News - Fencing footwear "Dragon" series

“I don't feel the weight, the grip with a surface is insane in both directions... You can fence at any surface, great ankle support so you don't worry about it when lunge. Enough protection for light weapons like rapier. Let alone they look cool with any gear!”
Vlad Kalashnikov, longsword instructor, “Sharukhan”, Ukraine

At ArmStreet, we have all kinds of experience in practically all known forms of modern swordplay. From our head designer who was a part of the team that started LARP in Ukraine, to our US director and a recent practitioner and an instructor in Chicago Swordplay Guild, who organized the very first live steel tournament in Ukraine, to the head of the manufacture, a HEMA saber instructor and a live steel single sword champion, to a number of buhurt fencers and LARP players in a team. We feel and breeze swordplay and, together, practically tried everything, from fierce buhurts in Eastern Europe to huge SCA battles.

Like in many sports, you can judge a master by footwork faster than by anything else, and you can get your event ruined by bad footwear rather than by anything else. In one word, footwear does matter, and you know this.

There is one more obvious fact, medieval footwear was way less sophisticated than what we are now used to. Also, in contrast to modern Olympic fencers, we still deal with the imperfection of the terrain, whether it's a LARP, an SCA event, or an outdoor WMA practice. Also, some of us made "fight and travel" a lifestyle or even a profession; I had journeys when I go from the SCA event to the LARP event, hanging out with friends in a friendly HEMA club in between. So, the question of proper boots or shoes you can use for everything was always a question.

Our "Forest" boots were always a thing, a bestseller that combines a generic medieval or fantasy look with an exquisite slim fit and more modern comfort. Heavily influenced by the HEMA movement and its more modern, slick, more technological gear look, we decided to make it to the next level.

These boots have everything you might want from your fencing footwear. The sick and soft scaled sole provides an ultimate grip on almost any surface, its scale design makes it very "catchy" when you need an explosive step or lunge. We've been trying and testing the ankle part design for almost a year, looking for a perfect balance between the flexibility of linear moves and the structure that holds your ankle. There are soft pads where they are needed, and soft means both a different type of leather and padded inserts.

They go in three heights, depending on your personal preferences and style, and we also provide them in "sport" and "heritage" designs, although "heritage" is a little bit of a stretch and will fit ski-fi, fantasy or post-apocalyptic look more than anything medieval. On the other hand, a little bit of dust and scratches and it will be harder to notice you have a piece of modern technology on your feet.

Last but not least, we provide the most popular black and blue, green, or red color schemes in stock along with traditional black and brown, and we are also open to making a custom color scheme for your team or club.

Update. While our "Dragon" boots are getting more and more successful, we felt obliged to make their female version. The difference is not very big: they share the features with the male twins, but for those who have smaller and more narrow feet, the female version will be a better fit, while some female fighters with wider feet can still choose the male version