McDavid Ankle Brace Ultralight for Sprained Ankle, Figure 8 Ankle Braces, Lace up Ankle Brace, Ankle Braces for Men and Women, Ankle Support Brace and Stabilizer

My son fractured his growth plate in his ankle and had a level 3 sprain. After being in a boot for a month, the orthopedic specialist he was seeing wanted him to wear this same brace. At his office it cost $90. I told the doctor I wanted to shop around for a better price, and he told me to make sure that I bought a brace that laced up the front AND had a "figure 8" wrap around strap. He said that this type of brace offers the best stability and support. I decided to look on Amazon and found it here for less than $25. This is the exact same brand and model of brace that the doctor had at his office. This brace is very sturdy and stabilizes the ankle. It's made out of a nylon material, laces up the front, and then has a velcro strap that wraps under the foot and around the ankle and then up around the leg. The orthopedic doctor says this offers much more stability to the ankle than a "stirrup-style ankle stabilizer air cast" (Ace makes one) which are found at the drugstore--and honestly this brace is cheaper on Amazon than those anyway! My husband had bought my son one of those stirrup-style braces to wear when he started to refuse to wear the boot any longer (13 years old and was mad about having to wear the boot past week 4 and in the middle of his baseball season which he missed most of), but before the doctor was recommending a brace. My husband figured it was "better than nothing"...the doctor said, well yea, it was better than nothing, but not much. And I could see that my son could still twist his ankle in the stirrup-style brace, which is harder for him to do in the McDavid brace. My son has to wear this brace for all physical activities (long boarding, running, etc.) and it doesn't seem to bother him and his sneaker fits over it just fine. I know others have mentioned that the upper, front area (the "tongue") rubs or bothers their leg, but my son has not had that problem. He's even been wearing it with ankle socks, rather than crew socks now, although if it were me, I would definitely wear a higher crew style sock. But hey, he is 13 and knows everything! My son wears a size 9 men's shoe. The sizes of this brace overlap. The small fits up to a size 9 and the medium starts at a size 9. I contacted the manufacturer and they recommended that my son wear a medium. The medium fits him perfectly, and I feel that the small probably would have been too small. Overall, I am very pleased with this purchase. Especially since it is the EXACT same brand and style that the doctor's office charges $90 for. It's been working great for my son and I would not hesitate to recommend this brace for anyone who needs extra support and stability to an injured ankle.

I'm that weekend warrior who thought turning 40 wouldn’t slow me down, but my ankles had other plans. After a few too many twists and a couple of "did I really just do that?" landings, I grabbed the McDavid Ultralight brace. Now I wear one on each ankle when I play, and the number and severity of injuries has dropped big time. This isn’t some bulky, overbuilt thing. It’s lightweight, breathable, and the figure 8 straps mimic athletic taping pretty well. You can tighten it up without taking your shoe off. It gives real support while still letting me move and cut with enough confidence to stay on the floor. I slipped last week going up for a rebound and thought it was going to be another tweak. Nothing happened. No ice, no hobble, just kept playing. That’s the difference right there. I’ve used knockoff braces that shift, stretch out, or start digging into your foot halfway through a game. This one just stays locked in and does its job. If you're not ready to hang it up yet, this is the brace that keeps you in the game.

I like this brace a lot! COMFORT It’s a lot more comfortable than others I’ve tried, which have the metal support on the sides. COMPRESSION The compression is evenly distributed around my entire ankle. I appreciate that it can be tightened with the shoe strings and the Velcro. SUPPORT It provides high support without the discomfort of the metal strips that many other braces put on the sides. My ankle is completely stabilized in this brace. COST The price is fair for a good quality brace. DURABILITY This brace appears to be far more durable than other braces I’ve tried. For instance, I have one by ACE, which has lint balls on it after just one week. BULKINESS This brace is a bit bulky than others I’ve tried. I suppose due to the figure-8 style where the straps wrap around the arch of the foot, it’s nearly impossible to wear shoes. I’ve been wearing either Birkenstocks, Nike slides, or low UGG boots. (-½ star) GETTING IT ON/OFF Putting it on and taking it off as proven to be a bit more difficult than I would like. Since the brace keeps my ankle so secure, it makes sense that it’s difficult to take off, but it’s also inconvenient to take off. I literally have to loosen the laces all the way down the brace before being able to remove it. (-½ star) OVERALL This ankle brace works well for me. I’d certainly recommend it to a friend.

I ordered this brace because I injured my ankle while training and lifted some heavy weight off a squat track wrong which resulted in some prolonged ankle soreness. I've had bad ankles from playing offensive line in high school and having level 1-3 tendon tears in my ankles from those years past, I used to have two of these back then but lost them when I moved out of my parents house way back when. I can say that this is by far a great brace because the fit is snug and during my most recent injury my ankle has pain in the front that gives me pain when I'm on my feet for too long or walking a lot (live in a metropolitan city so I do a lot of walking). Since using this brace it has mitigated that pain because it is snug enough that it isolates where my pain is and allows me to walk normally and without a limp. Comfort wise the brace is snug. I usually run a 9.5-10 shoe and in my walking shoes it fits fairly well an 8/10 fit, in my dress shoes for work it fits very good 10/10 but I do need to use a shoe horn to slip into my shoes. I ordered a medium in this case. Practical usage of the brace when I'm walking home or to work it gives me maximum comfort and helps me forget that my ankle even hurts. When I'm training I don't feel any pain either but I'm not lifting with as heavy weights until I heal up. The support given in my opinion is around the 9-10/10 mark just because of the isolation during walking motions and the stability offered on the sides. When I'm on the bus standing up I can balance myself if there's weird motions as opposed to hopping about looking to grab onto something for support, and I can also jump 2 stairs at a time without worrying about pain from stressing it in different motions. As far as putting the brace on or taking it off it is fairly straight forward. The side bands that form a figure 6 (I think it's mentioned in the description) help to provide that motion stability I mentioned previously, and the top bands that secure around the laces are all straightforward in attaching and removing. The laces and brace itself does run slightly tighter and more snug than any other brace, so you'll need to spend some additional time with that portion of it. If you have swelling then this could be good for mitigating the swelling (not a doctor or health professional) but if you're pain adverse then I'd exercise caution just because of how snug the brace can be. Overall 5 stars because I'm familiar with the product and it does as advertised and it is not a cheaply built neoprene sleeve.

I injured my right Achilles tendon two weeks ago during a 5 mile trail run. I will admit, I pushed myself a little too hard, too quickly, but thankfully it didn't cause permanent damage (I hope). Walking normally on it was extremely painful to the point of tears and I was gritting my teeth just to bear with it. Stairs were a nightmare. Going down them would cause a major stab of pain that would shoot up my calf unless I took care to plant it sideways on a step (without bending the ankle) as I traversed them. The first week, I tried out an old (10+ years) lace-up version of the McDavid ankle brace, but it didn't go far enough up on the ankle to provide adequate support for the tendon, and was overall just too loose where it mattered most. Another brand I tried out had support inserts embedded of each side--it provided the necessary support, but unfortunately those inserts rubbed against the medial malleolus and caused additional pain after an hour or so. I finally caved and bought this brace, noting that it had the height I needed w/o metal/plastic support inserts. When it arrived, I put it on immediately and was surprised at how well it fit. I'm a more narrow size 9.5 and bought the Medium brace--it's perfect. It's a lace-up and velcro combo that doesn't accidently cut off the circulation to your toes when tightened as well. I found it nice that the laces were long. I could do the initial tie, use the velcro straps that form the "x" under your foot and attach on the sides of the brace, run the laces through the finger pulls on the straps and tie it around my ankle as well. Then I'd finish it off by securing the main velcro strap (with the logo)so that none of the lace is hanging out. It feels great, the fabric is durable, and it breathes well! After a few minutes of wearing it with a normal shoe on, I barely had any issues with my ankle and practically forgot about it. It provides great support on the sides so it doesn't twist, and gave just enough support when I was walking down stairs to prevent pain by not overextending the tendon. It's comfy--been wearing it for a few days now and its dramatically increased my recovery rate. I'll wear it 10+ hours a day with no issues or discomfort--only to take it off at night. Just be sure to wear crew socks under it so that the top of the brace doesn't rub against your skin (and take a layer off. I've been getting really antsy not being able to run for two weeks now, but I'm feeling really confident in the progress my tendon's made and how well it's being supported by the brace. I'll go for a run with it on tomorrow and see how everything feels! It's worth the price, go for it!

I got this to help with the last leg of my recovery post ORIF ankle surgery. It's an excellent brace and really secures your ankle. The material is high quality. I used it every day for 1.5 months and it has held up really well with minimal wear and tear. My physiotherapist liked it too for how secure it was. It can be a bit tiresome to lace it up everytime you put it on but it's comfortable enough to wear while laying down (unlike a boot) so I wasn't always taking it off. The only real caveat - it takes up a lot of room so you won't be able to wear it with every shoe.

Very good brace lot of support

I've used the McDavid ankle brace with strap for 2.5 weeks now, and I love it. 1) Time to put on / take off: it takes me a minute or so to put it on, and much faster to take off. Once I've threaded the laces that cover the top of my foot, I never undo them anymore. When taking off, I only need to undo the laces that go across my ankle/lower shin, while simply loosening the laces that cover the foot. When putting on, I only have to pull the laces tight, lace the ankle area, and strap the velcro. Pretty fast. Maybe I'll do a video "review" to show what I mean. 2) Support: like others say, there is a short break-in period in which the brace feels stiff. After that, it feels really nice. It gives plenty of support while still allowing me to play tennis (about 1.5-2.5 hours each session). 3) Materials: well, one complaint would be the logo on the velcro strap that you put on last. It started coming off because the logo is stiff rubber while the strap is elastic. As the strap stretches, it inevitably breaks contact with the rubber logo. I don't really care though. Maybe McDavid should've just left it off. 4) Issues: regarding the two velcro straps that go underneath the foot and up the sides, people have said that they scratch at the skin. This included my brother and his friend. I haven't had the issue because I wear long socks. Regardless, the McDavid company does write in its directions that you can trim the excess velcro part with scissors, which should eliminate the abrasion issue. 5) Size: I wear size 8.5 running shoes, size 9 tennis shoes (for actual tennis playing, not to be confused with casual sneakers), and the medium size McDavid fits me well. I was worried that it would be too big, but that was not the case. I've loosened my right tennis shoe so that my foot, plus sock, plus brace, can fit inside. No problem. If you're prone to rolling your ankle, don't hesitate to buy this. I'm so happy to play tennis without having to worry about hurting my ankle. I hope it lasts me years. [UPDATE] Regarding #4 above, I tried wearing short ankle socks. I trimmed the velcro that extends upwards past the brace. After playing a 2.5 hour tennis session, I had no abrasion marks. However, I did find it uncomfortable for the brace to contact my skin directly. It might just be preference, something you get used to. As for me, I'm going back to wearing long socks when I use the brace.