Nike Free - What Has Been Your Experience?

I wear them for walking around, but I feel they are a bit too heavy/bulky for running. Right now I run in the Mayfly which I guess Nike no longer makes either. It doesn't surprise me that your achilles tendinitis went away because the Free has no heel counter. Neither does the Mayfly and that shoe cured my plantar fasciitis.

I ran almost exclusively in Free's for almost 2 years. It's the longest stretch of time I've gone without getting injured.

The 3.0 is definitely better. It can handle anything from trackwork to 15+ mile long runs. I regularly ran 70-100 mpw in them without any problems. I don't think they are making the 5.0 any more, at least I haven't seen them. I've seen the 3.0's for sale lately.

I have seen the 5.0's and mayflys in recent Eastbay, RRS, and Finish Line catalogs.

Plus you can custom order them on the Nike ID site.

Next question, how do the Lunar trainers compare to the free?

I've tried on the Lunar Trainers, but never ran in them. They were narrower, less flexible, and had more cushion than I like.

I take it none of you have experienced the pain on the outside of the foot that I have with the Frees?

I've been wearing the Frees exclusively on my runs since shortly after they came out. I am, however, a low mileage guy. No problems though.

Nike Free 3.0 is the only shoe I run in, except on track where I wear Nike Milers. Weekly milage around 50-60 and I'm on my fourth pair at the moment. The only downside with the Free's is that they wear out after around 300 miles, but as long as Nike still offers them I have no reason to switch.

Ah yes I forgot: I have the same experience with Achilles tendon problems. With other shoes the pain gets worse but with the Free's I can keep running without problems.

I wear the free when my achilles hurts. I like it because of the flexible heel counter. If my achilles tendon hurts a bit, any hard heel counter irritates it.

Personally I like them to fit a little big, but I don't do speed work in them. They are a little, I don't know, floppy or something. But I like the way they feel.

I wear Frees for all training (50mpw) and have done for 3 years. I had achilles insertion problems that severely limited my running for many years and the Frees cured it. I wear mostly the original 5.0s because I bought 20 pairs when they were on sale at $30 dollars a pair. I agree though that the 3.0s are better still. I get over 1000 miles out of every pair and have had no foot or other injury issues. The Lunar racer is a very good but totally different shoe with no resemblance to Frees. Nike's site has Free 5.0s vesion 4 and Free 3.0s for sale - no sign of the range being discontinued thankfully.

In my experience, they were far from free. I actually had to pay for them, bad choice of a name for a shoe that is not free.

free at last wrote:Nike's site has Free 5.0s vesion 4 and Free 3.0s for sale - no sign of the range being discontinued thankfully.

The 3.0s are only in sizes below 9 and above 13, so I'm guessing they're discontinuing them, unfortunately.

And I think the 5.0s are version 3, not 4. $85, so I'm waiting to get any.

LukeTheRunner wrote:

The 3.0s are only in sizes below 9 and above 13, so I'm guessing they're discontinuing them, unfortunately.

And I think the 5.0s are version 3, not 4. $85, so I'm waiting to get any.

No, the current 3.0 might be going, but 3.0s are not being abandoned. Version 2 coming out soon. The 5.0s are at version 4, version 5 is coming out soon.

you serious? I've had that insertion thing going on for one year exact. Went to a podiatrist and he said to stay w/ the stable shoes like the wave rider - which i do. Now I do have a brand new pair of 3.0 frees in my closet which I wore once. I've been afraid to wear them. How exactly did you train in them w/ insertion problems? Gradual, long runs, easy, etc.? Gotta know this... I may pull them out tomorrow. thanx

Conclusion: not free.

I really like the Free 5.0 and have no problem running in them all the time. I ran about 50-60 MPW and I can do all my runs (except speedwork that I use race flat) in Free 5.0

I treat them as cushoin shoe with no or little support and it has been working great. Had no experience with the 3.0, so can not comment on that. I have 3 pair of 5.0 in stock and definitely has no reserve to recommend it to serious runners. But, if you need any kind of support, the Free might not be the best for you.

If you have achilles/heel problems, I totally recommend giving them a shot. Take your time to build up to them, so you don't end up with other problems. I've had a few minor injuries in them, but I would probably not be running right now, if I hadn't tried them. Before I started running in them, I was having terrible achilles/heel problems and couldn't really run at all. In summary, give them a try, but be careful, as you get used to them.

I had IT band problems, started running with the 3.0 and haven't looked back. I was a severe overpronator. Every time I talked to a doc they'd try to put me in orthodics. I've been very careful to work into them, I don't want to risk getting injured again.

Thanks for that link. Awesome website.