The objective of this study was to explore the effects of tennis shoe characteristics on performance during sideward cutting movements followed by direction changes. Five tennis players (age = 21.5 +/- 0.8 years, mass = 75.2 +/- 2.8 kg, and height = 1.78 +/- 0.05 m) participated in the study and 10 tennis shoes were tested. Several footwear mechanical parameters were analyzed: Shore A hardness, longitudinal and transverse flexibility, midsole height at heel, presence of heel counters, and weight. A force plate was used to measure the kinetic variables, and two video cameras were used to perform a three-dimensional photogrammetric analysis. Results revealed that subject-footwear interaction was statistically not significant (p > 0.05) for the kinetic and kinematic variables. Only contact time (p = 0.008) and supination movement (p = 0.009) were footwear dependent. Positive correlations between contact time and first supination peak (r = 0.783, p = 0.007) and second supination peak (r = 0.730, p = 0.016) were observed. Impulse was not changed, which means shoes limiting supination allowed tennis players to perform faster sideward cutting movements.