Tuesday 26 February 2013

PURE DRIFT! What's in a name anyway?



Yes....This is a humble 'Shoe Review'.

But! Before I begin, if you are not a runner, you may be a Cross-Fitter, or casual squash player, or Zumba instructor, or whatever, there is still a chance this review may be handy.

Even if you’re not a sport-nut, please read on and be thankful this isn't ’50-shades of terrible writing’. If you’re an idiot savant, feel obliged to count the consonants and divide the calendar number of Tuesdays this year to see if the overall figure is a magic number (if it is, thank me later). Alas, thank you for reading this far.

I will begin.

I would have loved to be a fly on the wall at Brooks, when the boffins there clunked heads together and tried to come up with a name for their latest release in the minimal range of trainers. Somehow, someone suggested Pure-Drift….seemingly a majority supported this.

The ‘pure’ aspect of the name is understandable enough; it’s the name that has been adopted by the entire range of new release Brooks trainers. Pure ‘Cadence’, Pure ‘Connect’ and (the awkwardly titled) Pure ‘Flow’ make up the remainder of the line.

The ‘Drift’ however conjures up images of Vin Diesel and cars sliding sideways around corners with their tyres squealing and screaming like 16year old girls at a One Direction ticket release…hardly the image a runner want’s to envisage in any shoe! Traditionally most runners have looked to shoes for stability, durability, and comfort. They have looked to shoes named after Greek mythological creatures, or with words like ‘free’, ‘glide’, ‘float’ in their titles. These words reassured them that they were doing the best for their feet, and at the end of the day, all of those piggies would be free to return all the way home from the market time and time again without blisters (or early onset arthritis).

As for Brooks naming them ‘Drift’, I guess that’s the point; to highlight the difference between the ‘old school’ (i.e. tried and tested ‘strapping pillows and orthotics to your feet running 1000 kilometers at a time) vs. the ‘new school’ (i.e. dangerously running as close to barefoot as possible, like bad-ass Bruce Willis types, faces stern whilst traversing mountains of broken glass all-the-while being chased by a German, Alan Rickman).


As for the shoes themselves, I can only speak for myself.




I’ll lay it on the line; I’m one of the ‘new school’. I race solely (pardon the pun) in my Saucony Hattori’s (basically a sock – I’ll review soon). When it comes to shoes I’ll take them like I take my drinking straws; a.k.a. ‘light’, ‘fun’ and ‘bendy’. So I may be biased.

The ‘Drifters’ come in at around 160 grams (for a size 9, I’m a size 10.5 but I can’t give you stats on that) so they’re fairly light, which is a big tick for me. Simply holding one of the shoes in your hand you’ll find the weight distributed evenly. Another bonus for these shoes is the two ‘split grooves’ (taken from the Brooks website) that channel down the base of the sole. Whether it is an intentional design side-effect or not, these provide heaps of side-to-side flexibility and (probably) assist cushioning as well. The jury is out on whether they can cure bowel-cancer but the overall feeling from me is that these grooves are kind of cool (surprisingly they don’t pick up too many rocks too, which was a major complaint of early versions of the Nike Free range).

Another advertised feature of the ‘Drifties’ is the easily removable inner-sole, which allows runners to instantly transform their shoes from an ‘lowly-transition-nancy-4mm-heel-to-toe-drop’ runner (meaning; the heel is 4mm higher to allow cushioning for runners who land ‘heel first’) to the ‘ultra-trendy-I-make-my-own-marmelades-and-jams-because-I’m-in-touch-with-the-environment-0mm-heel-to-toe-drop’ show (meaning; completely flat to promote mid-foot striking and speed even more, aka ‘barefoot’ styled running). I road-tested this and personally found the shoe’s felt better with the insoles in, and to be honest, pulling the insoles out, creates issues with the sizing and lacing.

On the plus side, the lovely people at Brooks are even kind enough to package the ‘Driftoes’ with an extra pair of (different coloured) shoelaces, which is really cool, and probably handy should you need to ‘Macgyver’ your way out of a nasty situation, or be wrongfully imprisoned and in need of a creative home-made-lasso-styled-escape (please note: Tim Robbins and Steve McQueen).

Overall the handiest aspect of these shoes is the really wide toe-box area. They allow the toes to spread wide apart and cushion the whole foot on impact. This is a massive improvement on the other shoes in the ‘pure’ line whose thin forefoot areas have left me blistered and writing ‘angry letters’. This alone is the most redeeming factor behind the ‘Pure-Drift’ and it’s the main reason why I’m happy to smash out a 20km+ training run in them without hobbling around like a ‘Golden Girl’ afterwards.
In Short:


Positives:
- Awesome wide Toe-box allows for comfort and cushioning
- Light-weight and probably great to keep in-flight baggage down
- Even distribution of weight
- Relatively cheap (compared to high-end trainers)


Negatives:
- Obscure name
- Removable sole
- Lack of racing stripes




My overall ranking for the ‘Pure Drift’ – a respectable 8 ½ out of 10. Well done Brooks! A fine return to minimal shoe design for you guys! I love your work!




To try on a pair, feel free to drop into a local running store (there are heaps around, I’d recommend Intraining (http://www.intraining.com.au) for those in Brisbane (QLD Australia) – in-spite of my ‘vested interests’) and try them out. 

If you’re thinking barefoot, this would make a handy transition/running shoe!  Cross-fitters will enjoy the versatility and bright colours (matches board shorts and bad ass tattoos well), great for indoor sports as well!

Finally, if you’re unsure about the whole ‘barefoot’ thing, read some articles, talk to some runners, and pop in to see a podiatrist! You won’t regret it! My advice is to ease into it regardless – Rome wasn't built by barefoot labourers, over a weekend; so a complete change to your running regime shouldn't also!

Any questions or feedback, leave a comment below! Thanks for reading!!!!








COMING SOON! 
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Much Love,

Clay













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