Women Basketball Players Have Been Stuck Playing in Men’s Shoes

  • Startup brand designs shoes specifically for female players
  • Yale study shows women wearing men’s sneaker more injury prone
Studies show female athletes are two to eight times more likely to tear an ACL than their male counterparts. Natalie White founded “Moolah Kicks” to offer basketball sneakers made specifically for women’s feet.Source: Bloomberg

For Courtney Williams, a guard for the WNBA’s Chicago Sky, breaking in her shoes to get them to fit properly and avoid injury has been a ritual for her entire playing career.

“Once I have a shoe, I stick to that shoe for the whole season because I don’t want to have to go through the process of breaking that shoe back in again,” she said. Now, thanks to a startup that aims to provide improved basketball shoes for women, she’s only changing her sneakers once every week.