Will Brinson kicked it at The OC for the Nike Global Training Summit.
Disclaimer: FanHouse in no way endorses any particular shoe or believes any brand to be superior to another when discussing athletic apparel. This is just one blogger's (albeit a brilliant one) opinion of the culturally significant release of the product that Nike calls the "Trainer 1."
There are two important aspects of shoes (much like everything else): form, and function. The Nike Trainer 1, which was unveiled to sneakerheads and media folks at Newport Beach this past week, receives high marks for both in an impressive fashion.
First of all, the style. Nike did a hell of a job "rolling old school" on this new shoe, which celebrates the 20-year anniversary of Bo Jackson's "Bo Knows" campaign with the Swoosh. There's a sense of newness about them, but none of the colors -- with the exception of the individual athletes' shoes -- are too over the top. The pair I rocked at the Summit was similar to the ones you see above, only with blueish tones instead of the black front end and the green highlight on the swoosh.
I actually prefer the ones above (and will be anxiously waiting for my mail every day, hint, hint) in terms of color, but it's apples and blueberries as far as I'm concerned -- I actually rocked my blue pair of Nike Trainer 1's for my Saturday afternoon run in the 80 degree heat, and I looked pretty stylish if I do say so myself.
But I digress -- the functionality is the most important part of of the shoe, a sentiment echoed by head designer Aaron Cooper when I asked him if the shoe behemoth was purposely attempting to give the newer version of the shoe a retro feel.
"Honestly, it wasn't about trying to make a new "retro" shoe," Cooper replied, "But really taking the learnings that we got from what [OG shoe designer] Tinker [Hatfield] created with Bo, and you know, like I pointed out, the strap-fit ... the fore-foot overlay, that's an icon of training, but it's really functional."
Cooper enthusiastically agreed with my follow-up of form following function, as well as pointing out that the individual athletes were only able to customize their shoes after the functionality was in place (see Adrian Peterson's new kicks below.) And honestly, that's what makes the shoe so impressive. It clocks in at an obscenely light 11.5 ounces (!) and wearing it feels like the rough equivalent of having your foot jammed in a cloud.
The Trainer 1 is a mid-size cut, usually a huge pet peeve of mine. But given the shoe's weight, the height difference is nearly negligible. However, it's certainly fair to point out that for distance running, a lower cut shoe is preferable, but the Trainer 1 is the only mid-size that I've ever even managed to work through a 5k on.
Essentially, other than some semi-light workouts at UC-Irvine during the Summit, my first work in the T-1's were on Saturday when I took them out on the road. Under nearly all circumstances, the first run in a new shoe results in at least some blistering or chaffing of the foot. No dice with Nike's latest shoe; I cruised through the ~3.5 miles without any worry, and at a decent pace to boot.
Of course, I'm not entirely positive how long it took me, or even how long I ran (I was staying at a friend's house out of town and not working my normal circles) because my trust Nike Plus iPod chip wasn't in the heel. Which was one of my initial concerns at the Summit -- that Nike and Apple might have potentially scrapped and/or downscaled their collaborative effort to unite music and excercise.
Fortunately, the Nike folk pointed out to me that the Plus system was very much an intergral part of future products, and that additional releases of the Trainer 1 would come equipped with Apple/iPod functionality.
So, yeah: case closed. Seriously. I have little to no complaints about the Trainer 1; it's an obviously superior shoe, particularly in the world of crosstraining, where the versatility of the athletic wear and particularly the shoes is so important.
