Best Butterfly Table Tennis Shoes: 5 Lezoline Models Compared

Why Butterfly Actually Makes Dedicated Table Tennis Shoes

Unlike Adidas, ASICS, or Mizuno, which we’ve reviewed elsewhere on this site as crossover options with no table-tennis-specific line, Butterfly genuinely builds Butterfly table tennis shoes for this sport under its Lezoline name. Every model below is a real purpose-built table tennis shoe, not a repurposed tennis or volleyball design, which matters if you’ve read our other brand shoe guides and noticed the honest disclosure that most brands don’t make one.

Butterfly’s reputation in table tennis was built on paddles and rubber first, and the Lezoline shoe line came later as an extension of that same competition-focused engineering. That history is why these five models feel meaningfully different from a generic court shoe with a table tennis label slapped on, the outsole compound, the lateral support structure, and the cushioning tuning are all built around the specific stop-start footwork this sport demands rather than adapted from running or general racquet sports.

We checked all six ASINs originally reviewed here and found two discontinued, the Lezoline Gigu is gone from Amazon entirely, and the original Rifones listing was replaced with a current one. The five picks below are all live and purchasable today with current pricing verified directly on Amazon.

1. Butterfly Lezoline Unizes

The budget entry point into the Lezoline line at roughly $72. It carries the core Lezoline design language, a durable gripping outsole and shock-absorbing midsole, without the premium materials of the pricier models. For club-level players who want a genuine competition shoe without paying flagship prices, this is the honest starting point.

What you’re actually giving up at this price point is refinement, not function. The outsole compound grips the same way the pricier models do, and the shock absorption is real, but the upper uses simpler materials and the overall fit is less contoured than the Vilight or Reiss. For someone still deciding whether they’ll stick with the sport long enough to justify a $130 shoe, that’s a reasonable trade.

2. Butterfly Lezoline Vilight

A step up from the Unizes with a lighter build, useful if quick footwork matters more to your game than maximum cushioning. “Vilight” isn’t a marketing flourish here, the shoe is noticeably lighter on foot than the Unizes or Reiss, which shows up during fast lateral recovery steps.

Lighter construction usually means less cushioning, and that trade-off is real here too. If you play on a hard concrete floor rather than a sprung wooden court, the reduced cushioning will be more noticeable on your joints over a long session. On a proper sports floor, the weight savings are the more relevant factor and the lighter build is a genuine advantage for anyone whose game depends on quick recovery steps rather than raw power.

3. Butterfly Lezoline Mach

Built around shock absorption and grip in roughly equal measure, the Mach sits in the middle of the lineup on both price and positioning. It’s the pick for players who don’t want to choose between the Unizes’s affordability and the Vilight’s lightness, a balanced competition shoe without a specific tradeoff to plan around.

At close to $105, it’s priced nearer the top of the range than the middle, so the “balanced” positioning is more about feature mix than cost. If you’ve tried a lighter shoe before and found it too unstable on quick direction changes, the Mach’s extra shock-absorbing structure is built specifically to solve that without going as heavy as the flagship Reiss.

4. Butterfly Lezoline Rifones

Built specifically around footwork support, the Rifones adds athletic support features aimed at players who move a lot around the table rather than staying planted close to it. If your game is built on covering ground rather than close-to-table blocking, the extra lateral support here is worth the mid-tier price.

This is the model we had to re-source for this update, the original listing referenced here was discontinued, but the Rifones itself is still very much a current Butterfly product, just under a different ASIN with the same core footwork-support design. If you’re comparing it against the Mach, the difference is emphasis, the Mach balances shock absorption and grip evenly, while the Rifones leans specifically toward lateral support for players who cover a lot of court.

5. Butterfly Lezoline Reiss

The flagship of the line at around $130. It leads on cushion comfort and overall build quality, the kind of shoe you buy once you already know table tennis is a long-term commitment rather than testing the waters. If budget isn’t the deciding factor, this is the one to buy.

The extra cost buys two things specifically: a more refined upper material that holds its shape longer under repeated hard footwork, and a cushioning system tuned for longer sessions without the fatigue a budget midsole introduces after an hour or two. If you already train multiple times a week, the Reiss will outlast a budget shoe by a wide enough margin to justify the price difference over a full season.

Getting Lezoline Sizing Right

Butterfly is a Japanese company, and several Lezoline listings on Amazon show both US and Japanese (JP) sizing on the same page, which trips up buyers who just grab their usual US shoe size without checking. The gap isn’t huge, usually half a size, but it’s enough to matter for a shoe you’ll be pivoting and lunging in.

If you’ve never worn a Lezoline shoe before, check the specific listing’s size chart rather than assuming consistency across the five models above, Butterfly doesn’t always use identical lasts across its whole shoe line, and a size that fits perfectly in the Unizes might run slightly differently in the Reiss.

Keeping a Lezoline Shoe on Court, Not on Concrete

Every model in this line is built with an outsole compound designed to grip a smooth indoor court surface, wood or synthetic sports flooring. That compound is softer and stickier than a typical running shoe sole, which is exactly what gives you the traction to stop and pivot mid-rally without sliding.

That same softness is a liability outdoors. Walking any real distance on concrete or asphalt wears down the grip pattern fast, and once it’s rounded off you lose the traction that made the shoe worth buying in the first place. If you need to walk to the club or gym, carry the shoes in a bag and change into them at the venue rather than wearing them the whole way.

Between sessions, let the shoes air out fully rather than stuffing them straight back into a closed bag. Table tennis footwork is short and intense, which means a lot of sweat in a short time, and a shoe that never fully dries breaks down faster from the inside than one that gets proper airflow between uses.

Which Lezoline Model Fits You

New to the sport or unsure how much you’ll play, start with the Unizes, it’s a genuine competition shoe at the lowest price in the line. Want the lightest shoe for fast footwork, the Vilight. Want a balanced all-rounder, the Mach. Cover a lot of ground during rallies, the Rifones. And if you’ve already committed to the sport and want the best Butterfly makes, the Reiss.

It’s also worth deciding based on your current shoes rather than in isolation. If you’ve been playing in a generic running shoe and constantly feel like you’re sliding on your pivots, any of these five will feel like a dramatic upgrade since the grip compound alone is a bigger jump than the differences between the five Lezoline models themselves. If you’re already in a dedicated court shoe from another sport and just want table-tennis-specific grip, the differences between the Unizes, Mach, and Rifones matter more, and are worth reading closely rather than picking on price alone.

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Benjamin Fink

Benjamin Fink writes and edits the table tennis equipment guides on PingPongReviewed, covering paddles, tables, robots, and training gear.