It's unreal how they managed to sell this for 10 bucks. How long had they held this? The inventory cost for this thing is prolly already $50 from the time it didn't sell till now.
I'm stoked, I had been looking for a good parkour shoes and this may prove to be just it... Until recently I've been training in my worn out Nike in which I slipped and fell a coupla times due to the worn soles...... then I was thinking of buying the Feiyou martial arts shoes but they cost like Rp. 125,000, and words from other traceurs is that it is harsh for beginners because the shoes provide very little padding. I can't imagine myself runing on those flat shoes.
The great thing about the Commander is that there's padding, but not that much. The sole is thin enough that it allows me to feel what I'm stepping on. And it's also flexible enough that I can balance myself on a rail, unlike my Reebok Zigtech which is basically a brick.
Nice sole: thin enough, but still provide padding for a beginner like me.
Durability of the shoes.... don't know yet, only time will tell although there does seem to be a lot of stitching going on here... but I dunno, they should be able to hold (hopefully) a year or so before they burst out from all that cat leaps and extreme braking. The fit & finish of the material looks very decent though.
Hmmm.... lots of stitches though.
The sole however is what totally sold me on it. It has all the requirement that I want from a parkour shoes: continuous, unbroken (except for the Puma segment) one-piece rubber, thin enough sole and.... just look at that beautiful herringbone pattern! When I tried it on at the store the rubber is just oh-so-grippy, and I know for a fact that when I'm out there doing cat leaps or scaling up walls (not yet, btw), the herringbone tread would have no problem sticking to coarse walls. In fact, I would not hesitate to canyoneer with this baby!
And would you look at that.... it even has a heel and toe gripper! It's almost like a climbing shoes! It reminds me of my Mad Rock.... which needs resoling btw.
Although honestly with the type of activities I'll be doing, I dont know how long it'll last before they get cleanly shaven.
Now as for the compound, I'm too lazy to read the description for material breakdown but it does seem like it's got a good mixture of soft and hard properties. The herringbone treads are very responsive to pressure but the overall sole holds up to pressure well. Again, only time will tell, but I sure hope they don't shave off clean within the next three months! These treads are seriously amazingly grippy and act like hundreds of counter-opposing gripping forces when you step down on them.
I think the padding on this shoes is just perfect. It's not too thick and not too thin so as to not provide any cushioning at all... I was led to believe that the Dunlop Volleys has about the same thickness but that they're just more flexible and just a tad less bit of padding.
But check this out, even Dunlop Volleys are selling on the internet for $50 bucks now..... whilst I got mine for $10. Another quick search for Puma Commander also reveals average "sale" price at $64.60. That's no freakin' sale! THIS, however, is a sale: $50 shoes discounted to 70% = $10. If they had 10 of those shoes at Sports Station, I'd buy them all.
Although to be a jerk and a nerd, I do have to say that I generally try NOT to support Puma or Adidas..... so far with little consistency on my part. I do still love both of these brands, and Adidas in particular is my favorite all-around uber cool brand. But Adidas and Puma are both German, and they both come from the same brothers, who split later on - but not before joining the Nazi party in WWII, a fact I'm positive the new leaderships at both Adidas and Puma are VERY keen to forget. But yep, they're both Nazi members once.
At least if I buy Dunlop Volleys, I'll be buying an Australian brand. Or Nike. Or best yet, New Balance. OMG I love New Balance. But there you go. A piece of nasty heritage which sometimes raises the question on my part, is it still worth to care about something like this? It was, after all, WWII, and Adidas and Puma today resembles nothing like Adidas and Puma under the leadership of the two original German brothers. But it still tickles the mind, particularly mine.
