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Pretty soon, @Leo_Baker will be expanding the Nike SB catalogue even further with the launch of its own pro-model. ️ ⚧️
With React technology at its core, the Nike SB React Leo emerged through photos of two colorways, where we see leather and mesh panels overlap and forming a mid-pipe leather.
There is still no official information on when the new model will be launched, but we can already have some impressions through the images.
Whether that means 'full length react midsole' or 'no midsole at all, react foam insole' pretty much makes or breaks this shoe for me. It looks fine, but if the thing that makes it a 'react' shoe is an insole (like the Ishod and the BRSB), I'm not interested at all. Seems like every big Nike running tech eventually makes its way to the skate line as a cheap little insole (instead of actually being built into the structure of the shoe), and the shoes rarely catch on.
1) The 'insole instead of a midsole' thing basically means you can't swap insoles in the shoe. Especially if you wear something for arch support like Superfeet or custom orthotics. On, say, an Adidas Forum - a shoe with midsole foam and an insole on top - you can pull the insole and put your own in and still get the cushion from the midsole. On a shoe like the Ishod or BRSB, if you take the insole out and put your supportive insole in, there's no cushioning at all and the shoe probably doesn't fit. You can't put another insole on top of the react insole because it isn't flat or stable enough to do that.
2) There often isn't enough structure/support built into shoes built like that. The outsole by itself tends to feel floppy/thin underneath you. To me, those shoes feel more like wearing a Vans Skate vulc with the drop-in popcush than they feel like a New Balance 808.
3) It just feels like a cut corner - a cheaper and easier (but worse) way of making shoes, like making skate shoes is an afterthought. When they use these nice tech-y foams for other types of shoes, they build the foam into the shoe. I know Nike was building some basketball shoes like that for a while, but I think they've largely moved away from it. If you go to a sporting goods store and look at running/tennis/basketball shoes, very few or none of them will be constructed like that.
Topic: Post UPCOMING/RECENT NIKE SB shoe releases thread (Read 2194492 times)