David Virgil Hobbs Author of this Page |
More important to a soccer player than cleats for outdoor use or rubbery soft type cleats for indoor artificial turf, is a good soccer shoe for practicing indoors on a basketball court. Outdoor fields are uneven, the grass is not well kept, they are subject to the vagaries of the weather. Indoor turf type fields are hard to get to, lack non-soccer facilities, and are only available at certain rare times. Basketball courts both indoor and outdoor are readily available at places such as the YMCA. For practicing soccer you need a shoe with a low sharp front tip to enable you to flip the ball up from the ground into the air, because if you really want to excel you will have to flip the ball into the air. A Puma Avanti served me well for several years for the purposes of this kind of indoor aerial practice. It was durable lasted a long time even when used for all kinds of purposes other than soccer, it has a vertically low toe, and I was able to accomplish great soccer tricks using it. When I bought the Puma Avanti it was made for indoor soccer the current version of the Avanti is touted as a general purpose shoe it is a little different. I decided to buy another Puma, but I wanted to get it cheap so i drove thirty miles or so to a factory outlet store owned by the manufacturer itself Puma. There I liked the Puma Volante, made spefically for indoor soccer the best. But they did not have it in my size. I felt that the current version of the Avanti had a problem in that its toe was too high. Alot of the Puma shoes were not available at this outlet store, they basically had a few models from about a year ago, so I had to settle for a Puma Nemus, which was quite similar to the Avanti of old. I got the Nemus for only $28, whereas as the list price of it in retail stores is $72. Though it is not specifically touted as an indoor soccer shoe it should serve me well as such.
Info on the Puma Nemus has become hard to find on the internet, but Zappos.com, when it still had info online about the Nemus, had this to say: "Zappos.com is proud to offer the Puma - Nemus (Black/Gunmetal): This is a great, lightweight, comfortable and stylish athletic shoe. This shoe is made from full grain leather for a long durable wear. This shoe has an EVA midsole, and a solid rubber outsole. Padded footbed provides superior shock absorption and comfort. Rubber outsole provides superior traction. This shoe is as comfortable as it looks."
Below you can find some hand-retitled links I have personally put together and used which have to do with the subject of cost-efficiently and intelligently going about the acquisition of a soccer shoe.