It got me thinking though- what's your go-to? Regular runners/ hiking shoes? It makes me wonder how long it will take Nike et al to create a sport specific shoe (gimmicky but still...) and who they'd sponsor. It can only be a matter of time!
Lat 64 has made
DG specific shoes. The general feedback seems to be that their durability is poor at best but they seem to be the type of shoe that I would think would make a good shoe and popular among serious DGers.
And Adidas has sponsored a number of players including PMB with their
TerraX that are at least somewhat marketed as DG shoes. Several pros on instagram are hyping them here and there in their posts.
As some have said the market itself is not that large and for those that would bite on a DG specific shoe it is not growing all that fast. OP said himself he knows people that throw in sandals. As with the sponsored players throwing other discs, with the increase in visibility through better and better and more common tournament coverage what shoes they are wearing and what discs they are throwing will become a bit of a bigger deal and may change stuff but for the most part a DG specific shoe is a very niche market especially when there is so little consensus of what that is. Me personally I think a light trail shoe is best, and the lat 64 shoe and Adidas TerraX seem to fit that type of shoe but I don't have a reason to sniff those when there are so many others I would try first including what I wear.
This thread has a lot of info and might was well skip to the pages that are more recent in date but its sticky'd for a reason. When I started I was throwing in as neutral and flat a sole as possible Adidas classic Sambas indoor soccer shoes. Pain in the ass on a hilly muddy course but I still liked a lot about that shoe. Tried trail runners and running shoes but the padding/cushion in most running shoes is horrible for bracing and after a bit of form work I think could be serious problems for knees... same as turf shoes or cleats but just a different force on a different side of the knee. I moved to Merrell trail gloves after falling in love with them for running but not good IMO for DG. I settled on the Merrell Capra Sport and love them, but I think there are a number of light trail shoes from Merrell, Keen, Soloman that fit the bill as well as a few that are built like those such as the Adidas TerraX.
Something sturdy with not to much squish for the brace, and wide for planting and fairly neutral lift and durable sole and toe box.
But some people are going to wear Jordans and Sambas and Sandals and those people actually make up a pretty sizable % of the DG community so it is pretty hard to market a shoe made just for the sport. To go to the ball golf comparison what % of those people are going to adamantly not give up their Jordans or Sandals?