Best Shoes for Volleyball: What’s the Difference Between Basketball and Volleyball Shoes?

If you’re looking for new volleyball shoes, should you only buy sneakers dedicated to volleyball and marketed as such? Or are you better off buying basketball shoes? What are the best shoes for volleyball?

In general, almost all volleyball shoes are good for volleyball, but only some basketball shoes are good for volleyball. This article intends to analyze what the differences actually are between these two types of court performers and ultimately help you know what to look for in your next volleyball shoe.

Big thanks to AthletePS for sponsoring this article. They are a global licensee of Nike performance footwear and apparel in numerous sport categories, with Volleyball being one of their biggest categories. They have the deepest selection of Nike Volleyball footwear on the planet, all available at athleteps.com.

Let’s start with what general performance features these shoes need and then get into how those needs could differ between volleyball and basketball.

Basic Sneaker Features that Both Sports Require

Both volleyball and basketball require a shoe that has excellent traction on wooden courts. Both sports require a cushioning setup that helps with jumping and landing (though these exact needs differ slightly, as we’ll discuss). Along the same lines, both sports include a lot of lateral movements; so stability when moving side-to-side is crucial. A shoe for any sport should provide a good lockdown and add some torsional support for your foot.

If a shoe satisfies all of these needs, it will most likely be good enough to play volleyball in and good enough to play basketball in, too. But we can do better than “good enough.”

What makes volleyball shoes different?

Traction

As stated above, both sports require shoes to grip on wooden courts. But volleyball shoes also need to grip on plastic sport courts, as these are extremely common from the high school club ranks all the way up through the pro level. I have tested basketball shoes that felt fine on a wooden court but often slipped on plastic courts

Volleyball shoes are specifically designed to grip on both surfaces, and I have noticed that traction on volleyball shoes seems to be more consistent in general. In fact, I have never tested a volleyball shoe and found it to have bad traction.

Cushion

When I review shoes, I look at the cushioning setup through the lens of two main attributes: responsiveness (bounce) and impact protection. These can be opposing goals (although modern shoe technology can excel at both). Impact protection is about squishing down and dissipating energy; responsiveness is about absorbing that energy and then giving it back to you. For example, the Nike Alphafly 3 is great for impact protection, but I wouldn’t jump in them (plus, you’d probably sprain an ankle).

This is a complex topic, but to clear up a misconception, responsiveness is not directly about making you jump higher. Your bare feet would be very responsive for jumping. But it would also hurt pretty badly to max jump without shoes at all. A responsive shoe protects your feet just enough but still feels quick and springy. 

Volleyball shoes tend to focus on this higher responsiveness and just enough cushion to protect your landings. They simply need less running-type impact protection than basketball shoes. Basketball players can run 2-3 miles in a game, often in 50-80 foot bursts. Volleyball players don’t often get into a true running stride at all, with the exception of the setter (though, even in a 5-set match with bad passing, a setter is still not running 2 miles).

The difference is similar to sprinting spikes vs middle-distance spikes: both need to be quick and springy, but only one needs to have extra cushioning (and for middle-distance spikes and basketball shoes alike, it’s often extra heel cushioning).

Impact protection is still important for volleyball but to a lesser degree than in basketball footwear. Shoes are designed to match the movement of the sport: volleyball is quick, lateral movements in the back row or along the net, then max jumps, then repeat until there’s a break to reset. Volleyball players may not run much, but they do max jump literally hundreds of times per match. So, naturally, volleyball shoes are designed to help you do that. As a result, volleyball shoes tend to feel springier and closer to the ground than most basketball shoes, and they’re also often lighter in weight.

Heel-Toe Transition

If you’ve read any of my reviews, you know what I mean here. The difference between max jumping in volleyball and basketball is that, in volleyball, there is very specific, trained footwork involved. Basketball requires you to jump in many different ways and body positions. In volleyball, it will almost always be straight up to block or with a full, repeatable approach.

This means the shoes can be tailor-made to reflect a volleyball approach. Specifically, the ground contact pattern of the penultimate step of an approach will always start from the outside of the heel and then roll diagonally to the inside of your big toe. Most basketball shoes accommodate this, but all volleyball shoes are built for this. Some volleyball shoes even noticeably encourage this smooth heel-to-forefoot transition. On the contrary, some basketball shoes (like the Luka 3 and Zoom Freak 4) can excel at cushioning but feel very clunky in this particular motion.

What shoes do the best volleyball players wear?

We’ve analyzed volleyball and basketball shoes by their differences, but let’s look at some other evidence for what shoes are the best for volleyball.  Another good way to approach this question is by looking at what volleyball players at the very top level wear. Keep in mind this is influenced by sponsorships for many of the teams; but even then, most deals just require a certain brand to be worn, not a specific shoe.

You may have noticed that at this year’s Paris Olympics, Team USA was seen wearing the various Nike Volleyball offerings. These were the orange shoes with the black cheetah print “Safari” colorway. There was some variety on the team, but most players were representing one of the 4 shoes in the Nike Volleyball line (reviews for all of these coming soon).

So, what are the best shoes for volleyball?

If you’ve read all of this, and you want an easy answer to wrap up this article in a tidy bow, here it is: you really can’t go wrong buying dedicated volleyball shoes.

There are some basketball shoes that are excellent for volleyball, like the Nike LeBron 21, and conversely, there are also some volleyball shoes that are great for basketball. On average though, most volleyball-specific shoes will be the better choice for volleyball than the vast majority of basketball shoes. 

If you want to know more about the shoes out there and exactly which models might be best for you, check out a list of the best volleyball shoes I’ve reviewed recently, keep an eye out for the soon-to-be updated review of the Nike Volleyball line, and take a look at our volleyball archive.

For the best selection of Nike Volleyball shoes and apparel, visit AthletePS. Whatever your volleyball needs, they’ve got you covered.