How Montis Pickleball Cracked the Code on Longer Lasting Court Shoes

There's a reason there are thousands of brands making pickleball paddles, but only a handful producing pickleball-specific court shoes.

It's really hard to do it right.

But one brand, Montis Pickleball, is adamant they've cracked the code.

“It's a very difficult thing to do. Shoes in general are crazy, let alone court shoes," says Montis Co-Founder Jay Glauser. "I'm confident that pickleball is one of the hardest sports on footwear out there."

In a sea of big-name brands selling rebranded tennis shoes for premium prices, Montis sets itself apart through premium on-court performance and durability for a price that's tough to beat.

Sound too good to be true? They've got the data to back it up.

The Court Shoe Conundrum

The other Montis co-founder, Tyler Glauser (brother to Jay), was a competitive tennis player before getting heavily into pickleball beginning in 2020.

He found himself burning through his court shoes at an untenable rate. And when the market couldn't provide an option that could keep up, he tackled the problem directly at its source: Creating a shoe built for pickleball at a price players of all levels would be happy with.

Tyler knows they've done just that:

At the heart of Montis' shoe design is the understanding that tennis shoes and pickleball shoes are not created equal.

How could they be? A tennis court is massive, so a player is required to cover far more surface area in a given point. That means striking the ground heel-to-toe and flat-out running during many points.

Pickleball is more side-to-side. “Everything about our shoe was constructed with that lateral support in mind,” says Tyler.

Redefining the Concept of 'Pay to Play'

Tyler keeps a detailed, rolling spreadsheet of 15-20 of the most popular pickleball shoes on the market, from large, global conglomerates to more niche, industry-specific brands.

He's played in them all, for hours and hours on end, at a competitive 5.0+ level.

And he's tracking something very specific: The cost of the shoe compared to the number of court hours it provides before noticeably wearing through the first layer of the rubber outsole.

It is here, this simple metric of cost/court hour, where the Montis difference is most starkly realized. Here where the majority of the brand's many 5-Star Google reviews originate. And here where the two years of rigorous R&D were most intently focused before the first pair of Montis shoes was allowed to go to market.

At just $109 retail, that is an eye-opening value proposition, especially when compared to competitor models that often ring up closer to $150 or more.

If you play a modest 10 hours each week, for example, you're getting more than six months from your shoes. If you're a fanatic, like Tyler, and playing closer to 25 hours each week, you're still pushing three months per pair.

“We tested everything," says Tyler. "Two-hundred and fifty hours of court time is materially better than the average of everything else I got from all the big brands."

Jay puts it another way:

Built by Pickleball Players, for Pickleball Players

Montis spent more than two years developing their signature shoe, the Drop 1.0, before it went to market.

At the core of their focus was the shoe's outsole, where the rubber meets the court. This is where most pickleball shoes wear through first, specifically at the ball of the foot.

“We went through at least half a dozen iterations of our shoe where we just sent it back to the manufacturer and said it's got to be denser,” says Tyler.

The sweetspot came when they were consistently hitting that 250-hour average of court time across players of all shapes and sizes and skill levels. Any lighter and the durability would suffer; any heavier and performance would take a hit.

But they didn't stop there. Montis court shoes come with two sets of laces, one matching the base color and one matching the accent color.

Beyond that, they are packed with pickleball-specific innovations:

• A heel cup helps lock your foot in place
• The stretch sock liner provides additional lateral support
• Crash-resistant external toe caps protect high-friction areas
• Breathable upper mesh keeps the air flowing
• An industry-leading 6-month outsole warranty gives extra peace of mind

Superior fit is paramount to getting the best performance out of a court shoe. And while Montis shoes do offer a wider toe box to promote increased toe splay–proven to aid in repeated lateral movement–Tyler is adamant that they've taken it one step further.

“The problem is, if you are someone who does not have a wide foot, and you buy a wide toe box shoe, you're banging around on the inside," he says.

The inner sock liner helps here. But the real Montis difference comes in offering two sizes for every model–a regular and a wide cut.

“We want customers to find the right size for their foot that allows them to maintain that lockdown of the shoe," says Tyler. "Because whether you have a wide foot or a narrow foot, you need a toe box that appropriately matches your foot.”

A Glimpse at What's Ahead

Tyler and Jay are excited about what's to come for Montis, including a few brand collaborations they can't quite talk about yet but feel confident will go over well with the pickleball-loving public.

They recently dropped a stunner collab with content creator Ed Ju, for example, a playful combination of white, electric blue and Flamingo pink that proved an instant hit.

One thing they can tease is some new colorways, like this sharp green and white combo.

Whatever comes next, you can bet that quality and performance will remain the focus.

“We're pretty committed to keeping our prices low, closer to $100 than $200 per pair," says Jay. "The margins are tough. But that's why there are five pickleball shoe brands and 1,000 pickleball paddle brands."