4 Tennis Shoes With The Best Traction in 2026

How we test tennis shoes with the traction

We follow the acclaimed SATRA TM144 protocol to measure each tested shoe’s dynamic coefficient of friction (CoF) in a specialized machine. The latter applies a force of 500N to smash the shoe’s outsole against the testing surface at a 7-degree angle, mimicking a real-life stopping motion in the forefoot area. We repeat the test 10 times and remove the outlying values (10% below or above the mean) to calculate the final result.

The higher the CoF is, the better the traction.

But grip isn't the only metric we’re interested in when testing tennis shoes. To provide the most comprehensive reviews, we take each pair through 30+ tests and measurements to get a full picture of its cushioning, stability, fit, stiffness, and other features.

No marketing claims are taken for granted, and no sponsorships are allowed in our lab. All our verdicts remain unbiased as each tested shoe is purchased with our own funds.

The benefits of tennis shoes with high traction

The most obvious advantage of high traction in tennis shoes is, of course, the reduced risk of impromptu slipping. And when you don’t have to worry about skidding, you avoid loss in performance and even potential injury, and feel more confident exerting full effort and play more aggressively.

However, that’s not the only benefit of a grippy outsole. You also achieve more control over:

• acceleration and maintaining high speed
• deceleration and making hard stops
• abrupt directional changes and cuts

The problem with high traction in tennis shoes

The movements involved in tennis are nowhere near as linear and straightforward as those in walking or running. The dynamic and multi-directional footwork of tennis players requires both:

• translational (straight-line) grip to avoid slipping forward, backwards, or sideways
• and rotational release to allow twisting and sliding

You don’t just want the shoe to be so grippy that it keeps sticking to the court on each step. Excessive traction has been linked to an increased risk of injury in multiple studies.

When the foot gets stuck on hard stops, it puts higher stress on the knees and ankles, and when it happens during rotational moves, there is an increased risk of knee injuries (like ACL or meniscus tears).

A tennis shoe must have a good balance of grip and give to feel fine-tuned to your playing style. 

The friction coefficients in our current tennis shoe catalog range from 0.50 to 1.1, with the average hovering around 0.75.

It is quite possible that you may find the grippest options too sticky for your playing style, especially if it involves a lot of sliding. So it's perfectly fine if you find the right level of grip somewhere in the moderate range of our rankings below.

A disclaimer about our method of testing traction

Our current traction test is limited to translational (straight-line) grip alone, as it only records the outsole friction that’s generated by a forward stopping motion (think hard forehand stop).

Testing outsole traction in our lab

This means the shoe’s on-court performance during side-to-side moves, twists, and slides can differ from what our traction measurement suggests.

However, it gives you an idea of how much stopping power you can expect when sprinting to the net and braking hard to hit the shot. 

We also chose to perform our traction test on a slab of dry concrete for uniformity. Even though it doesn’t mimic real-life playing surfaces, smooth concrete yields more consistent results compared to clay or acrylic paint mixed with silica sand.

The latter is particularly tricky because the roughness of acrylic hard courts depends on the paint–silica–sand mixture, and it’s been reported to differ between surface manufacturers. For example, mixtures with larger sand particles show lower friction.

Factors that affect traction in tennis shoes

The more we get into the nitty-gritties of tennis biomechanics and physics, the more layers of complexity we discover in its traction department.

Our research shows that almost a dozen factors can affect a shoe’s traction on the court!

1. Type of tennis court: It’s been confirmed that a hard court has a notably higher friction coefficient than a clay court. So choosing overly sticky shoes for hard court can backfire, leading to higher peak traction that makes it harder to release the foot after planting and placing more stress on ankles, knees, and Achilles.

2. The state of the court: Newly built or resurfaced hard courts can take weeks or even months to smooth out. Until then, sharp and exposed sand particles create more friction with the rubber outsole, resulting in higher traction and, consequently, faster outsole wear.

3. The loading of the shoe: Heavier players and/or folks with aggressive playing styles put more load and force into the shoe, which results in higher grip. That’s because the outsole rubber molds and engages with the court’s rough texture more under pressure. Studies even show that dry artificial clay can feel almost as grippy as a hard court with enough downward force.

4. The player’s foot angle: Our current traction test shows how well the shoe’s grip works during forward movement. However, the amount of friction changes in relation to the angle at which the player’s foot is turned, tilted, or planted — even on the same surface.

5. Moisture: A wet court makes for a rather slippery surface and reduces grip quite significantly.

6. Break-in period: The shoe’s out-of-the-box grip rarely matches its post-break-in traction capacity. For example, cheap shoes can be super sticky at first, but once the thin coating wears off, they become more agreeable. On the other hand, less tacky shoes with harder rubber blends can start to show a stronger bite after a few warm-up sessions.

7. Temperature: The shoe’s outsole behavior on a chilly morning will differ from its grip on a scorching hot summer afternoon. When the temps go up, the shoe’s rubber gets softer and more malleable, resulting in stronger adhesion. Meanwhile, the acrylic coating on hard courts also softens, exposing the sand particles and increasing friction.

8. Shoe outsole wear: It is no secret that tennis shoe outsoles don’t last forever, and their traction capacity declines gradually as the treading gets erased.

As you can see, high traction isn’t a fixed characteristic of a tennis shoe. It changes depending on how, where, and even when you move!

Outsole design and traction pattern in tennis shoes

Because tennis shoes must provide grip across multiple foot angles and movement types, herringbone (zigzag) tread patterns are very common.

In the photos below, we put together 3 tennis shoe outsoles with the highest friction coefficients and 3 outsoles with the lowest traction scores.

While we don’t see any prominent differences to draw strong conclusions, we can see that grippier shoes tend to have deeper, sharper treadlines, allowing them to bite into the surface more aggressively and at multiple angles.

On the other hand, less grippy outsoles tend to feature shallower, smoother designs.

Clay court shoes nearly always feature a full-length herringbone pattern with deep treadlines, which prevent the buildup of clay particles by moving them out from under the shoe. It also allows for long controlled slides on this type of surface.

Outsole durability and thickness in grippy tennis shoes

The highly abrasive nature of tennis courts can burn through outsole treading in a matter of months or even weeks! And loss of traction patterns inevitably results in reduced grip.

But how can you tell if the shoe’s outsole is wear-resistant before testing it on the court?

In our lab, we use a Dremel with a sandpaper tip to test the potential durability of tennis shoe outsoles. The tool is applied to the same spot at the same pressure (2N) and speed (10K RPM) for 18 seconds.

We then use a tread gauge to measure the depth of the damage left by the Dremel. The shallower the dent, the sturdier the rubber.

We also measure the outsole thickness of each tennis shoe with a digital caliper to check how much rubber it packs. The thicker the outsole, the longer the lifespan.

The price of tennis shoes with high traction

The average price of tennis shoes hovers around $130, and so does the average price of the highest-traction models.

That’s because stickiness is not necessarily a feature of more advanced, premium rubber compounds. It can also be found in the softer rubbers of budget-friendly court shoes. In fact, many elite tennis shoes feature hard-rubber outsoles that don’t offer a strong initial grip out of the box.

So let us highlight once again that the perfect traction is not necessarily the highest traction.