Can You Use Lacrosse Cleats Elsewhere? (6 Sports Review)
Sports are so much fun that only one isn’t always enough. If you’re a hard worker, you can get another sport to play!
This means that you will need two sets of equipment that fit each sport which can get expensive. However, can you mix and match some equipment such as the cleats? In this article, you will find out just that!
To tell whether you can use lacrosse cleats in other sports, I need to explain the differences between lacrosse cleats and other sports and look at the sports individually. Let’s start with American football.
Contents
1. Football
You can use lacrosse cleats for football and vice versa. Both lacrosse and football cleats are very similar, making them compatible without lowering comfort or performance.
Lacrosse and football cleats are quite similar in design and features so, you can use both sports cleats in both sports! It isn’t rare to find shoes from one sport that can play on another. However, what is rare is that the performance won’t suffer.
2. Rugby
In rugby, you can use lacrosse cleats, given that they have plastic studs that all lacrosse cleats have as default. Even when rugby cleats themselves have metal studs, they aren’t sharp and are designed to wear evenly.
That being said, you can’t use metal baseball cleats for rugby because they are more like spikes and would do serious damage when made contact with another person’s foot.
3. Baseball
Generally, you can use lacrosse cleats for baseball. However, lacrosse cleats often are high tops with plastic cleats, whereas baseball cleats aren’t as high and come with metal or plastic cleats, so you should consider that performance-wise.
Switching up things, you can’t use baseball cleats that have metal cleats in lacrosse because that would be too dangerous for the other players. However, plastic cleats, also called molded, are allowed in lacrosse even when the shoe is meant for baseball.
4. Softball
The same as baseball cleats, you can use lacrosse cleats for softball and plastic softball cleats for lacrosse. You should know that softball cleats are bulkier and clumsier than lacrosse cleats, making lacrosse more difficult. In addition, lacrosse cleats won’t provide the traction you would like in softball.
I would suggest that you get separate lacrosse and softball cleats even when you play both sports. However, if you don’t take either one that seriously while playing one as the main sport, you can use them alternately, excluding metal softball cleats for lacrosse.
5. Soccer
You can’t use lacrosse cleats for soccer because they have toe cleats which are illegal in soccer for safety reasons. In addition, lacrosse cleats are often hightops, heavier, and bulkier, making them a bad choice for soccer that requires low tops, lightweight, and minimal design for performance.
That being said, even if you could use lacrosse cleats for soccer that you can’t, you shouldn’t. Think about soccer cleats and their requirements for a while.
The material on top of your feet is minimal for excellent ball control. Lacrosse cleats would make that too hard, in addition to the long top design that would make moving on a soccer field more difficult, without forgetting shin guards that probably wouldn’t fit with high tops.
Finally, soccer is a high contact sport, and the toe spike on a lacrosse cleat would make it very dangerous to play soccer with.
6. Field Hockey
You can wear lacrosse cleats for field hockey and field hockey cleats for lacrosse. There are certain differences between the shoes, such as less severe cleats on field hockey cleats. In addition, lacrosse cleats don’t have cushioned heels that field hockey cleats do. All in all, they are quite similar.
A word of caution. Field hockey cleats have that cushioned heel to protect them from getting hit by a hockey stick. So, if you’re playing field hockey with lacrosse cleats, you should keep that in mind.
As you can see, you can use lacrosse cleats for most sports you would want to use them. However, soccer is a different story, and you need to get cleats of your own for that.
Can You Wear Lacrosse Cleats On Turf?
As you can use lacrosse cleats for most sports, another question is can you use them on all surfaces? The main differences between grass fields and turf fields are that turf fields are easier and cheaper to maintain, the turf is hotter, and it’s also harder than natural grass.
So, can you wear lacrosse cleats on turf? You can wear lacrosse cleats on turf as their small plastic studs are designed for it. Unlike the large metal cleats on baseball cleats, lacrosse cleats only have plastic cleats for safety and turf-friendly reasons.
Lacrosse cleats are equipped with only small plastic studs instead of long metal spikes for two reasons; safety and turf friendliness.
Imagine playing lacrosse with long metal spikes, and someone would step on your toes or vice versa. Men’s lacrosse is classified as a contact sport, so the real danger would be there, which is why only plastic studs are allowed.
In addition, lacrosse is often played on a turf field, so long or metal spikes aren’t made for the cleats. Imagine turning fast while long metal spikes are on the turf field. That would mess up the surface badly, and it would pose a safety risk and require repair.