Purchase links
PDH Sports
Amazon UK
The Salming Eagle is a mid-range shoe from the Swedish squash brand. At the time of writing (May 2021), these shoes can now be picked up for a perfectly reasonable £50 from PDH Sports.
They’re a clean looking shoe, available in an all-white or all-black colour scheme, with subtle Salming branding to the rear of the shoe.
Looks wise, these are up there with my favourites. Nothing over the top, just a clean colour scheme and a nice silhouette. Very hard to fault!
Read all our squash shoe reviews here
Durable upper materials
These shoes are certainly a little unique in their construction. The upper of the shoe is made of ‘reinforced KPU’ (or ‘a bit like rubber’, to you and I).
It’s certainly an interesting choice, with the obvious advantage being durability. However, I did find that until I’d broken the shoes in, they dug into the top of my feet a little where the material creased. Nothing horrendous, but still something worth noting. It did subside pretty quickly however.
Bags of grip on court
The sole of these shoes features Salming’s Hexagrip pattern. This is designed to help keep your feet planted to the floor without slipping. I found Salming’s claims to be true – very rarely, if ever, did I find my feet slipping in these shoes, even on a warm, sweat-saturated court floor.
A stable, supportive shoe
I found the Salming Eagle to be a tremendously supportive shoe. They’re designed with ‘Salming’s TGS 62/75’ guide system. The distance from heel to the ball of the foot (62% of the shoe) has been designed with extra stability, which ends in the so-called ‘ballet’ line, a 75° angle. In front of the 75° line, the shoe has greater flexibility to stimulate the foot’s natural movements.
I’m not exactly sure how much merit there is to these claims (I’m a squash player, not a podiatrist!), however, I did feel very confident in lunging for the ball, pushing off, twisting and turning. This is exactly what you would hope for in a squash shoe.
The best toe protection I’ve seen on a squash shoe
A huge win for the Salming Eagle. The toe area is protected by a thick layer of rubber. It’s noticeably thick, in fact – you can see from the image above the ‘lip’ that’s created by the toe protection. You know just from looking it’s going to take a lot to go through the toes on these shoes.
I’m a prolific toe-dragger. More often than not, the toes are the first thing to go on my squash shoes. These, I’m happy to report, have one of the most durable toe sections of any shoe I’ve tried to date. A cracking effort from Salming on this part.
A true to size fit
I’m a UK size 9, and found these shoes fit true to size. It’s a little odd – I feel like they look quite large on my feet when I’m wearing them, however the room/space inside is absolutely spot on.
Comfortable, but quite a hard underfoot feel
Thanks to these shoes’ lightweight material, comfort is good. There’s plenty of padding around the ankle area, helping them to feel both comfortable and supportive.
I did find the Salming Eagles felt a little hard under my feet. The soles aren’t made of the softest material, so I did feel a certain amount of shock through the shoes when I made hard contact with the floor.
This hard feeling is exacerbated by the paper thin insoles that come as standard in the shoe. Ah yes, the insoles.
“A tremendously low point for an otherwise fantastic shoe”
I can confidently say I’ve never had a problem with the stock insoles in squash shoes before. But these, oh dear lord. These insoles are a tremendously low point for an otherwise fantastic shoe.
The fact they provide fairly minimal cushioning under your feet is far from their biggest issue. After just a few weeks of wear, the insoles literally folded under themselves whenever I lunged for the ball. They would slide forwards towards the front of the shoe and fold over at the toe. You can see the amount of crumpling in the picture above.
This left my heel exposed to the shoes’ much harder midsole material. Not only was this irritating and uncomfortable, it must surely open up the risk to heel injuries.
I do my best to avoid being overly critical of products, but these insoles considerably hinder an otherwise brilliant squash shoe.
It’s doesn’t have to be this way though – the insoles are easy to replace
Thankfully, the insoles can be replaced with ease (as you would assume with them sliding all over the place). I put in some thicker, grippier insoles from another squash shoe and the difference was absolutely night and day.
The shoes went from feeling hard under the feet, to all of a sudden feeling much more cushioned, without the risk of the insoles folding under themselves. This transformed the shoe, and helped me to forgive the previous frustrations caused by the stock inserts. I really did enjoy wearing the shoes from this point onwards.
Salming Eagle squash shoes – Overall
Overall, the Salming Eagles are a fantastic shoe for squash. They’re lightweight, with lots of ankle cushioning, and are far and away one of the most durable shoes I’ve ever tested.
If you like the look of these shoes, and the features listed are what you’re looking for, £50 is a real bargain. Not many shoes offer this combination of comfort and robust quality at such a low price.
However, with the money saved, you should definitely invest in a decent pair of insoles to go inside them – you won’t regret it!
Purchase links
PDH Sports
Amazon UK