Yonex Precision 1 review: is this budget shoe worth the price?

I had been back playing badminton for a while and felt ready to invest in some better badminton shoes when I came across the Yonex Precision 1.

I had been happy with the badminton shoes I got from the brand Perfly at Decathlon, but I remembered from playing as a kid that Yonex was popular, so I figured they might have something nice to offer.

Here in Asia, it’s difficult to find the shoes I want in my size. It often ends up being a question of what’s available in my size and within my budget rather than what I would prefer if I could pick from any pair of badminton shoes.

That’s when Yonex’s Precision 1 caught my eye. Their all-blue color scheme stood out and wasn’t as ugly as many other non-marking badminton shoes.

Yonex Precision 1 review: my experience

Before getting my pair of Yonex Precision 1 shoes, I didn’t know anything about them except that they were in the $50 price range. 

When I bought them I figured that this price range might be a bit too low if you want anything good, as is usually the case with sports shoes. On the other hand, since I was happy with my Perfly shoes in the same price range I figured this might work out well too.

I couldn’t have been more wrong. 

I won’t speculate too much as to why but here’s what happened during my short experience with Yonex’s Precision 1 shoe.

Let’s start with their durability.

Durability

I played with them for four sessions of two hours each, over two weeks, which comes out to about eight hours in total.

After the second session, I noticed to my surprise that the material on the outside of the shoe on my non-racket foot, near where the big toe begins, was starting to come off and creating a small hole through to my feet.

It’s the signature mark we usually get on badminton shoes when lunging as we use the non-racket foot to slow down our speed, so some sort of protection in that area is reasonable to expect.

I wish I had taken a picture of it before throwing them out so this would be more believable, but it happened before I started this project.

This was not a deal breaker entirely but a serious cause for concern after just about eight hours of play-time.

Fit, cushioning, and shock absorption

The fit felt fine for a budget shoe and reasonably comfortable, even compared to the previous Perfly shoes. When I tried them on at the badminton shop for the first time, I remember how they immediately felt nicer to walk around in than my previous budget shoe. 

This is most likely due to the not-totally-horrible midsole and cushioning (Yonex’s budget cushioning technology “TruCushion”) felt like a nice improvement compared to the more “bare” Perfly shoes I had before.

But right from the first session playing with them, I began feeling pain near both sides of my knees. I’ve never experienced this during any other sport, or when using any other pair of shoes in general, so I was confused as to how my shoes could cause this.

I didn’t change anything else while playing in these shoes, and I did break them in beforehand, so it’s hard to imagine what else could be causing this. At first, I just took notice and figured that it was a normal part of changing sports shoes, but for every session I played it got worse until I was too afraid of injuries to continue playing in them.

I’m still not entirely sure what caused this but as soon as I switched to another pair, my first pair of Yonex SHB 65Z3, the pain was gone right from the first session.

Other considerations of my experience with the Yonex Precision 1 shoes

They say that a story always has two sides to it. 

To be fair to Yonex regarding the knee pain I experienced, I did get these shoes in half a size too big as that was the only thing they had available, but they didn’t feel particularly big when wearing them (both in US, UK and European sizing, half shoe sizes seem to be the same). 

On the other hand, since Yonex’s badminton shoes tend to be small in size, this shouldn’t be enough to cause these issues. My previous Perfly shoes were the same size too and didn’t cause me any problems for months (while also using smaller sizes than normal shoes, similar to what Yonex does).

When it came to the durability, I’m not sure what could’ve reasonably caused the pair to break so easily on the outside.

I bought them at a reputable chain store here in Vietnam, and I’ve since bought several badminton rackets and shoes with no sign of fake products. That being said, there is a chance that this particular store in the chain sold me a fake pair. I haven’t been back to that particular store in the chain since so it’s hard to tell but that’s the only other thing I can think of.

Overall conclusion

Rather than doing the usual breakdown of specifications and which type of player I believe these shoes will fit, I’ll simply not recommend any player to risk injuries with this shoe. 

I figure it’s a slightly older model that will likely be out of the market soon as I’ve recently seen the Yonex Precision 2 at online shops (at the time of writing this). Let’s hope they gave it a serious overhaul.

If you’re a Yonex fan and want a great badminton shoe with plenty of protection, you might like my review of their Eclipsion Z3.

On the other hand, if you’re looking for another budget shoe in the same price range as these, you might like my Perfly BS530 review.

Takeaways

• You’re better off with another budget shoe than these ones