip, and RUDIS says its Hildebrandt “runs slightly snug” by design.

A wrestling shoe should fit closer than any other shoe you own. Your foot should not slide inside it at all. There is no cushioning to break in and no room to grow into, and a shoe bought a size up so it lasts two seasons will cost you on a shot before it ever wears out.

Retailers make an exception for younger kids. BlueChip suggests sizing kids up slightly and Suplay by a full size, so the shoes last while their feet grow. That buys a longer life at the cost of the fit described above, and it is a trade for a parent to make knowingly.

If you can try them on, do. If you are ordering, order the size the table says, and read the seller's return policy before you buy, so you know whether, and in what condition, you can send them back.

Socks change the answer

Decide before you order whether you wrestle in socks. Plenty of people do not. If you do, size with the socks you will actually compete in, not the thick ones you wore to try shoes on at a tournament vendor table.

When to replace them

Rough guidance based on how these are built rather than on any survey: budget shoes tend to last about a season, mid range ones one to two, and premium ones two to three with care.

What actually tells you it is time:

• The sole has gone slick. Grip is the entire job of the outsole, and it goes before the shoe looks worn out.
• The sole has flattened and you can feel the mat through it differently than you used to.
• The upper has torn, usually at the flex point over the toes.

Laces fraying is not a reason to replace a shoe. Buy laces.

One thing worth knowing before you pay for the word women's

Of the brands we checked, two say what they changed in a shoe for a woman's foot: RUDIS, on the Hildebrandt, and VROBI, on the Valkyrie, both a narrower heel and a wider forefoot. YES! Athletics says its MAGIC, Champion2 and DEFIANT3 Pink Camo are built for a woman's foot but not what it changed, so we list that as its claim. ASICS described a women's-specific last for the original Matblazer, but its page for the version on sale now does not mention one, so the Matblazer, like the adidas women's Combat Speed 4, is a women's size run with no construction claim from the brand. YES!'s four other shoes are sold in its own youth and women's sizes, and their pages do not say the shoe is shaped for a woman's foot. The rest are openly unisex shoes. That does not make the unisex shoes bad, and plenty of very good wrestlers compete in them. It does mean you should not pay a premium for the word "women's" on a box without checking what is behind it. We grade each claim on the women's wrestling shoes page.