Hey I just posted a photo blog on flickr of the new Asics Aggressor Wrestling Shoes. You can of course purchase the wrestling shoes directly from us. Here are a few of the shots to see what we are talking about:

I was at my kids school's open house a few months back and saw a table to join the Cub Scouts. It was complete with cool pinewood derby cars, and other interesting stuff that caught our eye. Disclosure being an Eagle Scout I was of course interested more than probably most dads.

What I thought was cool (always looking for new marketing ideas) was the flyer they handed us. It was a pre-printed flyer from the Boy Scouts of America in 4 color on both sides. On the bottom was a small area to print in black and white their contact information.

Did a little research and found out the Boy Scouts sell these for something like $.02 a page. I thought that would be a good way to market a wrestling team. Maybe have three or four flyers to choose from and have the ability to print them out and put your contact information on it to pass out to the team.

I am even thinking about doing this on our own website and just letting you download them and print them off yourself.

What are your thoughts? Anyone care to share their flyers up here or on my other blog?

We posted a bunch of photos of Asics wrestling shoes for 2011 - 2012 on our blog.

Check out a bunch of photos from different angles for the new colors of Cael V4.0, new Aggressor wrestling shoes and new Split Second 8.

Here are one of each of the new shoes - there are 6 or more photos of each shoe on our blog.

Here is the Asics Aggressor's wrestling shoes - for more photos check out our Facebook fan page. You don't have to be on FB to see the photos.

We should have the Rulon's in Black/Red and Black/Gold in on Monday or Tuesday this week.Remember these shoes will be going away next year and will be known as Aggressors. The simple color designs of these two shoes will not be back next year either. The new color schemes will be Grey/Navy Blue Royal Blue/Yellow Gold and Black/Red/Vegas Gold. Just like I said this year with the Inflicts these shoes will be definitely gone before the start of next season.

Here is the technical information on the Combat Speed III Wrestling Shoes. What are your thoughts?

Retail Cost on these is going to be about $55 to $60 for adults. Looks like it will come in kid's sizes too.

Combat Speed III / Combat Speed III Jr
The Combat Speed was "the" wrestling shoe for decades and has returned again with updated detailing and newer technical materials. This classic has been the favorite of many champions. Known for its ultra light weight and sock like feel, the Combat Speed III will immediately feel "match ready"
- Synthetic suede and open mesh for breathable, lightweight durability.
- Internal webbing support adds strength without compromising weight or feel.
- Suede sole with rubber forefoot and heel inserts provide exceptional sock like feel.

Hey my wrestling shoes are falling apart. We find we get this question a lot towards the end of the season. Parents believe their wrestling shoes should last a year or two. And they probably should if you wrestled in the shoes like I did when I wrestled 20 to 25 years ago.

However, the problem is these shoes are not made like they were 20 to 25 years ago. And this is not a slam on the shoes. They are made with better material that is lighter weight, breathes more, thiner soles to grip the mat and improve feel etc.

And the other main issue is kid are not simply taking care of their wrestling shoes. Most kids are not taking their shoes home with them at night and airing them out. They are not rotating two or three pairs of shoes in and out of practice. They don't have a pair of shoes for meets only. I remember reading a story about a famous MLB player that said he treated his baseball bats like this. Never would let anyone handle them, always cleaned them etc.

Or think about business men (I was a CPA in my former life). I had two pair of dress shoes. I rotated them in and out of my dress for the day. Stuffed cedar trees in them at night and they lasted. Also, I have read where runners take a similar approach with the care of their running shoes. And speaking of running, don't run or lift in your wrestling shoes. Or at least don't expect to wrestle in your high school practices, go to your club practice at night two to three times a week, run in them before school, run in them after school, and ride a bike in them to get some extra conditioning. I used to wrestle 30 to 35 matches max in a season (with out the state finals) and now with mega duals and mega tournaments, kids are easily getting 50 to 60 matches if their team and themselves go to the state finals. Add in another 75 to 100 off season matches and kids are easily getting 2 to 3 wrestling years (or I call them Jeff years) of wrestling in a season or even in a few months.

Take care of your equipment so it will take care of you...by the way if you are looking for new wrestling gear - keep us in mind.

Posted all the 2010-2011 wrestling shoes on my blog - there is a pdf to download and a survey to let us know which shoes you'll be buying this year.

We'll draw one t-shirt for every 50 people who complete a survey (max 20 t-shirts). It's a WrestlingGear.Com/Nike logoed t-shirt. Survey should take less than 5 minutes to complete and will help us with our buying decisions for next year.

Check it out and let me know what you think - http://www.wrestlinggear.com/blog

Just a quick post today, we created a wrestling related app that will allow you to post right now to Twitter and Faceook personal pages. In the works, will be the ability to post to a fan page.

All you have to do is set up an account at http://www.wrestlinggear.net and go to your page and check the boxes to publish to Twitter and Facebook. It will walk you through the steps to link those two websites together.

Let us know what you think - get started here - http://www.wrestlinggear.net

It is easier if you already have your Twitter and FB page set up (e.g. create those pages if you don't have them already).

I forgot an important feature - it's free!

Jeff Pape
WrestlingGear.Com

I posted a few hundred photos from the IL vs IN All Star Classic Duals - check them out let me know what you think - http://www.illinoiswrestling.com

Here is where I'll post all the links to my photos. So far I am done with Friday's Greco Roman Quarter Finals Matches. There are always going to be some that are not what I label them (e.g. I'll sneak a few others in)

Greco Roman US Open - Quarter Finals

2010 US Open Saturday Afternoon Photos

2010 US Open Finals

Jeff Pape
WrestlingGear.Com

Today's blog will highlight the free t-shirts we are giving away. You have two opportunities to get one. First one is download the new shoes for next season (we have a pdf on this blog post - http://www.wrestlinggear.com/blog/2010-2011-wrestling-shoes/ ) and complete a survey. We'll select 1 winner for every 50 people that complete a survey). Maximum 20 t-shirt winners. No purchase necessary of course.

The other opportunity is to join our promo team - find out more information on our blog - http://www.wrestlinggear.com/blog hurry though we are going to limit who can be on our promo team. We don't want too many people that live close together. Limit one free shirt. Send us your mailing address and t-shirt size and how many flyers you'd like.