Turf Shoes for Kids – The Best Baseball, Softball, and Soccer Turf Shoes

Does your child play baseball, softball, or soccer and the league recommend wearing a pair of turf shoes? Turf shoes help minimize the chances of your child slipping and falling by providing extra traction on artificial grass surfaces. They usually have an extremely durable, rubber outsole to improve traction on artificial turf. I have put together a list of the best turf shoes for kids who play softball, baseball, or soccer based on my 10 years of shoe fitting experience.

Providing children with specific sports shoes can help them get the most out of their practices and games. In baseball, softball, and soccer, players need to make quick direction changes, so it’s important that children wear shoes that provide protection and traction. Most importantly, providing your child with a pair of turf shoes can help reduce the risk of injury and maintain proper foot health.

If your child is playing in turf training facilities or fields it’s highly likely that the league or the coach will require your child to wear a pair of turf shoes. Wearing the wrong types of shoes on turf can destroy the artificial surface.

How Does a Turf Shoe Look Like?

Turf shoes have small studs engineered for traction on the outsole. A lot of parents get confused and don’t know the difference between turf shoes and indoor shoes. You will notice how indoor shoes typically have a flat outsole. Take a look at the image below for better visualization purposes:

Can My Child Wear Sneakers Instead of Turf Shoes?

This is a question that the coach of your child’s team should be able to answer. If your child is somewhat serious about the sport, I strongly recommend wearing a pair of turf shoes instead of sneakers.

Although there are similarities between regular sneakers and turf shoes, you will notice how the outsoles are very different. As I mentioned before, turf shoes have small studs which are specifically engineered for traction on the outsole, while sneakers typically have a flat outsole like the indoor shoe shown in the image above. The last thing you want for your child is to slip while playing on the field!

The Importance of Providing Your Child with Turf Shoes

Providing children with turf shoes will increase the level of comfort as it will feel like a sneaker but it will provide the grip like a cleat.

Turf shoes are also safer for sliding feet first into bases (softball and baseball) to reduce the injury risk for other children.

The Importance of Wearing the Correct Shoe Size

Making sure that your kids’ shoes fit properly is important for comfort, function, and overall foot health. If your child wears a pair of turf shoes that are too short or too narrow he/she will be more prone to developing foot issues such as blisters, calluses, corn, and ingrown toenails. On the other hand, providing children with shoes that are too long can compromise the child’s stability and make the child more prone to falling.

If you are unsure of your child’s exact foot length and shape —narrow, medium, wide, extra wide, high instep— there is a resource that I created that will help you retrieve your child’s shoe size:

How to Measure Your Kids’ Foot – 2 Simple Steps to Determine Foot Length and Foot Width

I have categorized the turf shoes below by sport, but this doesn’t mean that all turf shoes for that particular sport look the exact same or that the shoes can’t be used for other sports.

Make sure that your child tries his or her turf cleats with the kind of socks that they would normally practice in as that can help determine the overall fit.

Turf Shoes for Kids – Baseball, Soccer, and Softball!

Take a look at the description below each turf shoe that I recommend to find out if it can fit your child’s foot shape (narrow, medium, wide) and what shoe size you should order to provide your child with the correct amount of growing room.

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What Shoe Size You Should Order?

In each of the descriptions of the shoes, I indicate whether you need to order a half size or a whole size bigger than your child’s current foot size to provide the correct amount of growing room.

Can Children Wear their Turf Shoes as their Everyday Sneakers?

I don’t suggest that children wear their turf shoes outside. Wearing turf shoes on hard outdoor surfaces will make the rubber spikes wear out faster, making them not work as well when your child is back playing on turf.

Comfort on the field starts with shoes! Allowing children to play sports in the wrong types of shoes might discourage them from staying active.

Help me make this resource even better by adding your favorite turf shoe recommendations for kids.