Simple And Extremely Effective Turf Shoe
Written: Dec 19 '07
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Extremely durable and lightweight, hyper-responsive cushioning, great support
Cons: Plain-looking????
The Bottom Line: If you are looking for an excellent, all-around turf shoe, this is the one for you.
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| nikefreak's Full Review: Nike Air Zoom Blade II Turf 310956 161 for Men |
Just to lead off: I am reviewing this shoe in the black/white colorway, even though the title is for the white/black one. 161 is the style code for white, 011 is the style code for black. Same shoe, different color, that's it!
I am a sucker for good turf-training shoes from Nike, mainly because they are always lightweight and feature Zoom Air, two of my favorite aspects in shoes. This one is no exception and it does its job incredibly well. The upper is made of a lightweight, synthetic leather which is perfed all over to promote great breathability. A main feature of the shoe is an injected TPU (thermoplastic urethane) forefoot support frame, the wiggly-looking (I really have no other descriptor than that!) structure on both the medial and lateral sides of the shoe. This provides tremendous support for hard cuts and lateral movements by locking your foot down on each side of the shoe. You can easily feel this sensation, as I intentionally made a hard cut to my left to see how it felt and you can feel your foot being supported by the structure as it doesn't let the side of the shoe cave in, as a regular leather upper might do without this support.
For a football shoe, you would think that its very bare bones in terms of luxury, but you would be wrong. The inner is swathed in a full-length Dynamic Fit sleeve made of neoprene material to hug and coddle your foot with support. It's this Dri-FIT easy-entry sleeve that makes for taking the shoe off and on very easily with an effective pull-strap that links to the sleeve itself. For sure, it's nice to have a Dri-FIT liner inside the shoe to wick away moisture. I am pretty sure that everyone knows what this material is, but here's a quick recap on it. It's Nike's most-used apparel fabric and is a two-layer system. One for grabbing the moisture and pulling it way from your skin, the other for pushing the moisture to the surface so it evaporates quickly. This, along with the perfs in the upper, make for one breathable shoe for when it gets really hot out.
An internal midfoot strap is placed in the shoe for even more lockdown support and fit; this is wedged within the sleeve itself, under the midfoot. You can't see it, but your feet will feel it. An excellent, lightweight contoured Phylon wedge houses the visible caged Zoom Air unit in the heel, as well as the forefoot Zoom Air unit. The idea of having a caged Zoom Air unit is that it houses even more Air and fibers to provide more cushioning that what you would receive in an encapsulated unit. Tensile fibers is what makes the Zoom Air so responsive; they are placed inside the Air bag, which is inflated, thus they are put under pressure. When your foot places pressure on the bag, the fibers spring under that pressure, creating that spring-like effect on your foot. This is a great feeling to have on the field, as each little movement is emphasized by the cushioning and makes for even better split-second cuts and responsive movements. The cage itself is made of TPU and also is designed to protect the air bag from deflation. The forefoot Zoom Air unit works just as great, with the hyper-responsive cushioning working right on the balls of my feet. Overall, the dispersion of pressure is a great feeling to have.
Of course, a turf trainer should provide great traction and this one does with a combo of rubber nubs and the normal "teeth"-like traction pattern utilized in the forefoot. Very simple, yet very effective. You can use this shoe for both grass and turf, although I wouldn't recommend it for extremely wet conditions, as cleats would be better suited for that, traction-wise. There is actually two different outsoles for this particular shoe. I have the regular outsole as described above, but there is also a "Mako" outsole for this as well, which has much more pronounced "teeth" than the regular outsole. It's basically an outsole with massive rubber spikes protruding out of the bottom. This version, however, is much harder to find, but is more suited for offensive and defensive lineman. Which comes to the reason why this shoe is so good. It could be called the Air Zoom Versatile, since every, and I mean every, position, can utilize this shoe. Whether you are a 300 lb. lineman or a 145 pound cornerback, this shoe can be used for all positions because of its support and cushioning features. Even people that have concerns with normal encapsulated Zoom Air bottoming out on them, will love the protection of the caged Zoom Air unit. It's also lightweight enough that anybody can step into it and not be weighed down. Of course, it's extremely durable as well, as the upper of my shoe has seen significant wear and tear, but is still holding up quite well without any rips. Watch any NFL or college game that is played on turf and I can guarantee at least one player will have this shoe on. It is the mecca of a turf trainer and comes in the standard team colors, black/white, white/red, white/navy, etc. Get it now while it's cheap, only $60 in most outlets, I promise you that you won't be disappointed.
Recommended:
Yes
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