The Official Nike Shoes Thread

[Alex_Paul]

I am in touch with the same guy Craig is. When he said "it does not look like we will be selling the shoe at retail" he meant wholesale. At launch they will apparently only sell direct via the Nike.com website... But maybe Craig will have more info.

[Craig]

Of course its not possible the idiot bean-counters overruled the design engineers and didn't even bother to inform them that they'd been overruled. Because, of course, nothing like that EVER happens in large companies...

Are you just being difficult or are you claiming to have more information that I do?

Craig

[HDG]

I didn't mean to stir up a fight.

[oso97]

Are you just being difficult or are you claiming to have more information that I do?

Craig

Merely shaving with Occam's Razor, with the available information that you guys have posted here, that is all. It looked like Alex seems to be in communication with the marketing folks whereas you seemed to be in communication with the designers.

No, I don't have any inside information, just presenting a hypothesis!

Now, that hypothesis has been superseded by the additional information that you and Alex are communicating with the same person.

Which reduces me to the level of being difficult!

[OROD]

Which reduces me to the level of being difficult!

What, you... difficult? Naw.

.

[HDG]

If Alex is right, and Nike is only going to sell them directly, and not through retailers, well, as much as I want to support our vendors, buying direct is just as good from where I'm standing.

[oso97]

If Alex is right, and Nike is only going to sell them directly, and not through retailers, well, as much as I want to support our vendors, buying direct is just as good from where I'm standing.

Usually, I prefer to buy a pair of shoes after trying them on, myself.

[keith]

Usually, I prefer to buy a pair of shoes after trying them on, myself.

nonsense these have the swoosh, they'll make you feel better even if they don't fit.

[HDG]

Usually, I prefer to buy a pair of shoes after trying them on, myself.

nonsense these have the swoosh, they'll make you feel better even if they don't fit.

Fair enough, but how many of the people on the "I gotta get me some Nike fencing shoes" bandwagon do you think were going to wait to try them on at a NAC vs just immediately ordering as soon as they showed up on the f.net store or LP?

[Aussie_Fencer]

when are they supposed to come out?

[academe]

when are they supposed to come out?

August 8, 2008 (08/08/08)

[Empty Wallet]

when are they supposed to come out?

when is the 48 hours of a week ago up?

[Aussie_Fencer]

August 8, 2008 (08/08/08)

Merci monsieur!

[finnfence]

Hmm, was just checking out those Nike Takedown III shoes... they look pretty nice. I wonder if anyone has ever tried them for fencing?

.

There's a guy in our club who uses wrestling shoes. He is a professional orthopedist and former East German junior saber champ. He likes the wrestling shoes better than the fencing shoes. He does pop a pair of custom inserts in, though. I had him make a pair of inserts for my fencing shoes (I have 4 pairs, in the search for one that would work: Adidas silvery high-end ones, Adidas medium ones (I think D'Arts), HiTechs, and Do-Wins). The inserts made all of the shoes work a zillion times better, and almost eliminated my knee problems. Apparently, even though I have plenty of arch in my foot, my lower and upper leg are attached in such a way that the two leg bones don't sit one on top of the other - it's more like an X, and that was putting strain on the knee joint. But it was almost correctable with inserts. I now have 8 pairs, one for each pair of shoes, even my office shoes. Let me say that it's very nice to be able to sit down in a chair again without having to grab the edge of the table to support oneself And it does very nice things for one's fencing - more power and better balance.

So whatever shoes you end up using, you might want to have a really good orthopedist look at your feet and see if you need to correct your alignment. Sometimes it's that that's the problem, not the shoes.

[finnfence]

I thought it was derived from the guy's name: Adi Dassler as I recall.

That's right. The guy's name was Adi Dassler (short for Adolf Dassler, poor chap...wasn't his fault, it was a popular name til a certain idiot spoiled it). He was a gifted engineering/inventing type, and after the war, casting about for stuff to do with what materials were on hand, he started making innovative sports shoes. He's the guy who invented cleats on the bottom of soccer shoes - helped the Germans to win a major championship against I think Hungary on a field that was inches deep in mud sometime in the early 50's, and that helped the nation to finally turn the corner on those long, hard years of hunger and shame after the war. Anyhow, the pronunciation of the company follows the pronunciation of his name: AHdi DAHSSler --> AH-di-DAHS, with the first and last syllables stressed almost equally. If anything the first syllable is ever so slightly more stressed.

[Craig]

OK. Sorry about the long delay. A big batch of real life(tm) caught up with me!

I've talked to Nike a couple of more times and also had a chance to view all of their media releases when they showed off all of the new Nike footwear for the 2008 Olympics (special gymnastics and kayaking shoes anyone?)

The Ballestra will be available in August and we'll have links to order available here when they launch.

I've also been talking to a couple of people at Nike about what we need to do to get them in more people's hands for display and trying on at NACs. Since Nike isn't sure of the real market size here, they've stated that expansion will depend on seeing the market materialize.

At their suggestion I put together a form to gauge interest. I can show the aggregate numbers back to Nike to help push them forward in our market and also let anyone who signs up know exactly when they are available and how to get them.

Here's the form: I want the Nike Ballestra

Craig

[Nolano]

Quick, everyone select the lowest price so they price it low!

I kid, I kid.

[OROD]

Any ideas what colors they will come in? I really liked the colors on the first pics you posted a while back. Dont like the new pics as much. Black is not such a great shoe color matched to a mostly white uniform.

.

[bigdawg2121]

Dude...it's "obsidian" (Nike's version of obsidian anyway) and it's actually a navy blue. Also, Carolina blue and navy is never a bad color combination unless you're JJ Redick, Coach K, or Christian Laetner*...there's nothing that looks good on them.





*or any other Dookie with obscenely pale skin and a vaguely rat like appearance.

[Squall_Leonhart]

I remember seeing eight different color combinations.
One is mostly white with red accents (the photo posted on the forum), although I think the Chinese model is slightly different.
The USA and Hungarian (on the front page)
I think Mariel Zagunis has her own kind and dare I say it had hot pink accents and some other color. I hate pink, so I didn't even bother to keep looking at it, and I don't remember it well.
Mostly white with navy blue and Carolina blue accents.

I think there was a grey one somewhere, or another darker blue one that isn't too bright, but I don't remember very well.

I just realized this probably wasn't a very helpful post....beyond saying that the most tasteful one is the last one I mentioned.