Remember when pro golfer Rickie Fowler made flat-brim hats the coolest trend? Kids everywhere copied the look. It was harmless, it was fun, and it was a nod to fashion changing in the face of tradition.
In baseball (and other sports), a similar style-vs-substance debate is raging over high-top versus low-top shoes. Are high-top cleats actually better for your performance, or are they just a fashion statement players emulate because the pros do it? Let’s dig into the science to find out.
High-Top vs Low-Top: Hype, Myths, and a Dose of Reality
In recent playoffs, two NBA stars – Tyrese Haliburton and Jayson Tatum – went down with Achilles injuries, sparking a flurry of hot takes. Some commentators blamed the trend of players wearing low-top sneakers, insisting that modern athletes should “stop wearing these low cuts” to avoid such injuries. It’s true that low-top shoes have less material around the ankle, making them lighter and often preferred for speed and agility, whereas high-tops extend up past the ankle for a bit more support at the cost of extra weight. The theory was that switching back to high-tops could have prevented those Achilles tears.
But hold on – is there real evidence that high-tops prevent major injuries like Achilles ruptures? Not really. High-top shoes can help limit ankle rolling or excessive dorsiflexion, but in live athletes, an Achilles tear typically results from underlying factors like calf muscle strain, overuse, or freak movements that no shoe collar can fully guard against.
Even NBA superstar Kevin Durant weighed in, flatly dismissing the blame on low-cut shoes: In other words, simply having a higher ankle cuff isn’t a magic injury shield. Many athletic trainers and pros echo that high-tops haven’t been proven to prevent ankle or Achilles injuries; they might add a sense of support, but they won’t save you if your biomechanics or fatigue level put you at risk.
So if the difference isn’t coming down to just high vs. low, what does make a shoe help your game or protect you? The answer lies under the hood: the shoe’s structure and technology.
It’s Not the Cut, It’s the Construction (Stability Matters)
Instead of focusing on how high your shoe comes up on the ankle, look at how well the shoe is built to support and stabilize your foot. The structure of a cleat – features like the heel counter, midsole support, and outsole stability – plays a much bigger role in performance and injury prevention than the height of the collar. A well-designed low-top can outperform a poorly designed high-top any day when it comes to keeping you grounded and safe.
One key element is torsional stability (anti-torsion). Think of this as the shoe’s resistance to twisting forces. When you plant your foot and rotate (like when swinging or pitching), you don’t want a flimsy shoe that twists excessively and leaves your ankle vulnerable. Quality baseball shoes often include a strong heel cap and a shank or stabilizer that links the heel to the arch, creating a platform that won’t buckle. For example, the SQAIRZ GFP™ Baseball shoe uses an integrated stabilizer bar connecting a TPU heel counter to the arch for torsion resistance and superior support.
As SQAIRZ Lead Designer, Jon Bacon explains, this design “holds your heel steady and helps prevent you from twisting your ankle,” extending support through the midfoot to also guard against foot injuries like plantar fasciitis. In short, a shoe with good internal support acts like a brace within the shoe.
Another crucial factor is having a stable, roomier base for your foot. When you hear about a shoe’s toe box, that’s the front area where your toes live. A cramped, narrow toe box squeezes your toes together – not only uncomfortable, but it can impair balance and power. In contrast, a roomier, more anatomically shaped toe box lets your toes spread naturally for better grip and stability.
This is a cornerstone of SQAIRZ’s design: its patented roomy toe box gives the widest foot base of any baseball shoe. With more space up front, your toes can splay out and help correct your alignment and balance. In fact, simply switching players into a shoe with a neutral platform and roomier toe box helped fix a lot of their movement inefficiencies.
A stable base means you’re less likely to roll your foot, and you can push off more explosively. It even decreases injury risk by keeping your lower body in proper alignment rather than wobbly or over-stressed..
Expert Insight: “A poor relationship at the foot level will cause the energy that is used for a movement like a swing or a pitch to leak into compensatory movements and cause an athlete to lose their balance and connection with the ground. Because footwear is the only piece of equipment that stands between a person and the ground, finding the right footwear can be game-changing.” Philip Stotter, Biomechanist and MLB Sports Science Consultant
In other words, it’s not about high-top vs low-top – it’s about whether your shoes keep your feet secure, supported, and aligned. The latest sports shoe science is homing in on features like anti-torsion stability, roomier outsoles, and better cushioning/support because those actually impact your performance and injury risk.
How Better Shoes Boost Your Baseball Performance
For baseball players, every ounce of force you generate starts from the ground. When you pitch, hit, or sprint, you’re channeling energy through your feet – so the right shoes can meaningfully improve your output.
A well-designed performance baseball shoe like the GFP™ acts like a tool. The science backs it up: without a solid connection to the ground, you can lose up to 19% of your kinetic energy before it ever reaches the bat or ball. That’s almost one-fifth of your power gone due to slippage or instability! By aligning your big toe, pinky toe, and heel properly, a shoe can eliminate that energy leak and transfer more force into your swing or pitch.
Let’s talk numbers. In recent testing and clinical studies, SQAIRZ’s baseball shoes produced eye-opening gains for both hitters and pitchers:
- Harder Hits: Over 60% of hitters increased their exit velocity by more than 2 MPH (with some seeing boosts up to 5.1 MPH) just by switching to SQAIRZ cleats. That translates to roughly 20–40 extra feet of distance – turning what might have been a warning-track flyout into a home run.
- Faster Pitches: About 76% of pitchers added at least 2.1 MPH to their pitch velocity after making the same switch.. A couple extra ticks on the fastball or additional spin on a breaking ball can be a game-changer on the mound.
- Better Balance & Power Transfer: Pressure-sensor studies of collegiate players showed improved ground force production in the hind foot correlating with higher exit velo when wearing the more stable shoes. In plain English: the shoes helped players harness the ground reaction force more effectively, leading to stronger hits. Testers reported that the added stability corrected inefficiencies in their movement.
- Injury Prevention Perks: The right shoes can also protect your body. By promoting a neutral foot position, for example, SQAIRZ GFP™ cleats reduce strain on the knee and elbow kinetics – even potentially lowering stress on the ulnar collateral ligament (UCL) in the elbow, which is a factor in Tommy John injuries for pitchers. Improved balance and alignment mean less wear-and-tear on joints overall. Essentially, your footwear can help you play harder and play longer.
And these aren’t just lab results – they’ve been observed in real athletes from youth levels to the pros. SQAIRZ’s baseball shoes were tested by over 10,000 athletes of all levels during development, with clear improvements in performance across the board. Professional players and coaches have taken notice, too. Many report feeling more confident on the field, knowing their shoes are keeping them stable and secure as they cut, pivot, and explode into motion.
Finding What Actually Helps Your Game
At the end of the day, choosing between high-top or low-top shoes shouldn’t be about chasing the latest cool look – it should be about what helps you perform. If you want the best baseball shoes for performance, focus on the features that give you an edge: stability, balance, and efficient energy transfer. Whether it has a high ankle or not is secondary. A low-cut cleat with the right support can outplay a high-top that’s all style and no substance. As we’ve seen, shoes like SQAIRZ GFP™, which emphasize a solid base, proper foot alignment, and traction, can boost your pitching velocity and hitting power in measurable ways while also reducing injury risks. They’re designed to actually help your game.
So next time you’re lacing up for the diamond, ask yourself: are my shoes doing something for me, or are they just along for the ride? By stepping into a pair that’s built for performance – you’re investing in better stats and a longer, healthier playing career. High-top or low-top? The answer is whichever shoe delivers the science-backed support inside. When you have that, you’ll be running faster, pitching harder, and swinging smoother… and you might just find yourself ahead of the competition before the first pitch is even thrown. Game on!