As a running lover, I was not endowed with much gift and I therefore make up for this with my passion and efforts. During the past seven years I’ve racked up over 15,000 miles of running, which to me was more than a reward, but more of a motivation. I enjoyed my running process very much, which should, to a certain extent, be attributed to my shoes despite that some of them are barely satisfactory. Here I wanna recommend Skechers Speed Freek which should be at the top of my 20 running shoes regarding their overall performances.
As soon as I got the shoes, I was informed from the shoe box the technologies adopted. First of all, there is the CARBON INUFSED in the forefoot. Secondly, the outsole is made of rubber of GOODYEAR. Over and above that, the midsole is hyperburst, much thicker than that of its predecessors. Finally, there is also the HYPER ARC that helps speeding up.
As regards its appearance, there is a combination of white, gray, black and bright red as that of a watermelon. Nevertheless, it is not so much the shoe’s appearance as its performance that impresses me deeply.
The big hollow logo “S” is printed on the outside of the heel, but it is not in the least eye-catching. At the height of highlighting one’s own brand by emphasizing its logo, Skechers, however, chooses a different but not showy way.
The midsole adopts the multi-layer structure with black on the upper and white on the lower, which is thickened to provide better cushioning and rebound. As for the vamp, it is made of mono, a kind of gauze widely enjoyed, to improve the shoes’ breathability and reduce their weight. Besides, seeing that there are people who stick to running on wet roads, the shoes’ vamp is made waterproof to provide them a better experience. This, by some estimate, has helped increase consumers by 5%.
The tongue of the shoe is perforated to improve the air permeability, with a V-shaped slit at the top and “Speed Freek” printed on it.
Hyperbust is Skechers’ strongest technology and has been used in skechers’ running shoes for a couple of years. But the midsole of this Speed Freek has been thickened with the fore part 32 mm thick and the heel 36 mm thick. Actually, the thickening of midsole is in great popularity in recent years and Speed Freek is just following suit. However, in spite of that, I must own that Speed Freek has done a better job. Thick as the midsole is, it is still superior in offering rebound.
The insoles are inseparable from the shoes for they are firmly attached to the midsoles so as to avoid its being pushed out during running.
However, the shoes are not without shortcomings. The heel is in fact very soft since it is not equipped with counter. From the perspective of my experience, this is the most glaring disadvantage of the shoes because it has gone so far as to reduce their weight by eliminating the counter.
The orange part of the outsole is covered with Goodyear wear adhesive, which, however, doesn’t seem to help improve durability of the outsole. I had even thought that it might only accompany me for 1000km.
The two hollows in the arch, the so-called HYPERARC, in addition to further reducing the weight of the shoe, can also help speed up runner’s pace.
With the above efforts, you may be wondering how much these shoes really weigh. Actually, a single Speed Freek I got here weighs only 202 grams while a shoe of other brands mostly weighs above 220 grams, from which we can get a glimpse of the excellence of the shoes.
Overall:
With this pair of running shoes, I am even more enthusiastic about running. After running ten kilometers for three days in a row last week, I didn’t feel any discomfort under my feet at all. To sum up, there do exist some disadvantages of the Speed Freek, it is overall terrific and a good choice for the majority of people.