crooked tongues magazine News Features

If you were keen on the Free 3.0, 5.0 and 7.0 you're really going to like the Free Run+. We'll go out on a limb as self-confessed Free Trail and Free Everyday fanboys and say they're the best Free design yet. Big, bombastic words, but we're willing to back up our wild-eyed claims. We could keep reiterating the same point time and time again, but Nike's athletic output just gets prettier and prettier - the Run Avant+ was probably the apex of Nike's recent running shoe design, but the Lunar Elite+ is that piff too. We're being spoilt. This just pushes the envelope even further in the brand's exploration of barefoot running simulation.

Less is still more in the appeal stakes, and the laser-cut one-piece overlay that surrounds the shoe is the most immediate design feature - that and the deeper grooves in the midsole. In fact, looking at promo materials, we just found out that the detail on the outsole we've called "those things" all these years are actually called sipes. That's why we never got the Runner's World editorial jobs we were after. The level of flex on the forefoot is what exercises the muscles that standard shoes aren't working, and don't get it confused - this is a very serious runner. It certainly feels a little more all-purpose and, dare we say it, commercial - bear in mind we remember Free being launched with warnings on forums that it might hurt your feet - with a more cohesive design that should catch on in a major way.

Once again, just staring at these, or taking them out for a wander (as noted in the office on their arrival, they're not dissimilar to an HTM2 Run Boot in some of its key features), the lineage of Nike cult favourites has leached into this model - the subtly asymmetric lacing and sock-like bootie fit, that can be rocked with or without socks because of the minimal seams - Huarache, Presto, Current, Footscape...it's all here somewhere. And there's a certain achievement in getting a sense of build quality with minimal weight and fully synthetic materials.

Time and time again we see the everyman catching the train in a pair of Nike's new breed. We always feel the urge to instigate conversation, but we don't want to get sectioned under the mental health act, and if we had a single complaint about the youth of today, it's that in their love of all black everything on the retro running shoe tip, they're missing out on some excellence. How ill would it be if kids were breaking these out instead of black-on-black 90s? We really hope these get the audience they deserve. Nike Running - we salute you. Keep dropping those performance pieces, and we'll keep grabbing 'em. The herbs can stay bogged down in perpetually reissued past glories.