Nike Shox

Product

Nike Shox Experience+ iD

Portfolio

Purpose

Running . The shox are incorporated to absorb kinetic energy from runner's heel upon leap completion, temporarily store it as potential energy and then release it in time to aid the next bounce forward.

Price

Rs 8300/-

Positives

Looks

• Visit http://store.nike.com and select Men >> Running to view the entire range
  
• Competitors seem to have no equivalent offering

Durability

• At home, their usage has exceeded 8 months and 1000 kms
  
• Terrains include Ghats, Parks, Road and Treadmill
  
• They are pretty much in shape
  

Comfort

• Nike has supposedly spent 16 years in its lab perfecting them. Source http://www.nike-shox.net/nike-shox.html
  
• Lightweight with reasonably narrow fit and excellent craft. They easily assume the shape of the foot
• Jerks on tarred road are eliminated to a great extent. As a result, calf muscle pain subsequent to long spells of hard terrain running is substantially reduced

Neither me nor my brother is a sprinter. None of us has therefore clocked, tracked or monitored any performance improvements over time for different footwear.

Negatives

Lack of immunity to laterite soil

• The base color has therfore been transformed from white to yellow in large patches
• They are best suited for running on treadmill or concrete surfaces

Durability

• The 4 shoxs wear out unevenly. Hence, after some time, they land up giving a feeling of using a chair with each leg of different length

Price

• Steeply priced. Nike is to sportswear what Bose is to Audio systems. Customer has to shell out additional 50% for the Brand

Availability / Variety

• India does not fall in the list of countries which can use the online nike store to customize and order shoes, sporting gear
• Even though the product was launched in fall of 2000, most of the retail outlets keep a very limited SKU. A year ago, I could not find the SKU being reviewed in any of the leading shops of Mumbai / Chennai. You might have to pick it up during one of your outstation trips