For college baseball and softball athletes, SQAIRZ’s revolutionary footwear design delivers a competitive edge that supports the transition to the major leagues. We spoke to two heavy-hitters in college baseball about the performance-enhancing features of SQAIRZ shoes and their experiences training players in our turf shoe: Randy Guite, the head baseball coach for Georgetown College in Kentucky, and Brad Stromdahl, head baseball coach at Georgia State University.
When did you start using SQAIRZ shoes with college players?
Brad: We started out with the early prototypes of the turf shoe, getting maybe 10 or 15 pairs for our guys to use. Step by step, we’ve been giving feedback on what works, what our players liked, what they didn't like.
Randy: We were also one of the first teams to put our guys in the SQAIRZ turf shoe. Our players love it and I do too. It’s innovative, it's different. We’re excited to start using SQAIRZ cleats, to get those for our guys and see the difference.
What impact has SQAIRZ had on performance?
Brad: SQAIRZ gives your toes the space needed to be able to create a flat surface, so you feel more balanced and can transfer more power. It helps our players stay on their heels a lot more, which is where their power resides, and they don't get off balance at the front of their toes. It’s a better, more stable platform for them. With those toes spread out, they gain a functional strength within a shoe that’s not clunky and is specifically designed to get the most out of your performance.
Randy: We find players tend to lose their balance at the critical point where they’re rotating and the swing is about to explode through the baseball. That’s where you’ll see a foot flipping over. A lot of kids have that problem, but when they hit in SQAIRZ, the shoe holds the foot to prevent flipping or rolling, so they’re actually using their foot more correctly.
Where do you use the turf shoe?
Brad: Over time, the turf shoe has become the go-to that we use in the cages. It’s the shoe of choice because the players feel so much stronger in their base. They feel much better equipped to be able to hit a 95 on the fastball.
Randy: We find that turf shoes have enough grip to take ground balls in the infield or reps in the outfield. The players feel comfortable moving in them, even without cleats. During the season, we play in a lot of turf fields, and some of those fields require you to use either molded cleats or turf shoes instead of metal cleats. A lot of our guys have said the SQAIRZ turf shoe can be even better than the molded cleats. They’re even playing live games with just the turf shoe.
How do SQAIRZ baseball shoes compare to others you’ve tried?
Randy: When our players are wearing SQAIRZ, we can see the difference visually. We use video and other tools in our training, and you can capture how stable the player’s feet are, how they’re not rolling during the swing, which you’ll see with other shoes.
Brad: Our players say that when they step back into other shoes—whether it's a spike, gym shoe, or a training shoe—they can really feel the difference. The other shoes feel cramped and don’t have as much flexibility. There’s definitely a sense of transition going into and out of the shoe, and that tells you what it’s providing.
Click to see the SQAIRZ baseball and softball shoes in action, then meet us back at the blog for Part 2 of our conversation with Randy Guite and Brad Stromdahl.