The outsole on these looks like fragile garbage and I would never purchase these for that reason. The rubber reinforced areas do not even cover the high-wear areas. Especially at $150 price point. That's a premium level price for a training shoe that does not look like it can hold up to regular training.
masterofdisaster wrote:
http://www.roadtrailrun.com/2018/02/nike-epic-react-flyknit-review-hype.html#more
Wow. I didn't know it was possible to find people more illiterate than the Brojos. What a god awful review, nearly impossible to read.
If you've got a review of the react, we'd love it in our Better Running Shoe site (coming soon)
Nike Off Foam 2018, Lightweight neutral trainer , Sounds like a decent shoe.
Another review positive;they were really nice
Well despite the last bump being a spammy pile of poop, can anyone speak to the durability of these things after wearing them for a couple months now?
Log in with a username and password or use Facebook/Google. Leav wrote:
Well despite the last bump being a spammy pile of poop, can anyone speak to the durability of these things after wearing them for a couple months now?
I tried them for one 10 mile run. Could already see the wave pattern near my pink toe (for lack of a better marker, really just the outside edges of the outsole) in the foam was gone. This was one run. It's possible it's a bad batch? Or the foam wearing down doesn't matter? But it didn't instill confidence.
Don’t laugh: the Skechers GoRun Ride 7 are 95% of the Epic React, and they have a decent outsole, and are $100 retail. I’ve run in the Epic React and sent them back after 3 runs. Can’t believe Nike would release such a half baked shoe...
I bought a pair and have more than 250 miles on them. They are actually fantastic shoes. I use them mostly on pavement, but have used them with decent results on well-packed dirt roads. Anyone who claims the sole is wearing off after one run hasn’t taken a very careful look at the sole out of the box. The grooves (as manufactured) look worn away in certain spots fresh out of the box. The outsole is surprisingly durable and is, in fact, not wearing away after a few runs. My pair shows only a little wear and scuffing at 250, but nothing that affects the performance in any way. These are fast and light shoes with sufficient protection for long runs (I did 23 miles in them this morning). For me, these nail the perfect balance between cushion and reaponsiveness. And before you say that I am a Nike shill, I historically have hated Nike trainers and am still very loyal to Adidas for flats. These are not a shoe that I use everyday (because I like to rotate in my Mizunos and Adidas for injury protection purposes), but they are a damn good shoe and my go-to for anything long and fast on the roads. The one negative that I have experienced is that the upper is impossible to loosen. The flyknit sucks to your foot like shrink wrap and can cause irritation to the tops of your feet if your run includes a lot of downhills. But other than that, you will be equally happy doing a long run at 6:50 pace or doing a tempo at 5:20 pace in these shoes. I don’t wear them for hard intervals on the track just because the stack height makes them feel a little too “trainerish” for paces under 5 min. That said, you could get away with that type of use just fine if you wanted, as I frequently use mine for strides and hill sprints at the end of training runs. I hope that helps a little. I was on the fence about these for months and finally just bit the bullet and got them. They are expensive, but well worth it in my book.
NikeOldDude wrote:
I tried them for one 10 mile run. Could already see the wave pattern near my pink toe (for lack of a better marker, really just the outside edges of the outsole) in the foam was gone. This was one run. It's possible it's a bad batch? Or the foam wearing down doesn't matter? But it didn't instill confidence.
Did you look at the bottom of the shoe before you ran? Dude? They come with that wear pattern on them out of the box. I’ve seen a couple other moronic reviews stating the same thing.
Do you own a Toyota RAV4 too? Did someone bump into the spare tire cover too?
Well, my love/hate relationship with the shoes continues (see previous posts).
On the negative side, they have started to loudly pop with each step, just as other reviewers have mentioned. At first only on smooth tile surfaces, but now even concrete sidewalks and blacktop road surfaces. Quite annoying.
On the positive side, I've noticed my legs, knees, ankles, etc feel much fresher after long runs. And I still love the heel/toe transition, especially running up hills on my forefoot. The hard stiff foam seems to soften a bit towards the end of long runs, with the last 5K of a HM being nice and springy feeling.
As for wear, I have the white REACT foam version, and other than being a bit dirty, I don't notice any wear yet.
I am curious about this statement:
"It is great for longer slower miles, but you shouldn't even consider wearing them for a marathon."
Is it a matter of cushion and/or slowness? Thinking specifically about middle pack 3:45-4:00 hour marathon pacer.
I solved my pop issue, following instructions on various Nike forums... I made a slit in the cloth between the insole and midsole. They forgot to completely glue it during the first production runs and air gets trapped there. Supposedly more recent production runs no longer have the problem. The newer REACT Odyssey has the cloth perforated with lots of holes, so glue or no glue, it will not pop.
At the risk of being laughed at by LRC readers (my kids already gave me a hard time about ruining a $150 pair of running shoes), I’d like to detail some experiments I performed on my Epic REACT shoes. I wanted to work from smallest to biggest changes, in case I messed up and ruined the shoes.
1. First, most obvious mod, taking off the shoe laces. With the full flyknit upper, they don’t do much anyway. I found they do not help foot lockdown much, and if you do need the laces for lockdown, either you bought your shoes too big or have running form issues.
2. Remove shoe liners. This greatly enhanced the comfort and made the slip on like, well, slippers. The foot did become more loose, not so much I could not run in them, but it might cause some people blisters. After a few days of wearing them, my heel started to hurt somewhat.
3. Removing the outer lace hole reinforcement. The shoe looks a bit goofy with no laces but lace reinforcement panels. There is no issue with loss of reinforcement, as the main reinforcement is a full welded panel in the inside that includes the swoosh. The outside is just glued on cloth. On one shoe I used solvent, which worked well. On the other shoe I used brute force pulling, and it left a layer of glue behind that needed to be dyed black.
4. Cutting off midsole flare. I noticed that the bottom of the sole flairs much wider than the shoe. I assumed this was for stability and not just for show. It bothered me a bit, and sometime felt like I was wearing clown shoes. I took a sharp knife and just cut away the flair, making the sides square with the shoe. To my surprise, after several days of wearing, including running, I came to the conclusion the mod did not impact stability at all. My feet are just as stable with front, mid, or heel strike landings.
5. Creating artificial heel. I noticed that the shoe feels banana shaped on the bottom, which helps with heel to toe transition, but also bothered my arch during casual wear. I took a sharp knife and cut away some of the middle of the foam outsole, thus creating a small heel where the plastic heel counter is located. It seemed to relieve my arch pressure, but put additional pressure on my heel.
6. And finally, the craziest modification of all. I noticed that the bottom of my foot got really hot, especially when running longer distances. This surprised me, as the shoe is very breathable. So, I drilled 1/4" holes in the sole, from front to back, careful to keep close enough to the middle to not hit any of the stitching that holds the upper to the midsole. As the holes tended to self-close since the drill does not work with foam very well, I used a hot soldering iron to melt the jagged holes into more open rounded holes. This solved the heat retention problem, and it really feels strange having cool air hit the bottom of your feet when running. Much to my surprise, the REACT foam has much more bounce now, as there is more weight per square area of foam, as I have cut and drilled much away.
Anyway, crazy to do all this to a new pair of expensive shoes, but they are still not only usable, but runnable. The only mod that impacted running ability was creating the low heel, but even that is bearable. My shoes are now much more comfortable, cooler, and lighter. (I weighed the size 10 pair as 400g even.) As I use these for triathlons, they pull on very fast in T2. And in the summer heat, on sun soaked roads, my feet stay cooler.
I find these shoes are very bouncy and squishy out of the box. I'm not used to it and the soft, bouncy foam has been shredding my quads.
They're much better. More supportive because of the external heel clip and counter, and lighter, softer and springier as well. From what I've heard, it's like lunarlon on steroids.
Four By Six wrote:
At the risk of being laughed at by LRC readers (my kids already gave me a hard time about ruining a $150 pair of running shoes), I’d like to detail some experiments I performed on my Epic REACT shoes. I wanted to work from smallest to biggest changes, in case I messed up and ruined the shoes.
1. First, most obvious mod, taking off the shoe laces. With the full flyknit upper, they don’t do much anyway. I found they do not help foot lockdown much, and if you do need the laces for lockdown, either you bought your shoes too big or have running form issues.
2. Remove shoe liners. This greatly enhanced the comfort and made the slip on like, well, slippers. The foot did become more loose, not so much I could not run in them, but it might cause some people blisters. After a few days of wearing them, my heel started to hurt somewhat.
3. Removing the outer lace hole reinforcement. The shoe looks a bit goofy with no laces but lace reinforcement panels. There is no issue with loss of reinforcement, as the main reinforcement is a full welded panel in the inside that includes the swoosh. The outside is just glued on cloth. On one shoe I used solvent, which worked well. On the other shoe I used brute force pulling, and it left a layer of glue behind that needed to be dyed black.
4. Cutting off midsole flare. I noticed that the bottom of the sole flairs much wider than the shoe. I assumed this was for stability and not just for show. It bothered me a bit, and sometime felt like I was wearing clown shoes. I took a sharp knife and just cut away the flair, making the sides square with the shoe. To my surprise, after several days of wearing, including running, I came to the conclusion the mod did not impact stability at all. My feet are just as stable with front, mid, or heel strike landings.
5. Creating artificial heel. I noticed that the shoe feels banana shaped on the bottom, which helps with heel to toe transition, but also bothered my arch during casual wear. I took a sharp knife and cut away some of the middle of the foam outsole, thus creating a small heel where the plastic heel counter is located. It seemed to relieve my arch pressure, but put additional pressure on my heel.
6. And finally, the craziest modification of all. I noticed that the bottom of my foot got really hot, especially when running longer distances. This surprised me, as the shoe is very breathable. So, I drilled 1/4" holes in the sole, from front to back, careful to keep close enough to the middle to not hit any of the stitching that holds the upper to the midsole. As the holes tended to self-close since the drill does not work with foam very well, I used a hot soldering iron to melt the jagged holes into more open rounded holes. This solved the heat retention problem, and it really feels strange having cool air hit the bottom of your feet when running. Much to my surprise, the REACT foam has much more bounce now, as there is more weight per square area of foam, as I have cut and drilled much away.
Anyway, crazy to do all this to a new pair of expensive shoes, but they are still not only usable, but runnable. The only mod that impacted running ability was creating the low heel, but even that is bearable. My shoes are now much more comfortable, cooler, and lighter. (I weighed the size 10 pair as 400g even.) As I use these for triathlons, they pull on very fast in T2. And in the summer heat, on sun soaked roads, my feet stay cooler.
That's the bar I set for a pair of $150 shoes. Hours of modification that make them "runnable". High praise.
Four By Six wrote:
At the risk of being laughed at by LRC readers (my kids already gave me a hard time about ruining a $150 pair of running shoes), I’d like to detail some experiments I performed on my Epic REACT shoes. I wanted to work from smallest to biggest changes, in case I messed up and ruined the shoes.
1. First, most obvious mod, taking off the shoe laces. With the full flyknit upper, they don’t do much anyway. I found they do not help foot lockdown much, and if you do need the laces for lockdown, either you bought your shoes too big or have running form issues.
2. Remove shoe liners. This greatly enhanced the comfort and made the slip on like, well, slippers. The foot did become more loose, not so much I could not run in them, but it might cause some people blisters. After a few days of wearing them, my heel started to hurt somewhat.
3. Removing the outer lace hole reinforcement. The shoe looks a bit goofy with no laces but lace reinforcement panels. There is no issue with loss of reinforcement, as the main reinforcement is a full welded panel in the inside that includes the swoosh. The outside is just glued on cloth. On one shoe I used solvent, which worked well. On the other shoe I used brute force pulling, and it left a layer of glue behind that needed to be dyed black.
4. Cutting off midsole flare. I noticed that the bottom of the sole flairs much wider than the shoe. I assumed this was for stability and not just for show. It bothered me a bit, and sometime felt like I was wearing clown shoes. I took a sharp knife and just cut away the flair, making the sides square with the shoe. To my surprise, after several days of wearing, including running, I came to the conclusion the mod did not impact stability at all. My feet are just as stable with front, mid, or heel strike landings.
5. Creating artificial heel. I noticed that the shoe feels banana shaped on the bottom, which helps with heel to toe transition, but also bothered my arch during casual wear. I took a sharp knife and cut away some of the middle of the foam outsole, thus creating a small heel where the plastic heel counter is located. It seemed to relieve my arch pressure, but put additional pressure on my heel.
6. And finally, the craziest modification of all. I noticed that the bottom of my foot got really hot, especially when running longer distances. This surprised me, as the shoe is very breathable. So, I drilled 1/4" holes in the sole, from front to back, careful to keep close enough to the middle to not hit any of the stitching that holds the upper to the midsole. As the holes tended to self-close since the drill does not work with foam very well, I used a hot soldering iron to melt the jagged holes into more open rounded holes. This solved the heat retention problem, and it really feels strange having cool air hit the bottom of your feet when running. Much to my surprise, the REACT foam has much more bounce now, as there is more weight per square area of foam, as I have cut and drilled much away.
Anyway, crazy to do all this to a new pair of expensive shoes, but they are still not only usable, but runnable. The only mod that impacted running ability was creating the low heel, but even that is bearable. My shoes are now much more comfortable, cooler, and lighter. (I weighed the size 10 pair as 400g even.) As I use these for triathlons, they pull on very fast in T2. And in the summer heat, on sun soaked roads, my feet stay cooler.
Holy crap, man. Put down the crack pipe and do get some fresh air. That was probably one of the dumbest posts I have ever read, and that is saying a lot.
lol love minimal xc flats don't have to worry all this crap just let good running form do the cushioning
"That was probably one of the dumbest posts I have ever read, and that is saying a lot."
Then you probably don't want to hear that I did several more mods. I removed the inner lace reinforcement panel and Nike swoosh inside and outside. I also removed the outer heel cup. I've detailed the mods with pictures on a popular Nike forum.
Sometimes the best way to understand a shoe is to deconstruct it. I feel I now know a lot more about the pros and cons of the Epic REACT, and how each of the features gives it its unique characteristics.
For example, I learned that there is a strap of rubber connecting the lace reinforcement to the heel cup. This is what makes shoe difficult to pull on. Simply slicing this strap on each side dramatically changes the feel of the shoe, and it slips on easily now.
Removing the reinforcement panel behind the laces greatly frees up the flyknit to stretch as needed, and makes the shoe much more comfortable if your fit is tight enough not to need the additional lockdown. I have done both mods to a new pair of Epics, and the difference is amazing.
I'm not knocking Nike, as the shoe is pretty optimal from the factory. I'm just saying a couple mods here and there made it work better for my feet.
I am wondering how these shoes would do while skateboarding?