KAEPA LIBERTY 3 CHEER SHOE: Comes With The Kaepa Logo, But Not With Kaepa Quality
Written: Jan 10 '09
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Cheaper than most cheer shoes on the market
Stays tight around the foot
Good "beginner" shoe
Cons: Falls apart easily at sole
Uncomfortable for stunters
Impossible for advanced stunting and tumbling
The Bottom Line: Definately a shoe to avoid at all levels, due to dangerous defect in outer sole.
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| queenofallevil's Full Review: Kaepa U.S.A Liberty 3 Cheerleading Shoe for Women |
As a cheer coach for over five years, I have come in contact with just about every shoe Kaepa produces. It was my decision to put our three teams in only Kaepa shoes, with the mindset that even if a shoe goes out of production, Kaepa shoes visually look so much alike on the mat that older and unused team shoes would not have to be replaced. Another advantage of Kaepa shoes is that since the basic design all meshes with other shoes of the same brand thanks to the famous snap-in "rewind" logos, specialty shoes can be bought for girls of different positions - giving the team an advantage that each squad member can have a different model on their foot to help their strengths (e.g.: flying, tumbling) yet when the team hits the mat for a competition all the shoes will look relatively the same and not take away from that unified "team look".
The Kaepa Liberty 3 is one of the cheaper models of the Kaepa line. I purchased about 30 of these for a team of young beginners because I figured they would outgrow their shoes quickly and making a huge investment in shoes wasn't necessary for their skill level. While for the most part I was pleased with the Liberty 3 model, they worked relatively well for bases to have a stable grip on the ground - they were a horrible choice for flyers and tumblers on the team.
The undersole of the shoe is extremely stiff - just a layer of thin rubber placed over non-pliable foam. There is a shoulder notch cut out towards the inside of the shoe to make shoulder stands easier, and a thumb notch on the heel intended to help both single and multiple stunts. However - the entire bottom of the shoe is flat and rigid; which makes shoulder stands virtually impossible for both the flyer and the base (flyers wobble or "teeter-totter" since the shoes do not cushion, and bases bruise themselves since the shoe is very painful when the flyer's weight bears down).
In even the most traditional of cheerleading stunts, such as basic elevators and thigh stands the undersole is still quite painful for bases to endure. The back of the shoe is particularly dreadful, because the sole is glued on rather than stitched for support - and on 9 out of 10 of the shoes I bought the rubber layer separated from the shoe itself, causing a "rubber flap" at the heel, which would often get caught up in a base's fingers - giving a high potential for dropped stunts and injuries. And this wasn't just the flyers' shoes that fell apart in this area, many of the girls who never fly still had this dangerous defect on their shoes despite the fact that many of them had only stood firmly on the ground all season and just a handful did simple tumbling. Apparently, manipulating the shoe in stunting will not cause this defect to happen, but the simple act of walking or jumping will also cause the rubber bottom to detach.
Granted, the flap of rubber can be glued back (as I have done many a time) but no coach should be forced to those tactics - especially when a shoe is under two months old.
In conclusion, I can not recommend the Liberty 3 for cheerleading because of this critical safety issue. Instead I would point a new coach or cheer mom towards Kaepa models that have reinforced toe and heel stitching, such as the discontinued Kaepa Scorpion, Kaepa Tumblelyte, or my personal favorite and all-around shoe the Kaepa UltraLyte.
Recommended:
No
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queenofallevil
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