Let me get this exactly right, because approximate descriptions of footwear have caused me genuine distress. The Pro-Move Classic is — and I want to be precise — an all-around shoe rather than a specialist one. Not a stability shoe. Not a speed shoe. All-around, all-court, standard fit.
Three things are doing the work: Power Cushion in the midsole, which absorbs impact and converts a proportion of it back into the next movement; Double Raschel Mesh through the upper, which is a knitted double-layer mesh chosen for breathability; and reinforced side panels, which is where the lateral stability comes from. Not navy, white and red.
Colourway: white, navy and red.
I checked.
Why does an all-round shoe matter? You play singles on Tuesday and doubles on Saturday, you take a lesson where you never move more than a metre and then a match where you cover the whole court, and a shoe tuned entirely for one of those is compromised for the others.
Because most players are not one thing.
This one is deliberately balanced — cushioned enough for two hours on your feet, panelled enough that a hard plant does not roll you, breathable enough that the inside is not a swamp by the end. Clean and modern rather than shouty, which I appreciate, because a shoe should not be the loudest thing on court unless you are winning.
Patiala, though, offends me on principle, and I say that as someone who loves it. This is a city of exactitude: Qila Mubarak is ten acres of fort behind the Darshani Gate, the Sheesh Mahal has walls set with mirrors placed one at a time by hand, the Baradari Gardens have twelve gates because baradari means twelve doorways, precisely twelve.
And then this same city gave the world the Patiala peg, a measure of spirits defined by holding your fingers against the glass. By fingers. Whose fingers? It is the most beautiful city in the world at getting things right and it invented the vaguest unit of measurement in human history.
Twelve gates because the word means twelve. And then a unit of measurement defined by the width of somebody's hand.
Buy on Amazon